Well what a trip it was.
I will break this up into a few posts as there are lots of photos.
Post one.
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| Looking straight out the door |
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| Looking left back toward Mt Maunganui |
I arrived in Auckland to a beautiful warm sunny day and as I was dressed for cold and dreary the first thing I did was get changed in the airport carpark! I was picked up by my dh who had driven up from Waihi and we now got in the car and drove straight back there. Karaka, Pokeno, Papakura,Manurewa, Takanini, Red Fox...ooops. All names from a distant past. The red fox was a well used watering hole in my youth. One of many may I say. We called in at Waihi to look around dh's little house he lives in when he is at work. Not too shabby and very tidy for a man living on his own. Then off to Papamoa Beach. Just down the coast from Mt Maunganui and the only place right on the beach you can stay, we had booked a cabin at a tourist resort. The pix do not do the view justice. I took these photos very late in the day so the sun was well down. The next day the sun was shining and we were treated to a really spectacular day. There were many surfers out on the water and we were surprised to see just how late they stayed.
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| Looking right |
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| Near Opotiki.The panorama mode on my phone. Not a bad rendition. Beach is to the right. |
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| Yahhhh pipis........ |
Thursday we went further down the coast to Whakatane and enjoy lunch with cousins living there. They gave us the good oil on where to get pipis so that is where we headed. Another beautiful spot. Just before arriving in Opotiki and before you hit the beach there is an inlet where you are assured of finding them. We had been given a bucket so were all set. Here is the haul.
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| The driveway of my cousins house. |
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| Morices Bay |
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| Morices Bay |
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| Looking toward the old house site. |
We spent the night in Opotiki with more cousins and it was good to catch up with them. Friday morning we headed up the coast but first a stop at Morices Bay, the accepted ancestral home of my fathers family. We continued around the east coast along some of the most windy, hilly road I have ever driven over. I was all shades of green, purple and blue and just could not wait to stop. I never get car sick but boy did I ever this time. I didn't know whether to vomit or pass out. The scenery is absolutely amazing. Rugged coastline dotted with white sandy beaches then black pebble inlets. The road is steep and windy with almost no other traffic.
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| Hicks Bay |
We did have to stop for 3 big pigs crossing the road and looked in the rear view mirror and the police had arrived just in time to arrest them for jaywalking.....Hicks Bay motel was a welcome sight and we went and checked in and I got my equilibrium back. I still hadn't eaten the pipis and was starting to worry that I would have to start thinking up names for them as if I kept them for much longer they would be regarded as pets.
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