Too cold.

Yesterday I had a pleasant walk up to the Huka Falls, looking at the water flowing boisterously through the narrow channel to the falls I thought it would be the ideal place to go tubing but in retrospect it would have been an admin nightmare for my family if things went badly wrong so I will leave that to some other intrepid adventurer. After lunch I spent an hour or so relaxing in the naturally heated pool on the campsite watching England v NZ cricket on the big screen, a great way to finish off a walk.
Last night the temperature in my little van dropped dramatically and I awoke in the early hours freezing, that's it I am going back towards the coast away from the hills, I may even indulge myself with a hotel.
Later.......
well I got halfway to my next stop in New Plymouth when the rain started and the forecast for the rest of the week doesn't look brilliant, what a good decision it was to go for the hotel. The local dining options are not very inspiring, McDonald's, Kentucky, Thai or sushi so it was home cooked souvlaki, salad and hummus tonight.

Giving up the coast.

When they smelled my hot cross bun this morning at breakfast I had two turkeys around looking for crumbs, they belonged to the campsite owner but I have seen turkeys with young ones far away from habitation so they must be feral the same as the pigs which one of the locals told me that he hunts with friends. Yesterday I had company for breakfast when a scruffy looking blackbird came over to share my fried egg rolls he was not shy at all and on closer inspection I could see that his yellow bill was actually a crossbill so he was not a UK import.
I drove the length of the coast of the Bay of Plenty this morning as far as Whakatane but for some reason I was not encouraged to stay there so I headed south and I am now at a campsite 3kms north of Lake Taupo town, the journey down was very scenic with natural forest on both sides in places and the road actually skirts lake Rotoma which is in a beautiful quiet setting.
Later........
I walked into town looking for some action on a Saturday night but all I met were street restaurants full of tourists which I knew without asking did not have a table for one but I wasn't there for that so I went one street back and found Flynn McCuhal's a low rent Irish pub which served me "twice baked lamb shank pie" with lashings of gravy, mash and mushy peas washed down with pints of Speight's Bitter, then I joined some of the locals to watch the Chiefs get battered by the Crusaders at Super Rugby after I had commiserated with the guys the live band kicked off. I wasn't expecting too much from a reggae band with five keyboards but Buffalo Soldier, I shot the Sheriff and No Woman no Cry etc came over just great and I managed to walk the mile and a half back to the campsite with only one stop. A good first day in Taupo.

Observations and reflections.

I have now spent a few days on the Coromandel peninsula because I had heard that it was the destination of choice for Aucklanders, it is certainly a magnet for tourists every other other vehicle on the road seems to be a caravan and that doesn't include the hoards of backpackers, mind you up here there are no theme parks tourism is centred on natural sites and geological features such as Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Bay where you can dig a hole in the sand and have a geothermally heated bath.
We have had our exploring plans interrupted by the weather, the cyclone has proved resilient to forecasts and has dumped showers of rain on us at the most inopportune times but today, fingers crossed it has been dry which was good news because I have had a walking day, first around the circumference of New Zealand's largest open cast goldmine and then a couple of walks around another gold mining area which included a couple of railway tunnels and a gorge, all in all a great day.
It is quite a relief to go walking in the bush without worrying about spiders, snakes and other animals that want to ruin your day in fact with the lush greenery and the similar terrain walking here is very like walking in Wales only warmer.
I will in future be speaking in the singular, there is no longer a we, Harry and Marmalade were adopted yesterday by Genny and Harry the daughters of Aaron and Maggie after we all jumped into my van when a torrential downpour hit us at last night's campsite. The girls saw Harry and Marmalade sitting on the dash and the rest is history, my name according to Harry is now Ob.
I spoke too soon, it is raining again.
Tomorrow I am going to explore the coast of the Bay of Plenty and after that I will be heading down to Lake Taupo.

What goes around.........

