OFF WE GO

 

Good Morning!

Today we leave on our little 5 day jaunt around the East Cape of the North Island.

ABOVE:  Now I say 'little jaunt', but in reality, we will be on the road for a large chunk of those 5 days.  The distance is approximately 1,083.6 kilometres, or for you weird guys still working in miles, it's about 673.3 miles.

Knowing us, there will be added kilometres with little stops here and there, going down side roads etc.  

I will take the odometer reading before we leave, and again when we get home.   Cos I will be interested to see how many K's we actually rack up. 

This is the road trip we had planned to do back in 2023, but Cyclone Gabrielle put paid to that idea.

(edit:  I originally said this trip was planned for 2020, but I got that wrong).

In March, 2020, we had planned on flying to Australia to visit Mum, but COVID stopped us in March.  I did end up over there later on in the year sadly.

So, we are finally doing this trip, and I hope we enjoy it.

Right, time to go.  Catch ya later on in the day.

 ...

ABOVE: 8.34 am and we are off... into the Waikato fog.

ABOVE: First stop, Rotorua.  Beautiful  weather.

ABOVE: Cottage Flair fabric shop. I only bought a little bit of fabric. At $38 a metre I'll not go there again! Shocking price. 

2.33 pm, and we are safely at our motel, after having a lovely little tiki tour around Whakatane and Ohope Beach.

ABOVE:  Our lunch!  As recommended by a local lady, she did not steer us wrong.  The meal was amazing.

ABOVE:  Where the Whakatane River meets the sea.  

ABOVE: Some of the locals, basking in the sun.

ABOVE:  Looking out towards The Lookout and Moutohora Island.   White Island is way off in the distant haze, you could see it with the naked eye, but not with my camera.

ABOVE: We combed the beach for a piece of driftwood for our new home.

Found the perfect piece.

No doubt I'll find more along the coast tomorrow. 😊

ABOVE: It was a pretty little inlet/beach.

ABOVE:  Port Ohope wharf, lots of people fishing and swimming.  

ABOVE: The wharf railings had quite a few metal nautical creatures attached to it.  I had to photograph the crab.  We are kindred spirits after all.  

We are now taking a well earned break, and might venture out later for a swim at Awakeri Hot Springs.

I can remember a few lovely evenings spent swimming there, while visiting Mum and Dad at their kiwifruit orchard at Awakeri.

The swim at the hot pools got shelved, nice idea, but we just didn't feel like it at the end of the day.

ABOVE:  I had a lovely long soak in the spa bath instead.  Stew isn't into baths, so stayed on the bed watching... sport.  Not a lot changes.

Off to bed in the next couple of hours.  Catch ya tomorrow.