New Zealand Explorer Motorhome Tour - Days 9-10

It was a long drive from Russell to Whitianga taking us 10 hours in total, although 3 hours of that was wasted diverting back to the motorhome rental company Jucy’s depot close to Auckland Airport in an attempt to get the heating & hot-water system working – it still has a fault… However, there are some beautiful views along the way particularly in the Coromandel peninsula. The modern Fiat Ducato automatic gearbox and cruise control does make it more relaxing than our old manual gearbox.  Hayley had never driven an automatic vehicle before and she has found the transition easy, putting that on our wish list for the future.

We were late arriving at Whitianga so we headed through the town centre and found  a Fish & Chip shop before arriving at the campsite. Instead of our usual cod, haddock or plaice offerings, there was a choice of terakihi, hoki, gurnard or dory with chips.  Having watched the film ‘Finding Dory’ on the flight to Singapore, we ruled out the dory and opted for the terahiki and hoki.  These proved to be excellent, as was the view parked up looking at the picturesque estuary.

The next day we were in for a treat when we took the well-made and undulating path to Cathedral Cove which was, as our Leader Noel put in, one of those “wow!” moments. With further stops at Gem Bay and Stingray Bay, we only just made it to Hot Water Beach before the tide came in. On the beach was the extraordinary sight of people lying in self-dug steaming sandy holes of hot water springing from the earth.  Despite the best efforts of the bathers battling nature by constructing sandy sea defences, the Pacific rolled in all too soon, mixing with the hot water and washing the pools away.

At a book shop in town we purchased a proper road atlas as the small scale maps we had been provided with were not really adequate for a driving tour. We prefer not to place all of our trust in the Sat Nav and it is useful to see places of interest on the map along the route.

Back at the campsite and our tour leaders Noel and Kathleen ensured that fellow traveller Hazel celebrated her 70^th birthday in style as the group gathered for cake and wine.