We’re now about three weeks into our journey, and things are starting to settle out and get more comfortable. We’ve got a bit of a daily routine, the girls are generally sleeping pretty well despite temperatures and noise in a cramped space, and I’ve learned to create meals from nothing in a very tiny space.
Our car rides are often smooth, while one sleeps, the other plays games, for a while anyway… so Josh and I can tend to our new game of “Spot the Possums”, where you count how many road kills (of the possum variety) you see on the road in 10 minutes. Rules are: there must be some actual remains, not just a smear. It’s about 26 possums in case you were wondering. We also marvel at all the wonderous coffee shops and cafe’s that we have to pass up on as someone is napping, and discuss what else we would be stopping at if our journey was at a kid-free pace. Though, sometimes its nice to just get from A to B, without stopping at all.
Hahei Beach
We are have just cruised up the Coromandel area up near the Bay of Plenty. We camped in the tiny town of Hahei (population we heard is 90), which has a pretty decent campground with full facilities right on yet another picturesque white sand beach. The best part about this place was the food trucks, with tasty oven fired Mizzoni Pizza and beside it, the Serial Griller (picture 50’s diner red logo with blood/ketchup dripping) gourmet burger truck. Also, worth noting is the cafe/store right onsite with the delicious and oh so addictive Allpress coffee. We’ll take the usual, a mocha, a flat white, and a fluffy!
The afternoon of our arrival we scoped out the beach briefly, after poking our cheap as dirt, Elsa blue sun-brella into the sand on a highly vicious angle to prevent it from flying away or snapping in two. It didn’t seem too windy here, but down on the beach of course it was. Zo was able to nap two shorties in the camper on both afternoons, as I think she’s realized that napping naked is the way to go and waking up sweaty is par for the course around here.
One morning we took a glass bottom boat into Cathedral Cove, which is the way to go as the covered boat protects from the elements, and the glass bottom lets you chicken out from the chilly water and say “nay” to snorkeling. The Cove itself was very pretty with smooth and jagged rocks protruding from the sea in unique shapes and shades. The deep blue water next to the white sand never gets old. In the end we had wished we were able to spend some time on the secluded beach but access was tricky with the kids, as we couldn’t kayak in, and the walk was about an hour each way to get to it. Our boatie (captain) said we could probably have taken our “push chair” but I didn’t know what that was. LOL. AKA pram or stroller, eh?!
I can’t tell you much about Hot Water Beach though, as we stopped there enroute around lunch time but the tides weren’t in our favour. You need to come out, hire a spade, and dig your hole within 2 hours of low tide to make your toasty bath spot, so instead we had lunch at Hotties which was a trendy little cafe in a prime spot right on the bluff of the beach. We ate outside overlooking the beautiful beach, and shared our favourite restaurant meal- fish tacos for a whopping $24. They sure were tasty, but I’m thinking we paid for part of their real estate too.
Speaking of delicious food, we managed to hit up an honour stand in one of the towns. They had “avo’s”, onions, and mandarin oranges (of which we bought a bag full for $2 and they were the juiciest, most flavourful oranges we’ve ever had). We will be keeping our eyes peeled for more of those! Wink Wink.
