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| Arbor in the Edible Garden |
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| Paulie and Annie |
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| Auckland Botanical Gardens |
Well the day has arrived to depart the wonderful city of Auckland. We gather up our things and pack the car. We are heading south today toward the northeast to an area known as
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| Annie in the gardens - Auckland |
the Coromandel Peninsula. Shortly outside of the city, we stop at the Botanical Gardens. It is a wonderful place. Huge, wide open spaces and wonderful sculptures dotting the landscaped walkways and gardens. There are lots of families and kids enjoying one of the most beautiful days I can remember in a long time. It is remarkably clear here - white billowy clouds glide through the incredibly blue sky and a slight breeze cools our skin under the warmth of the sun. Amazing. The boys play....you guessed it....rugby on the lawn....well out of the way of any sculptures (or brides!). We soak up the sun and amble among the sculptures for a while before hitting the road again. We make it to the eastern coast of the peninsula and come upon a cute town called Tairua. We find a fish-n-chips place and have a nice lunch of freshly fried fish wrapped in newspaper and served with chips. We sit on benches inside the shop and outside on the sidewalk. After lunch, we head further north to the town of Hahei which is right on the coast. You know that you are in a very outdoorsy society when a luxury Jaguar with a bike rack passes you! We do not have a reservation for this evening, which is a bit concerning since it appears to be a very busy time of year with kids still being on their summer break. We visit a holiday park called the Hahei Holiday Park....good news....they have a place for us tonight. We ask the price and it is in the ballpark so we go have a look. They give us the key and we head off in the direction they indicate. We pass the communal kitchen and bathrooms and come upon a cute, but tiny, little cabin that seems perfect. Number 7....we thins this is a good omen. We try the key and it doesn't work. Hmmm. We retrace our steps and find that we are in the wrong section and we need to go back and then we see it.....something called a "sitevan". Ever wonder what that term means? Well, I'll tell you and it ain't pretty. A "sitevan" is an old, rusty camper that has been put out to pasture...err...to holiday park. It has two sets of bunk beds and a double bed embedded (no pun intended) into the front "bay" window. Lovely. There is a small, yet grimy, kitchen counter and a small, but disgusting dorm size refrigerator on top of it. Approximately 3.5 feet away are our "neighbors". Not sure this is what we had in mind. The boys actually love it...you know boys are from Mars, right? Anyhoo, we opt to take our chances down the road and spend the next hour and a half looking for a place to stay. We decide to head north to the next largest town called Whitianga and it is a really lovely place on the waterfront. We get into town at around 8:oo at night and find a perfectly wonderful place that is about twice our budget. We decide to look at the other couple of places and find a great holiday park that has a cabin perfect for 5 people. It is, you guessed it, number 7....really was a lucky number after all. They will rent you a cabin here, but you will have to "rent" the
linens. We do some quick math and figure that we can purchase bedding
for about what we can rent it for for the two nights, so we head out and as luck would have it there is a store with everything we
might need. We all make our selections and then check out.We go around the corner to the grocery store and buy a wonderful selection of things to cook. We get back and enjoy dinner around 9:30 at night. Off to bed straightaway and ready for another exciting day....tomorrow.
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