Geoff managed to find a beautiful free campsite! Apart from the stinky loos that is! Elodie said they made her feel sick! We quickly put up the soaking wet tent, as it rained quite heavily last night. The tent is not as water proof as one would hope! Seaping in at the seams. Our sleeping compartment was sitting in a puddle…. luckily we stayed dry. Elodie was heard to say ‘that tent hasn’t got much proof’! The forgot highway  fromTauramanui to Stratford was my favourite drive so far. Almost deserted, beautiflul scenery and a great place at the end! We were going to stop halfway along, but Pearl didn’t like the track to the campsite. She sits rather low to the ground with all the gang plus stuff, and scrapes vital underparts when she doesnt like a bump! Geoff seems to like to aim for random bumps in the road. He claims this is not on purpose, but I see no other explanation. The bumps are right there for all to see!!!! Anyway, I digress. This track was practicality solid scrap, so we reversed and pushed on to Stratford.  If we had had less time we would have sailed through here, with a cursory glance at the clock tower, which would have been a shame. We found a pretty little campsite with pool and great playground close by. Papa, R and O discovered ‘the last Jedi ‘ in a little lesser known cinema which caused much pre Xmas excitement! The clock tower did a little Shakespeare performance at 7. All street names are Shakespeare characters. Orlando was pleased to find his! We visited two beautiful English style gardens near the slopes of Mt Taranaki. We missed the rhododendrons but the agapanthus and hydrangea were spectacular! We walked up to Dawson Falls, with beautiful crystal clear pools at the end. Some locals were using the rock as a slide, so Orlando gave it a try! The water was glacial, being pure snowmelt! R and E managed up to their waists! Next stop the surf highway!  Oakura is just south of New Plymouth. Tent practically on the beach! Orlando and papa surfed.  Water pretty freezing here. We didn’t really visit much of the town as the beach was so pleasant, but there isite had a little museum and great library. We met a French couple setting up a little crêpe cabin. At $7 a crêpe Geoff was less than keen. He forked out for 2 nutella and 1 salted caramel crêpes in the end though as they were so nice!

So, Hobbiton!  Matamata, though a pleasant enough town, must have been a bit if a backwater before the LOTR. Huge numbers of tourists pop in here to visit the site of the hobbit holes. The information centre has been beautifully renovated in hobbit style,  and the trio were pleased to find a statue of smeagol inside! Much exitement as we boarded the bus! Our Scottish guide was amusing, and Hobbiton was beautifully preserved.  Lots of little hobbit doors, little personalised gardens with honey, woodwork, cheese making ect and little cloths lines with hobbit cloths on! Brilliant to see Sam”s house and Bag End as well as the party tree and Gandalf path. Can’t wait to watch the films again! Great outing, if a little pricey. I asked one of the men in the campsite I’d he had been. ‘No way’ he replied ‘i’m local,  I can’t afford that!’

So after the slog through the Auckland traffic (apparently the town is bursting at the seems! I was talking to a chap who said that not long ago they were encouraging £10 pommes to boost numbers. Not any more!) which was fairly horrid, we made it to Miranda camspite. Pricey  (they all, bar the DOC campsites, are) but it has a thermal pool! The evening being fairly cool, it was blissful to slide in. Especially for me as I got to cook sups while Paps took the trio in. Not a restful experience apparently as after the traffic jam, they were all a bit antsy, and had had a good session of ‘he looked at me, no she looked at ME’. Poor paps!  I went in after sups. Most pleasant. There are so many different birds here. Beautiful birdsong all day long! There was a seabird sanctuary just outside the campsite, and we visited it the next day! Paps tendons are playing up a bit so he opted for driving to the hides. E and R dived back into the car at the prospect of no walk!  O and I strolled along the shore, and spotted lots of birds. Black Swan and sky lark were the only ones I knew!  Two volunteers with their telescopes showed us all the different species. O loved it! His favourite was the NZ Dotteral. Blistering day! Baked in the car on the way to hot water beach. Highlight of the campsite was a huge blow up pillow thing! Plenty of harrying potter wand battles. Harrying Potter is the main theme for most of the games. Geoff staggered a bit at the price of this one,  but got talked into joining the ‘top 10’ group. 10% off! Having joined, we then stayed 4 nights to make getting the card worth it…..made no sense to me, but we got free spade hire! HWB is not how I remember it. Everywhere is offering spade hire, and the car park is pay and display, which we have only seen in Auckland so far! Heaving with hot water enthusiasts as well. We trot along the beach to claim a spot. O is the team leader for this, taking charge of the spade. R has a blister on his hand, so is supervising. The water seeping up is boiling hot. Up to 62°C according to the signs. O quickly work out a three pool system. Boiling pool, cold pool and mixer pool. Worked brilliantly. E had lost a bit of her bounce earlier when we were looking at a long blue jellyfish. I was just thinking to myself, that looks like a Portuguese man o war when a chap came up and warned us not to touch it. His cousin had picked it up and got stung and her arms went numb…..E lost all interest in going in the sea! I am going to check online. Though it certainly looked suspiciously like a PMOW, people were prancing round in the water and there were no warning anywhere. She was just getting her bounce back in o”s thermal spa when she inadvertently bounced into o the boiling pool. This put a definite crimp in her day, and she retired to the beach to make a sand bridge. Great day otherwise, though not much swimming as the sea is dangerous here. We spent a day on Hahei beach after an aborted trip to cathedral cove (the car park was full!) The most beautiful beach! Glorious waves, crystal clear water. Much fun had by abortedllll!  G enjoyed another sup session. Bit wave for me. We woke the troupe up early the next morning to get a spot in the cathedral cove car park. I remember this walk very well, and despite beats about being woken up, and ‘I feel like i’ve left half of myself in my sleeping bag’ (o) everyone enjoyed it. The Cove was spectacular in the morning sun. We could not walk through as the tide was up, but we could walk in. A bit scary with the waves crashing, and R and E refused to go in. E wasn’t that impressed actually. ‘Hmm. I thought it would be bigger’. Sorry to leave this beautiful spot, but onwards to matamata and the LOTR experience! DOC campsite on the way. Right by a river with a gorgeous swimming hole. The water is warmer than the sea. Geoff made a friend called Francis.  A Canadian travelling on his own. Very friendly, but a little wiffy. It transpired that he only has one t-shirt. One. Fair enough I suppose, if you want to save space, but surely it needs a wash? He came in it, slept in it, woke up and went for a three hour trek in it. Not one dip in the river! Each to their own…….