New Zealand on a Very Tight Budget Day 29

We waved a fond farewell to the Rotorua Walking club who had really been very entertaining and set off towards the Coromandel with some trepidation as we knew a week ago the roads had been closed due to major flooding (remember that 5 inches in 24 hours?). There was a huge amount of damage all over the place. It seemed strangely incongruous under that perfect blue sky to see huge rips in the landscape like giant bunkers where bits of field and forest had just slipped away. The road had obviously been undermined at one point where it was reduced to single track and workmen were trying to shore it up from underneath, Pipelines were exposed and massive outspills and floods were evident everywhere.
We arrived at the charming camp site at Opoutere quite early, parked up and walked through fragrant pine forests to the deserted beach. The spit at the end of the "harbour" is a bird sanctuary and we saw Oyster Catchers, Terns, Dottrills and a pair of Kingfishers as well as a few surprises while beach combing. We had a couole of dips and a lot of lounging about and were surprised to find on our return that the "harbour" was almost empty!