Once we'd arrived back in Auckland, it was time to pick up our motor home! It was time for our holiday to begin! It was already late afternoon by the time everything had been explained to us and we managed to get the van out of the parking lot. We were advised to head on to Miranda Shore for our first night, which was about an hour and a half out of town. It was a gorgeous stop-over and one that we're really glad we made.
We arrived late in the evening and the sun was already on its way down. That didn't stop us from taking some photos! Actually, it was at Miranda Shore, where we camped with the most campers on our entire trip. We were actually quite lucky to even get a spot...
The beach at Miranda is the funniest thing ever. The land is so flat that the tide goes out miles away really quickly and then comes in really fast too. The birds love low tide, because the fish get caught and they have their dinner served up for them on a plate...
We had a little bit of drizzle early in the morning, but woke up the most magnificent rainbow...
This is how close we were to the water. During the night, when the tide came in, and I was a thousand miles away from sleep, I listened to the water gently lapping up against the shore. There are no waves in New Zealand....
And this was our competition for a spot. It's called Freedom camping and it's basically camping for free along the side of the road. You're only allowed to freedom camp if you have a fully certified self-contained motor home (so it has to have a bathroom)...
The view from our bedroom window...
And there is no wind - all the trees are straight...
Marius quickly got the hang of driving our 6m van. The roads in New Zealand are unbelievably narrow and the driving is slower than you can imagine. It took us 2 hours to drive 69km later in the day. Needless to say, I didn't try. We were headed towards Coromandel and then on to Hahei and Hot Water Beach...
The beauty about having a motor home, was being able to stop when we were lucky enough to find a good spot...
It started to drizzle a bit, so I went back inside to make some coffee...
The trip took us all along the coast. There are no emergency stopping lanes and the roads are so much narrower than we're used to. It's quite intimidating when a truck comes hurtling towards you...
There are not many scenic look out points either, which is a little disappointing - it's so beautiful, that you just want to take photos of everything. This was a good stop...
See? I told you it was green...
Me and my camper...
I can't tell you how cold it actually was...
A little farm house...
Everyone told me that there were lots of sheep in New Zealand. We saw a lot of cows. These were the first sheep we saw. They weren't happy to see me. I did feel a bit sorry for them without their jerseys in that cold weather...
This is all still at the same look out point, just looking in a different direction...
There are so many little islands off the coast of New Zealand. If you're ever in the market for one...
We reached Coromandel Town in time for lunch and stopped in at this old fashioned bar for a bite to eat...
Marius had green lipped muscles done with chorizo and chilli and tomato - it looked really yummy!! I had calamari, which didn't look half as pretty...
Another lookout...
It was SERIOUSLY windy and we didn't stay long...
We arrived in Hahei fairly late in the day, but decided to take our chances and hike down to Cathederal Cove. We had no idea what the tides were doing, nor how long the hike would take us. If it was high tide, we wouldn't have been able to get to the cove at all...
It was cold when we got out of the car, so we wrapped up in jackets and scarves and hats, only to land up having to carry them. The hike was supposed to take 45 minutes and we walk/ran it in about 20 minutes. It was an amazing hike through forests over-looking the sea...
And Marius found a wolf spider. They make nests like rain spiders, but aren't half as big. Still revolting, if you ask me, but Jake was thrilled that we'd seen them anyway...
A look out along the way...
I quite like that Marius gets the odd snap of me too...
Least I can say I was really there! Seriously though, this holiday feels like so long ago already. It's hard to believe that it's less than a month since we even left...
The walk was so worth it and I'm so happy that we took a gamble on it, rather than waiting until the next morning...
I don't know what this little island's called, but it's the hole that you walk through to get there that's important. The opening scenes from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe were filmed here...
Pretty silhouette...
Marius taking a little break from the walk...
Only joking. I think he got annoyed waiting for me all the time. I'm SO unfit at the moment...
Marius...
Me...
Looking back towards Cathedral Cove (just beyond the white cliffs)...
Me with the view...
I don't think I could ever grow tired of these views...
One last one - phew, I look exhausted...
Not too far from Hahei is the Hot Water Beach, where we camped for the night. This is looking in through the back of the motor home. Marius was busy doing gas/electricity things. That's our bed right at the back, which can be folded away, but we left down all the time. The the left, behind the bed is the bathroom, beyond which is a "dining room". To the right is a coat closet and the further forward is our little kitchen. We had a gas cooker and a fridge - it was perfect for us...
We were up in time to get down to hot water beach. It can also only be visited on either side of low tide, so we needed to get down there while we could. It was pretty cold and we wanted to get on to our next destination, so we didn't spend much time bathing, but it was fun to go and see anyway. Basically, the water is heated below the surface and then rises back up again...
Marius made friends with some of the locals, who explained that the correct way to dig out your pool is to use the hot water, but also to channel in some cold water. The hot water is so warm, you can't even stand in it...
Getting the temperature right, not too hot, not too cold is an art...
These guys were quite fun and didn't mind us using their pool to pose with...
It's lost a bit on the photos, but the steam that comes off the ground is quite unbelievable...
I did find a little warm pool that someone else had started to dig and then abandoned and I did almost run back to the camper to get my cozzie...
Such fun...
Leaving the beach though, I saw this and it made me happy to be leaving...
Where to next??
Love,
Sue XXX
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