West Bay to Eype

I ended up last night at the Bridport Arms Hotel, where I dined on Lyme Bay scallops. Very nice too. They were matched with black pudding and apple mash potatoes.  Sounds odd,  but it worked.  I tried out the entertainment place at the camp on the way back.  I can never understand why they have the music so loud.  Especially when the place was mostly empty.  I stayed a few minutes,  then 'Bingo Time' was announced - so I left.  Returning to the van,  I watched a couple of recorded programmes on my computer,  then climbed into bed about midnight.  Reading lasted about an hour and I woke up at about nine. 

Being sunny again I walked to the seafront after breakfast and took some pictures.  I had prepared a sandwich for lunch and ate this after I had walked along the pebble beach to the next small settlement - named 'Eype '. I took a slow walk back and found a large jellyfish stranded by the tide.

It's very pretty here.  There's not a lot to do except the beach and sea related stuff - like fishing. It's oddly unspoilt,  and that's good.  However ii is as though it has been 'discovered' by the Broadchurch followers, and this has led to an unexpected surge in tourism.  Many of the older buildings are  in the transitional stage,  being converted for new uses.  

I'm sitting in the George at the moment,  having just eaten fish and chips.  If you do the same, avoid the mushy peas - they're minted!

West Bay, Dorset

Back in the uk for a bit now and having had the van MOT'd,thought I would take it out for a trial for a few days.  I chose this place because it has a nice beach and it's not too far from where I live - 57 miles in fact. 

I am trying out the Parkdean site here - new to me. I'm on my own for the first time in the van.  We usually stay at Highlands End - but that's at the top of the hill,  and it is much more isolated than this place.  That's a consideration when you have a motorhome with no other form of transport except Shank's Pony.

It also has entertainment and a free pool - haven't tried either yet - only been here a few hours. The weather has been great today.  Really sunny, but there is still a cold wind. Find a sheltered spot and it could be August. Having said that,  it seems that we tend to get good weather earlier in the year now.  The traditional 'Summer' months seem to be rather unpredictable. 

I am writing this sat outside the motorhome, in the sun.  It's nearly six twenty and it's still quite warm.  I will wander down to get some food in a while.  West Bay has several places to eat.  I'm hoping for some local seafood.  As I sit here a small rabbit has just appeared about four feet away and is munching grass. Very cute.

The forecast for tomorrow is good - not sure what I will be doing yet - one of the joys of being on your own is that you can really make it up as you go along,  and don't have to please anyone else. 

Auckland Revisited

We had decided that I would drive out of the Coromandel Peninsula because of all the bendy roads (although K had proved herself more than up to the challenge on previous occasions), and then would relinquish the driving when that bit was over. As it turned out, I ended up doing the whole trip back - not that I minded. We stopped at a Cafe at a place named Pipiroa half way through the trip which attracted us with it's unusual name - 'Bugger'.

We had to stop and have a coffee - and I had an Afghan again. K had a GF cake. The cafe had a lot of bugger related jokes and information - and even has it's own website. It was a fun half an hour, and did it's job of livening us up through refreshment, and cheering us up through it's jokes, stories and pictures.

 It was gone three o'clock by the time we left this place - and there was still a while to go before we reached Auckland, and the friend's house that we were going to stay in for the night. We had said that we would be there just after six o'clock, and we managed this easily.

I parked up in their street (with the car facing the wrong way, as it turns out, and something I would have to correct later), and took our cases in - we still needed to do a final repack. We had a drink and a chat, waiting for the husband to return. As it was a weeknight and we were all quite tired we decided on a takeaway - so we ordered up an Indian meal and drank some wine until it was ready.

It seems that a favourite Indian meal in NZ is Butter Chicken. You can even get this in pies. I had never tried it before coming to NZ, and must admit that it is tasty, but I find it a little rich. After eating we sat around for a while and chatted before K and I went to rearrange our cases and packs before retiring to bed. Next day we had a full day to fill before flying out of New Zealand very early the following morning.

