Not having had to deal with any stress for the past 2 months did not prepare us well for the final day of selling the car. We headed straight back to the auction centre, to establish our guaranteed fall back where a mechanic would assess the car, sending out a report to his buyers to see who, if anyone, was keen. As we waited for the auction house to open we noticed 2 backpackers poking around the compound, obviously 'in the market'. I pounced with all my second ...

Waking up stretched out in fresh white sheets with the dull ache of yesterday's monster walk in our legs and the sound of rain pattering on the roof was glorious. The tea and cooked breakfast a la Bob which followed were the icing on the cake. We packed up and were soon setting out on what was going to be an emotional final long haul journey with the Enema. The tears and flashbacks of the good times we'd had together had just about stopped by the time we arrived...

Our early start did not fool the Enema into forgetting about my lack of honesty from the day before and our journey to the start on the walk involved a lot of low gear crawling and inappropriate use of the handbrake. On arrival at the carpark however I discovered that we had haemorrhaged brake fluid somewhere during the journey, and after explaining to Bob the theory behind and the intricacies of the brake cylinder hydraulic system on newfangled automobiles my ma...

The clocks going back meant we woke early to the sound of the waves and the dazzle of the morning sunlight hitting the water. It was the perfect setting for a breakfast of banana pancakes! As the tea kicked in I constructed a cooking station in the sun, overlooking the bay and then a delicious production line began. We ate them straight out of the pan (wok) with Nutella and it was heavenly. Bob delivered our surplus pancakes to the kids playing nearby and we bro...

It turned out that a significant proportion of the beach accompanied me into bed after the previous night's activities, which did not improve the sleep quality when the bedding was already a little damp. We rose early and headed into Whitianga to stock up before heading off the beaten track to the northern tip of Coromandel. We drove for a bit before diving off the state highway and winding our way along coast roads to explore one of New Zealand's best hidden b...