Casting Pebbles On Some Sandy Beach*

18 January 2010
Long drive today from Northland to the Coromandel Peninsula, most of the day was grey with frequent drizzle and only brief snatches of sunshine, however the temperature was still above 20 degrees C . but the tree ferns seem to thrive in this and we saw whole hillsides full of them as we crossed the Coromandel mountains. The drive was longer than anticipated for a number of reasons: the maximum speed limit is 100kph, this drops to 50kph or even 30kph at the vaguest sign of any habitation (and Kiwis are SO law-abiding); most of the roads are single carriageways so overtaking is very difficult; bridges over the numerous rivers are so narrow vehicles can only cross in one direction at a time; a massive road improvement programme is going on but instead of doing one stretch at a time they are doing short stretches every few miles each with its own manually operated stop and go signs; and, bloody slow lorries. We were stopped by the police on one occasion – the policeman was “sorry” to have stopped us but he just wanted to check that we had our seat belts on, when he saw that we had, he thanked us and wished us a safe journey and happy holiday (SO like the boys in blue back home)
We eventually reached our destination, unloaded the car into our motel room (notice how we have gone from the five star Langham to boutique B&B to Motel called Pacific Palm Resort – actually it’s really good as we have a sitting room, kitchen and two bedrooms – perhaps we should have invited some of you to come along too) and headed for the beach. Pisceans paddling and beachcombing – we couldn’t be happier; well perhaps we could, if there was just a little more sun.

Had a lovely dinner in the NZ equivalent of a bistro, nice food, good wine but what we hadn’t realised when we sat down was that the Whangamata (pronounce Fanga-m’t-AR) Chapter of the Roy Orbison Fan Club was in town and we ate listening to all those great RO songs we know and love (and several we don’t).