Andy was flying today so I was off on my lonesome an adventure. After remembering how to drive an automatic (and figure out the indicators were on the right and windscreen washers on the left!) I was on my way, heading west around 50km towards the coast

It was a bit like driving through the Peak District, green hills and grey skys! The main difference was the hills went on forever and the roads were clear - I hardly saw any other cars

My first stop was bridal veil falls, a 55m waterfall. There were 261 steps to the bottom...and 261 back up again too! And again, unlike the Peak District I had the place to myself! Meant I got to use my new selfie stick (thanks to Sarah lomas for that) without looking like an idiot tourist!

I then drove into raglan, a small seaside village at the mouth of the estuary & where the black volcanic sand is more like mud. At 3pm on a Tuesday in the equivalent of November it was quite quiet, so I had an ice cream (thanks dad!) and drove another 4km to ocean beach. This was much more beach like and again I was the only person there. By now the sun had come out too so was nice enough to paddle. I then drove onto to Ngarunui beach which was more a Clift top with a steep walk down to several bay/beaches so I just looked from the top. A further 4km down the coast was Whale Bay and Manu Beach & this time I was joined by surfers as I watched the sun start to set.

I headed back home around 6, managed to find my way back to base & Andy & I did a BBQ for tea - yum yum!

Ps I also discovered that while Andys home am here at clearways is like halls of residence, it's not like my halls of residence were - no one is playing stereophonics full blast 24 hours a day & no one drinks either! They're all too sensible! But as I'm on holiday I have been sampling some of New Zealand's wines :)