Category: Coromandel

The Operator picked Rosie up from work at 1.00pm in the fully loaded camper and off we went,  destination, The Coromandel Peninsula, uncharted territory for Rosie and the furthest North we have taken the camper.  We had Google map road instructions for the best way to get there and we were not stopping, it was an estimated six hour haul and The Operator was committed!

One family had the beach to themselves at ‘fritter bay’, they were having a fritter picnic on the sand.  A lonely tractor pulling a boat trailer was parked waiting for its owner to return after a days fishing, a few cars were coming and going from the fritter shack, other than that this was pretty representative of all of the small bays…there are more beaches here than people. 

It is a tooth rattling drive at an average of 30 km an hour, coming to complete standstills sometimes precariously perched on the side of the road so a car can pass coming the other way.  Plants and bushes on the roadside are a uniform beige colour from the road dust of passing time and travellers.  The sea is a large, vast expanse so still with barely a ripple on the surface reflecting the grey sky.

The steep staircase takes you down to the cove and you exit from dim bush into the pure white light and the step onto the pristine white beach. It looked and felt so remote and untouched.  We were lucky, other than a few footprints in the sand there was only one other couple there to share the beauty with.  The early morning light was soft and all you could hear was the surge of the sea and a couple of seagulls wheeling and calling overhead. 

NNNNoooooooo.  All is not lost, the channel runs through all of the showers, there is bound to be a grill in the last one to catch such unforeseen problems….all Rosie has to do is go to the last shower…4 doors down and check…SSssooooo hair in a conditioned lather, towel wrapped as tightly round her as possible Rosie edges her pudgy body around the shower door in the unisex shower block ‘please God dont let a guy be there brushing their teeth’….towel to short, legs to fat….sigh of relief, no one there.

The Operator suddenly opens the cab door, he has gone deathly pale and looks decidedly clammy…no, please don’t have a heart attack Operator, who would drive home?!  The Operator starts gasping, Rosie is concerned, hand inching towards her phone ready to dial for emergency services…..The Operator splutters,  ‘I….have…just…put…petrol…in …the….diesel….tank….!’

‘Oh for gods sake, is that all’, Rosie says, ‘I thought you were about to have a stroke!’

As we drove into Waihi Rosie expected to see a big huge gaping hole in the landscape with a town built around it….not so, the mine is cleverly disguised.  The edge of the mine is built up higher than town level…its like you have to climb a hill and when you are at the top, oh, look, a  big huge mine hole in the ground.  This means that the town retains its small town feeling and is pleasing on the eye to boot.