Those of you familiar with our visits to New Zealand will probably remember that we keep our motorhome at a storage shed in Paeroa.
This is part of the old gold mining area and the hills are mostly very craggy and interesting.
Gold mining is to resume in the local area. Actually, it has never stopped but the locals are not happy about something ...
and on our very first shopping trip we had parked right in the path of a bit of a demo.
The supermarket is Countdown by the way, which used to be Woolworths until a couple of years ago.
Anyway ... right opposite the supermarket, just where we had parked, is the local council office.
The demo was nothing scary, just a bit of shouting and drum banging.
The chap in the suit was left to confront the mob on the office steps. We decided to move on ...
#######
!
#######
We needed to have our wheel alignment checked and no-one in Paeroa had a suitable jig. We went to Te Aroha, and this is the library
and below, the Community garden where we filled the time waiting for the alignment to be done. The green sign tells us we can pick from that specific bed while the white one requests that we don't take anything from there. Probably works!
I like the flower pot in the scarecrow's pocket.
Below; the Reinga lilies are flowering everywhere. The clock tower in Te Aroha.
Travelling north in the Coromandel we free-camped overnight at the Mary Beach Reserve. It's next to the harbour in Tairua.
Here's the harbourmaster's office. Well, he can probably walk on water too ...
There is a little passenger ferry that crosses from Cooks Beach to Whitianga.
While waiting for the ferry, we watched these guys. They are chipping oysters from the wharf and immediately eating the ones they break. Others were being put aside for taking home.
Whitianga is a town of great contrasts. It's mostly touristy and affluent but this little house needs quite a bit of TLC!
Kev was hoping his numbers would come up on the lottery.
Simpson's Beach, just to the north of Whitianga. Nice and peaceful for NZ$10 per night (£5). We were delighted to see the family of thrushes, something we rarely see in the UK now.
Miranda Hot Pool. Fabulous. This is naturally hot mineral water, and I mean hot!