Life is a beach in New Zealand
Friday, Feb. 22, 21:10 (our itinerary)
Here we sit in our cozy little motorhome in Mt. Maunganui, on the edge of one of New Zealand’s best surfing beaches (that’s our rig on the right). It’s very windy and we’re just listening to the surf and wind now, but for a while we listened to an excellent classic rock station, Radio Hauraki, after a walk on the beach to watch surfers trying to ride the wild waves.
We’re heading south down the east coast now, though we were sorry to leave Hahei (pronounced haw HAY). Last night, we had a superb meal at a historic church that now houses a restaurant. My beef filet and Cathy’s rack of lamb were both incredibly tender (my filet was served with a butter knife to cut it, and it worked just fine). As we were leaving Hahei this morning, we took a slight detour to the carpark where the track (hiking trail) to Cathedral Cove begins – the photo below will nno doubt explain why another week or so here would be most welcome.
We’ve had an exciting few days, and are loving being able to “go with the flow” rather than trying to conform to a set-in-stone itinerary. While much is familiar to us, much is new. First and foremost, anyone who says that driving on the left side of the road isn’t a challenge for a while is a liar – while my stress level about driving is pretty low now, it still requires concentration, especially in the roundabouts that are everywhere in towns. Kiwis love adrenalin sports, and their favourite seems to be driving – they are bloody maniacs behind the wheel. We’ve just left one of the areas known for its tough roads, too – narrow, steep, and winding beyond anything I’ve ever seen before. One-lane bridges like the one below have been very common even on the main highways we’ve mostly used. The gravel Highway 309 we took yesterday makes the Top of the World and Taylor Highways back home look like super-highways. While I love roads like this, Cathy is much less enamoured with them.
We took our 2nd train ride today. A couple of days ago we went for a ride on the unique Driving Creek Railway up at Coromandel Town ($20 pp), and today it was the Goldfields Railway at Waihi (way HEE), seen below ($15 pp).
It’s now just after 10:00 pm and the storm has increased in intensity. Cathy wanted to experience a rainy night in the motorhome. She’s getting her wish tonight, but the family in the tent beside us is going to have a hell of a night – Dad is out hammering more tiedown stakes into the ground right now!
This campground (Beachfront Holiday Park) is excellent ($34 per night for a site with power). Wireless Internet access with good speed is $8.90 per hour.
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