Woke just after 7am, immediately got up & dressed, so that we could go straight back to the beach, to find out what had happened overnight. The whale was now lying on its side, on the sands, & a couple of DoC officers had taped the area off, & were taking photos & measurements. There was a good crowd of people stood around watching, & as we approached, we could smell the reason why some people were standing well back! We soon realised that it was not a beaked species, but a sperm whale, & that we had seen & photographed it's bottom jaw yesterday - which was now gone! Someone had sawed it off, in the middle of the night, as the lower jaw bone is a valued carving piece for the Maori, conferring high prestige! The wound was now clearly visible, & the DoC officers thought that it had been hit by a (large) boat's propeller (possibly a cargo ship or tanker), A local man was "discussing" the DoC's actions so far, wondering (loudly) why the corpse hadn't been towed out to sea, & left for the current to dispose of, & their proposed course of action, which was to bury the whale in the sand dunes, which (he said) would stink for the next 5 years! At this point we left the whale, the DoC officers & the disgruntled local on the beach, & returned to the cabin, via the local bakery, for breakfast.

After eating, we packed & said goodbye to the manager, & drove into Whangamata. We parked, & window shopped for a while, before sitting outside a café for coffee & cake. Only at this point did we reveal to the children that the "Santa Parade" was about to start! We spent the next couple of hours watching vintage cars & tractors, floats built by local organisations & costumed walkers parading along the main street, as well as Santa on his sleigh, of course!

After the parade, we drove north on SH25, following the east coast of the peninsula. We stopped, in Tairua, at a local arts & crafts fair / farmers' market to buy veggies, & L a necklace. D then walked to the bakery, for fresh bread to accompany the venison slices & avocado that we had bought, while the kids played in the park.

Then we drove up to Hot Water Beach, but the tide was in, so we couldn't dig a hot water pool, but we walked along the sandy beach, & watched the waves crashing into shore! We climbed on the rocks for a while, then left, & drove through Hahei, to Cathedral Cove. We sat on the observation decking to eat our lunch, & then walked for ~1 hour to reach the Cove, via Stingray & Gemstone Bays. We played in the sand, & enjoyed the sunshine, for half an hour, then walked back to the car park, via a woodland walk.

By now, it was time to start looking for accommodation, & the LP recommended a farmstay north of Coromandel, in Coleville. We drove for an hour, including the unsealed "309 Road", which twisted & turned, went up & down, & was quite precipitous in places! We finally reached the farm, after a pause because J was feeling car sick, & were given another caravan + cabin arrangement! $75, dbl in caravan, bunks in cabin, + use of the facilities in the BP's house, next door. J&M were immediately invited to help feed a calf & two lambs, & were asked if they would like to help with the farm chores, tomorrow morning!

As we were settling in, the children suddenly ran in, shouting that the horses had escaped! Wee all jumped onto the quad bike, & spent an amusing & exhilarating 10 mins rounding up half a dozen beautiful horses!

As it was getting late, D made a very quick tea (cheese on toast!), & we met the 2 girls who were staying in the BP's, & chatted with them (Dutch wwoofer, & a Swiss cyclist (who knew nothing about her bike!!)). Didn't stay up too late, as we were tired from our early start to the day.