on the road with jed - day 17 / maketu - tapu

The rain lets up but not so does the line of classic cars, there's no end in sight. At Waihi we actually want to turn right - no chance, we only succeed in crossing the street, turning around and then left - and we are not the only ones with this idea... Get out of the town, where do they come from? And where are they off to? Today is sunday, obviously some festival has just finished. For the next ten kilometres we see classic-cars, mostly american style. We stop at a parksite and start to film that row, otherwise nobody would believe us at home. At least 15 minutes one precious after the other comes around the corner. Very slowly that flood ebbs away and leaves us totally perplexed. Approaching Whangamate we solve the riddle with the aid of a poster: The "Beach Hop" has finished, a Rock'n'Roll festival [http://www.beachhop.co.nz/]. It really looks as half NewZealand is driving home; and NOW we know how to interpret those nice cars on the Cook Strait ferry :)

Meanwhile the weather has changed again, we have blazing sunshine, white clouds clinging on to the steel blue sky, just can't enough of it. So it's the best weather to visit Cathedral Coves at Hahei, perhaps we are also lucky with the tides? No, we are not. Even if we would not shipwreck at the flood [we would, tidal height will be at 16.00, thus in two hours], we fail at the chance to park today. The rather small carpark is jam-packed, no chance to place Jed. Whatever. We drive back down into town and get a nice site, even in the shadow. And just around the corner they have ice-cream! The first one this year - and WHAT an ice-cream! As we can not decide between the lots of sorts we take one and a half scoop each [yes, they have half scoops here]. While the girl behind the counter fills up the cones we are staggered. The "Junior scoop" measures 7 cm in diameter. On top there's the "half" scoop at 4 cm. I can't believe it. We know that the chips doses at german takeaways are - compared to other countries - mingy but this ice-cream beats everything! We have to eat fast because the warm weather melts the ice promptly. After this phantastic meal we walk down to the beach and enjoy the view. Shouldn't we stay a little longer? Do we really have to go on today? This would be a nice spot for our old-age. But we guess in summer it will be unbearable crowded if you can not get a parking site right now... ;)

Well, we go on again, SH25 along the coastline direction north and then this only [wider] road direction west, we want to make a stopover at the campground in Coromandel. On our way we come across a freesiter: Located at Kuaotunu Wharekaho Road, at the edge of the ocean, a little beach beside - beautiful! But also really close to the street and moreover we want to take a shower - so we are looking forward visiting the ground at Coromandel. What a shame - this one is not our favourite: A Holiday Park, rather big, lots of guests, much crush. Ahnoo. Ranker's App offers another site only 40 km/45 minutes away, would that be an idea? We drive along the coastal road and best husband's idea of another holiday ripens definitely here: One day we have to take these roads by motorbike! Whereas I can only take a few pictures and store the camera, I have to hang on. Curves and bends all along the narrow street, rocks on the left, ocean on the right side. Really, on a bike there would be much more space :)

At Tapu we are expected by a beautiful cute campsite. With solar-lights, energy saving showers, rainwatertoilets, there's nobody except us, not even the host, he comes along the next day. Until then we are allowed to chose the best site and feel comfy. Yes, we do. Behind us the little creek is burbling - let's see if I will take a bath tomorrow.