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Published: November 27th 2008
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Free, to do what we want at any old time. With a brand new van as replacement for the last leaky one and up graded to a bigger version, that thankfully did not smell of Stuart´s wetsuits, we started on our travels. Our plan was to travel up the Coromandel peninsula, an area that we had heard had unrivalled beauty and to perhaps catch some fo the beautiful beaches that settled into the northern part of the north island.
We bumbled along the roads until we reached the left turn that would take us up the peninsula and into the town of Paeroa, the home of the famous L&P drink. It is a bit of a NZ tradition with all of the people drinking it, however the Stones and I did not partake and just looked at the big bottle in the town.
With more miles under our belt we reached Waihi beach and checked out the beach, looked out of the back of our van and chilled with large volumes of tea and a few books - extreme! We tried to free camp around the area but it seemed to be too posh and every space had a
warning sign and militant fines. So we booked into a beautiful campsite called Bowentown, just down the road, which back right onto the beach for sunset walks.
We decided the hike the next day to a deserted beach around 10km away, with the weather holding off the walk freshened us up and stirred an appetite for us to move on towards Whangamata.
After a quick skirt around town we chose to stay at a campsite in the woods, which was a couple of km´s outside of town. It had a beautiful setting and great walks, based around the Wentworth falls. With the facilities lacking some sense of nasal hygiene we squeezed the cheeks together and held on until the next day. To our sup rise we were confronted the next morning by a large wild pig, unfortunately it wads not running wild in the woods but was hung across the shoulders of a hunter coming back from his morning expedition, a disturbing site to see before the cornflakes. The falls walk was wonderful with a true feeling of adventure, the surrounding countryside was thick and full of wildlife.
We decided the travel further up the peninsula, arriving
at Tairua, with the overall delight of a small town with a pinnacle hill on the edge of the estuary. The sun was high in the sky when we parked the van and had a wonderful lunch, watching the fisherman return with their morning catch. After lunch we decided to scale the hill, or what turned into a mountain, to grasp the view from the top. As we reached the top we got slightly lost and asked a local old lady which way was the footpath. After exchanging a few pleasantries we were quickly invited into their home for a look around and some conversation about their wonderful home. The view was breathtaking, the balcony overlooked unspoilt ocean views and the house had a true seventies feel to it. It was tipified by the fact that it was covered with rugs, homemade items that were prepared in the spare room by the gentleman. unfortunately I think that the old age had taken it´s toil on the old boy´s sense of style, color, size, volume, commerciality and so on. They were a travesty to the world of haberdashery. He actually tried to sell us one, phah!!
After a night of
free camping we headed to Hot water beach which is another tick on the tourist card, it´s where you can sit in thermal pools that are self dug two hours either side of low tide. It is a crazy place with shops hiring spades and lot´s of Japanese monks parading around in their grey ninja getups. We moved the Cathedral cove in the afternoon which is a wonderful place, a lovely beach with a complete arch cliff still intact. With only a couple of seagulls to bother us we sat and chatted, milling over our next couple of days.
Our plan was to head back down to Waihi beach and the Bowen town campsite so that we could chill out and have long hazy days in the sun. So with our pitch booked we relaxed into the vibe of getting up late and taking long walks on the beach, talking about the people back home and people that we missed. After five minutes that conversation was over and we then started chatting about our next feast of food from the local area.
Unfortunately the time went far too quickly and it was time to head back to
Dorkland (Auckland) and into our Manukau campsite, awaiting the flight that would take us to the adventure of South America.
New Zealand is a wonderful place and I would encourage anyone to visit. It has something for everyone, whether that be adventure or sedate activities and all of those are combined with some of the most breathtaking scenery that your rentinas can interpret.
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