We drove 5 kilometres up the road to Ferry Landing where a passenger ferry crosses the river entrance. It reminded us of the Flushing to Falmouth ferry.

The tide was running at about 4 knots although the ferryman said that it can run at up to 6 or 7 knots.

We walked about a mile up onto a viewing spot where there were more plaques and tales of Captain Cook and indeed a mention of the visit by the Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Anne in March 1970 on board the Royal Yacht.

Hahei Beach was our next stop where as true “motorhomers" (is that the right word?) we stopped for a brew up before going to Hot Water Beach where at 2 hours either side of low water one can dig in the sand and create a hot water pool by pooling the hot water that emanates from the springs below. Needless to say we arrived at high water but there will be other opportunities in NZ.

After consulting all the various guides and the Lonely Planet we decide to take to the 309 road to Coromandel. This road is so named because it took a horse and load 3 hours 9 minutes to transit it. The NZ are very imaginative in their naming!

It was an unmetalled road but in good condition. Once again it was through some amazing countryside with many, many variations of the colour green.

and a beautiful natural waterfall and rock pool

We bought some Manuka honey that surprisingly comes from the Manuka bush. The beekeeper had over 1,000 hives but the bee disease, varroa, is a major problem here as it is England. We are hoping that the medicinal qualities of the high strength honey that we bought will rid us of the colds, sore throats and snotty noses that our dear grandchild, Kit, gave us in Singapore.

We arrived in the town of Coromandel which had about 20 shops straddling the central road. There was a good hardware shop, a butcher where we saw our first New Zealand lamb, and a very good pie shop.

We had decided to go to a proper camp site in order to do some washing and recharge the batteries! We discarded the first one as it was on the edge of the town but found an excellent one called Shelly Beach about 5 km up the road and on the edge of the sea. As we were the first motorhome there today we were allotted pride of pitch, number 54 facing out to sea. Guess which pitches the next two motorhomes were allotted ——yep, numbers 53 and 55. We now have neighbours both sides and their vans are bigger than ours! Hi de Hi.

a lovely beach—at low tide!

On a general note the natives could not have been more friendly or helpful. One is greeted with a cheery hello and a 'can I help you mate?’. The countryside is beautiful and all the livestock, mainly cattle, look really well. We need to get a bird book so that we can identify some of the many birds. There are bees everywhere much to Helen’s anguish but we have the epipen at the ready!