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So the morning starts with us leaving to go north, Port Charles to be exact, rumoured to have some of the clearest waters in the country, and sure enough it did!
To get there though was a living nightmare - some of the windiest, narrow roads on a cliff edge I've ever had the pleasure of driving through. Belting!!!! Gravel path all the way, it amazed me how people make the trip along the road to get to the port in the first place.
Any who, the place lived up to its name and sure enough crystal clear waters and endless coved beaches awaited us! Sitting on the edge of a wharf we couldn't help but watch the birds swoop down and pull fish straight out of the sea! Cracking!
After a quick trip around to stony beach we headed back down the windy roads to find a place for lunch! -Finding a lush place not to long down the trek we pulled over to a swankey place! Getting out of the car maria heard a lovely whistling sound! wondering what it was also I came around to her side of the car only to find the whistling was our front left tyre! Damn it!! Quickly opened the boot to get the jack and the spare tyre only to find it was a space saver tyre that might have well been pulled out of a Christmas cracker! this tiny thing had to get us back through roads worthy of a rally course back to the town! after a cracking meal and some freebies from the chef!! we started the tortuous journey back, quite the journey! a few hairy moments on cliff edge roads but its all good!
Back to the town and a 'barry crocker' hit us, no one was around to fix our wheel, we left it with a garage assured it would get done through the night, so fresh fish and chips was the only option left for this day!
We woke up and packed up the gear to go get this bloody tyre, with luck firmly not on our side it hadn't been done, leaving another treacherous journey to the next town ahead of us! a good 2hour journey accros the mountains (that should normaly take 45mins) we reached Whitianga. without realising though, it was now sunday, not a 'bob hope' we'll get this tyre fixed today. So camped up in the rain and went off for a walk.
I fell for this place straight away, this small town was so cool, it had everything you need, one shop, one bar, one chippy. it seamed like a John smiths town (no nonsense) - it had a cinema the size of a mouse house that would only open 15 mins before the film started, then close during the film, and re-open to let everyone out! GENIOUS!
Headed back to the tent for a restless sleep and an incident with a plum tree, FUNNY!!
next day followed with a great journey on a minute ferry ride across the wide expanse of 10 metres of open harbour to the other side of the peninsular! Over the hill and on to cooks beach and Shakespeare's cliff! A fantastic beach with a rope swing, 'Parently' captain cook himself came ashore here back in 1992 or whatever! Great beach!
We managed to get the sodding tyre fixed and journeyed off to stingray bay, it gets its name from what swims most commonly off the shores....... Stingy's! didn't see any though after a quick snorkel, the waters were a bit too rough!
Round to Cathedral cove, this is one of the top 10 things to see over here in NZ, after a good trek over there, we found it, lovely beach, great natural cove through the rock face, brilliant, although it was rammoed with people! Turns out there was a few rock falls the previous week so half of it was roped off which was a bit pants, and maria exclaiming 'it doesn't look like this on the postcard!' but all the same we were glad to have seen it!
That night we decided to get ripped off, so off to the most expensive cafe (and only cafe) we went! Not too bad i must say but not worth the re-mortgage! Campsite was grand again on the beach front and fully kitted out with kitchen and great hot showers..oooh!
Off to bed to wake up to hot water beach, Mt paku, Opoutere Beach and finaly Whangamata and Waihi.
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