Well, what a lovely day. We left Auckland to drive up the Coromandel Peninsula quite early – still slightly adjusting to being in a different time zone – although surprisingly few problems with this! We went to fetch the hire car and Nigel negotiated us out of Auckland in his usual efficient way. Once out of Auckland the population was very spare, settlement was few and far between, and hardly anywhere of any size. Our drive took us along the most beautiful Pacific coastline. The sea was a true turquoise and the rocky coastline punctuated with sandy bays was just great. The views were stupendous with volcanic islands poking out of the brilliantly coloured sea. Because of the completely different vegetation, we couldn’t compare it to anything we knew. Maybe a cross between Maine and the Caribbean? (Not that we’ve been to the latter). We had a paddle and it certainly was not as cold as the Atlantic in Maine. We stopped in the town of Coromandel and had lunch at the quaintly named Success Café – it deserved its name; the smoked salmon Panini was fab!
Whangamata is a seaside town probably smaller than Filey. It has a broad, long sandy beach with little islands off shore giving it the appearance of the beach in the film of the same name. I enjoyed a lovely evening run along the foreshore. Everywhere has that out of season feel, although most places are open there are few customers. This evening we went to a café close to the beach where, although there was only a limited menu, it was well cooked. This evening we are staying in a B & B which has a fantastic view over the bay. It is very quiet so tomorrow might be our reading day, maybe seated on the beach as the forecast is good.
The controversy in the paper today is a move to change the flag so that it does not include the union flag. This appears to be press talk as the paper failed to find any significant support for a hcange.
Feeling tired now, it was quite a long drive today in a strange car, although it is an automatic which is good, even though it is a dodgy Toyota.
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