Cathedral Cove, Coromandel

We left Whitianga at about 10 o'clock and headed for Cathedral Cove. The weather was not too good, and was drizzling nicely by the time we arrived. We sat in the car for a bit - but then I decided to go for it, and the weather Gods responded by stopping the rain and letting a bit of sunshine through. As the walk was about 45 minutes each way, K decided to stay with the car and do some reading. I headed off on the Cathedral Cove Walk. It was a bit up and down, and I got a bit out of puff at some points - especially when I headed down to Gemstone Bay (indicated as a 5 minute detour) and changed my mind after descending a multitude of steps.

The sun was still out when I arrived - if you have followed the link above you know what the place looks like, but here's some pictures anyway:

It is a very pretty place - and another way to get there is by sea - either with a water taxi from Hahei beach, or by kayak. There were quite a few people there, and it was luckily low tide - so I could stand in the centre of the cave. The first picture above is the view from the cave.

After a while I returned to K and the car - passing through a rainstorm on the way - so I was very wet when I got back. As I reached the car the rain stopped again, so we drove to Hahei Beach and sat on a bench to have the lunch that we had prepared before leaving the Youth Hostel. Thankfully, the rain stayed away.

Otorohanga Kiwi House

We left on time and were heading towards Hamilton. We had read about the kiwi house and so decided to pay a visit.  It was a warm day, so I tried to park the car in the shade. We neglected to check how much it cost before we said that we wanted to go in - but it was fine - after all, we wanted to see some more Kiwis.

We were just about to wander around on our own when a keeper said that she was about to feed the Kākāriki. Intrigued - we followed along.  The little parrots knew that we were coming and followed us through the enclosure as we walked to the feeding station. Then they were all over us - eating out of our hands. Very pretty and colourful. There were lots of other birds in the enclosure, flying freely about. I saw a Tui up close for the first time. There were also Tuatara running freely around.

Later we also saw Kiwis being fed and played with by another keeper. One female Kiwi named 'Atu' had formed an attachment to this particular keeper and was pushing against her legs and pecking her an awful lot. The keeper said that she had known the bird for over 14 years, and that the Kiwi loved being with her, and got upset when she went out of the enclosure. It was certainly something to see. We wandered around the park and saw quite a few other native birds.  

From there we went into Otorohanga and had some toasted sandwiches for lunch at a place named 'The Thirsty Weta'.

Whitianga

From Coromandel Town we ended up back at Whitianga - at the 'On the Beach' YHA that we were at before.  As it is the weekend,  and the ICC Cricket final is on,  we decided to have a day off and stay here until Monday.  We fly home on Tuesday.  We are staying with friends in Auckland on Monday night. 

Today (Sunday), we went to New Chums Beach. It was a bit of a trek to get there,  but worth it. A beautiful beach.  I went for a swim - well,  a splash about.

We came back to the main beach and had lunch,  then we bought ice creams and ate them by the beach before coming back to eat steak and salad. 

We are still alone in our 'flat' and it's nice.  I'm about to go to bed.  Tomorrow we drive to Auckland for the last bit of our trip.  

Coromandel Again

The weather was looking promising so we fancied somewhere near a beach for our last few days. We looked up how far it would be to the Coromandel again and how long it would take.  Google said about two hours,  so we went for it.  K was driving for the first hour,  then I took over for the fiddly bits at the end. 

We headed for Coromandel Town and checked in to a motel named Anchor Lodge. It was a bit posh,  and I paid a bit more for a room with a view and a balcony. We didn't get a chance to use the pool or the spa as we were late and tired. We walked into town - about five minutes - and ate at the Admirals Arms Hotel. Large portions - we were stuffed.

We had breakfast on the balcony overlooking the bay.  We did the final lot of washing of the holiday.  Driving into town we found out about the 'Driving Creek Railway' that we had read about,  and booked a ride.

We had time to spare and so did some shopping before driving off to the railway station.  The place was amazing and all built by hand by a chap named Barry Bricknell, who started in 1974 when he bought some land to start a pottery using the local clay.  He laid some track to help him get clay from an outcrop back to base. Everything started from there.  It's an amazing achievement.  He is now 79 and still making pots. 

The train ride is on narrow guage rails and ends at a building which Barry named 'The Eyefull Tower' and it does have amazing views out over the bay.