We'd planned to head off on Sunday to Coromandel, a supposedly popular and beautiful peninsula north- east of Auckland. Well, with the weather the previous day and a very dreich outlook on the morning, it didn't auger at all well. After a bit of humming and haa-ing we decided to wait and see, but plan on the basis that we would go - otherwise we'd have lounged around in our goonies and not achieved anything. And it was just as well that we did because suddenly the skies cleared and the day looked a lot more promising (we now know what Crowded House meant when they sang about Four Seasons in One Day!). So with very wet roads beneath our (new) tyres we set off with hopes of better weather. As we drove south on SH 1 our hopes were realised when the sun came out and the roads dried off and we had a lovely run across pretty countryside to Thames then up the beautiful west coast of the peninsula to the pretty little Coromandel Town. After finding ourselves a very nice studio apartment in the Anchorage Motel, we headed off to explore the town (which, being so small didn't take long), have a cup of coffee and pick up some messages at the supermarket for the makings to supplement a meal of the fresh oysters and prawns we'd bought at a stall on the way into town. By this time it was mid afternoon and, with the weather holding up, we turned up at the local golf course to try to fit in nine holes before dark. And what a lovely we course it is although, with all the rain there's been in the last two weeks since we arrived in the Auckland area, it was really soft and mushy underfoot and we finished our nine completely spattered with mud! That night, we enjoyed a planned Skype video call with Steven, Sarah, Jessica & Elliott - we haven't seen 'live' for almost two years now and thoroughly enjoyed the impromptu concert that they put on for our benefit. We then had another Skype video call with Susan, Bruce, Craig & Cameron. It was great to see them all. True to form, the evening brought more torrential downpours but the next morning, although still slightly overcast, was dry and fairly bright so we set off to explore a bit more of the peninsula. Highway 309 is a very scenic drive through the forests along a gravel road from Coromandel over to Whitianga on the east coast. There are a few points of interest along the way and we would have loved to have climbed Castle Rock, a prominent, instantly recognisable shaped hill from which there are apparently great views across the Coromandel. But the rain had made it too muddy and slippery for our liking so we contented ourselves with a short walk (in a heavy shower) to see the ancient and magnificent Kauri trees which had been saved from logging many years ago. By the time we reached Whitianga the sun had come out to show us the town at its best - although the town itself is fairly ordinary it is in a beautiful setting on a wide bay with white cliffs and rocky islands in the distance. The drive back to Coromandel along the coastal main highway was just amazing with spectacular the views across the Pacific Ocean to the offshore islands to the mainland just north of Auckland. That evening, again true to form the heavens opened - when it rains in NZ it fairly stoats down like stair rods. But as usual, it didn't last too long and it was dry by the time we walked into town for a delicious meal at the Pepper Tree.E & M xxx