We still have so many things on our list of things to see & do and barely two weeks left. Next on our list was the Coromandel Penninsula, a reasonably short drive north from Rotorua. This area is only a couple of hours drive from Auckland so is where the Aucklanders flock to during the summer weekends. Now that summer's over & it was mid-week it was very quiet. We travelled up the east side, staying one night in Whangamata a nice seaside town where they were recovering from the previous weekend's Rock & Roll festival when the town swelled from 4500 people to 30 000 . We were able to park up for the night free of charge in the RSA(Returned Serviceman's Association) carpark. Every town has an RSA - it's a bit like the British Legion in the UK, a sort of working mens club(amicale laique pour nos ami francais) originally for ex-military but is really just a working mens club with a patriotic slant. To thank them we went in there for a beer & ended up having a meal in their restaurant which was run by Thai people who did usual NZ type food or Thai- so we had authentic Thai food. Mind you we were lucky to be served as we turned up just after 8 o'clock & the owner of the restaurant had to pay the chef overtime to cook for us as there's normally no-one there after that time! ! !

Next day we had planned to do a "DIY spa bath"on Hot Water Beach. At low tide there is a thermal spring under the beach so all you have to do is dig a hole and it magically fills with hot water. Unfortunately a big storm out at sea was causing huge waves so the thermal area of the beach never got uncovered at low tide. This also put paid to our plans for snorkelling at a marine reserve just up the coast but we did manage to fit in a walk to Cathedral Cove where the cliffs are split into a sort of naturally made gothic arch. After that we decided to press on and moved further north & stayed the next night in a farmers field near Whittiangaright on the beach asthe huge waves continued rolling in from the west. Entertainement was provided by one of the locals jet-skiing over the breakers with some spectacular results as darkness fell( & as he "fell" -repeatedly-into the water !).

After the plums in Nelson the next gastronomic highlight of the trip was definitely the Coromandel Smoking Factory. This was "smoking" as in smoked salmon not tobacco ! ! In a small green shack at the side of the road they smoke & sell a huge range of fish & seafood. This included their locally caught mussels smoked to their special recipe. Even Vod who doesn't like mussels said they were "nice" whereas Stewart can't stop dreaming about them since he finished the bag he bought ! ! !

With one eye on the calendar we zipped down the west coast of the penninsula and headed towards Auckland - the "big city" which we had to cross on our way to the Far North for the final part of our trip.