Tuesday 4th September

Day Two North Island

We went to pick up our campervan and we were not impressed at all. It was ancient, tiny (the Aspen House of campers) and a ford! Nothing like the one Karen and Richard hired. We asked if they had a newer one and they offered us a VW and we were very happy with that (well what you expect). We were also able to hire GPS which makes it much easier and less arguments. First stop - supermarket for necessities, mainly wine and beer of course. We drove about 2 hours to Thames which is an old gold mining town. Then on to our first stop at Hot Water Beach, (Coromandel Peninsular) however when we arrived there was no campsite. The book we had planned most of our trip with (that we borrowed off Richard) is apparently way out of date and it closed down about three years ago! Just our luck, anyway we drove on a bit further to Hahei and are very impressed with the campsite. We have a beach front location, amazing views. It's very similar to home but with better beaches, things are looking up, heading to Rotorua tomorrow which is about a three hour drive.