After my last Wicked Camper, I expected the worst again over here but I am now the driver of an ungraffitied Toyota van in very good condition, I will have room to sit-up in bed without any contortions and hopefully it will be kinder to my poor old back. After collecting the van, filling up with juice and purchasing the necessaries like a pasta cullender and king size quilt we made our way, avoiding major roads up to Coromandel Town. We are staying at Tui Lodge which is mainly backpackers accommodation with a few spaces for small camper vans, it is a lovely quiet place and was a boon to be able to cook dinner in the camp kitchen while the cyclone wreaked its wrath outside, actually just an hour of high wind and heavy rain.
I popped down to the town after the rain had stopped and had a couple of drinks in the Star & Garter, I managed to acquire a seat in the bay window in a plush button backed antique leather chair so I could watch the comings and goings in comfort it also gave me the chance to contemplate.
New Zealand has become a very expensive place compared to our first visit here 15 years ago, then house prices were about a quarter of UK prices, now apparently they are comparable and a pint of beer is over £4.50 with petrol also similar in price to UK so maybe I will not be retiring over here after all. One of the other travellers who is on a sabattical told me that prices are high in NZ and OZ because they export everything which means that prices for what remains have risen so high, I think that there is some validity in this view but if you export your country prices are sure to rise, I have met a number of people who are worried what will happen now that all the utilities are owned by Chinese companies or is that the Chinese state. I must say Auckland seems to be a suburb of Beiging with all the Chinese institutions and businessess and also the smell of Chinese food in the air.
I will leave you to contemplate these thoughts.

Losing hours.

I lost another couple of hours today travelling from Sydney to Auckland, I was a little worried when I found that tha flight I had booked with Qantas was being operated by LATAM, I thought that might have been a subtle name change by Malasia Airlines but it turned out to be a Latin American company flight which was flying to Santiago (Chile) via Auckland. The seats were comfortable with good legroom and the staff were efficient friendly and straight which made a nice change, the food however was another thing a very cold roll with unidentifyable contents, I settled for a couple of glasses of a very quaffable red wine.
Whilst still in the airport I found an iPhone on the floor in the Gents and by using my little grey cells as Hercule would say I deduced that by the date "Domingo" and the time that it must belong to one of my fellow passengers who was making the full trip home so instead of handing it in at the airport I gave it to the cabin crew who found the happy owner after announcing it over the address system.
Well I pick up my camper van tomorrow and I will head north-east to try to avoid some bad weather that is being forecast due to a tropical cyclone. So let the adventure begin.

End of the road trip.

Well my camping days in Australia are now over so I have four days of proper beds before I pick up my next Wicked camper van in Auckland.
The past few days have been entertaining and in some cases a delight, I loved Diamond Beach so much that I stayed there for two nights it was such a peaceful spot with hoards of wildlife in fact the Kookoburras were that friendly that they only needed the slightest encouragement and they would be sitting alongside you eating off the same plate! After leaving Diamond Beach I took The Lakes Way where I kept stopping by the sides of the deserted lakes and fantasised about sailing on them in my little dinghy where I could pull ashore to picnic or even camp overnight, Ahhh what dreams.
Whilst I was meandering down that road I obviously attracted the attention of a local vigilante because when I did a U turn to investigate the Lakes Sailing Club I noticed a grey pick-up do the same U turn and then follow me to the club, I went over to say hello and share my delight with the location but all I received was a mumble and grunt from the octogenarian occupant. He did follow me when I left to escort me out of his territory, my second Rambo moment.
I had intended to stay last night at Hawks Nest, it sounded so romantic and had two campsites but after Diamond Beach it was far too open, busy and expensive so I called into tourist info and asked Kath if she could recommend a quieter location or a cheap and cheerful hotel for the night, I must have been there for quarter on an hour while she gave me the run down on the area but the upshot was that I will have to return to cover everything that she told me and her little known gem of a campsite in Stockton was perfect.
Tomorrow I will be handing over the van a couple of days early and catching the train back to my sister Gillian's whose friend Michelle has invited us around for a meal, I may still have to be presented to more friends before I escape from here.

Wildlife

On my last trip over here I was excited when I saw the occasional kangaroo, this trip I have seen so much wildlife I am getting quite blase about it. The birdlife is amazing if a little loud, typically Aussie but my favourite critter so far was what my neighbour in Coff's Harbour called a water dragon, this animal which I christened Leonard or Lennie for short suddenly appeared when I dropped some of my dinner on the deck so he joined me for Fusili Bolognaise. I will do a pictorial blog when I get home, I am having a few technical difficulties and today I have resorted to the local library to catch up on stuff, mind you with an outside temperature of 35C to be seated in an air-conditioned building is quite a pleasure.
I am now convinced that 50% of Aussie men of working age are employed on the roads and 50% of them work as lolly-pop men with stop/go signs and 90% of them have grey Van Dyke beards.
My date the other night went well Marion brought the whole family along to meet the Pommy, six adults and four children, don't ask me all their names, people over here are so friendly and outgoing, I met my neighbours in last night's campsite when Kylie came over to introduce herself and then dragged her old man over to meet me, they are both bricklayers who have set up their own business in the area and are living in his parents' holiday home.
Well my session has timed out so time to retire to the pool, more next time I can get on line.