20th Jan - Katikati to Hot Water Beach

I got up to have breakfast with Neil about 7 before he left for work. I then packed up everything and spent some time on the net sending a few emails to people on couch surfing and warm showers for accommodation between Katikati and Auckland. I thought that as I am going to India in a few days I might as well make it easy on myself for the last few days of NZ and spend sometime with NZers and not camp in the rain.

Made some lovely salmon and avocado sandwiches with cream cheese - a bit of a change from peanut butter and jam for once :-)

I spent a while looking for a part of my front pannier which came off but could not find it and then got on the road for about 10.30. It was a beautiful sunny day. I decided to take the longer coastal scenic route to Waihi Beach. I stopped off there and had a wonder round and then took the hilly route through the Golden Valley and to Whangamata. It was slow going as it is very hilly. I have done the thing that everyone does: get more space to store things and then carry more! I am now carrying far more food than I need.

Whangamata is a little tourist town with a beautiful beach. I enjoyed sitting on the beach and making a coffee on my stove and eating my salmon sandwiches, eating fresh sweetcorn and water melon. It is great to have some fresh fruit and veg. I sat on the beach too long chilling and it was about 2.30-3 when I got on the road again. I was hoping to get to Whitianga today but that was another 75km from Whangamata. The road was quiet and the views great.

As I was riding along through Tairua at about 7 I got a call from Neil saying that he has a friend with a shed at Hot Water Beach and that I could stay around there or in there if I wanted. As I still had atleast 40km to go to Whangamata I was very happy to stop further south at Hot Water Beach.

The "Shed" was down a little lane towards the beach. I was very glad to have somewhere to stay as freedom camping is not allowed in the Coromandel. It was completely different to what I was expecting from Neil. I was expecting a small green shed. Instead it turned out to be this huge industrial warehouse which is set up to grow loads of fruit. It was one of the strangest places I have ever stayed. There was no water supply or toilets that I could find but there was electricity. As the weather was turning I decided just to sleeping inside rather than putting my tent up. I just put my therma rest on the concrete floor and it was fine. It was about 8.30 when I got there and it was good to arrive when I was not too tired and I could potter for a bit and I ended up calling a few people as surprisingly the signal was good. The Coromandel is very different to other mountainous touristy areas of NZ as there are a lot of villages with cafes and supplies - civilization!

A really good day and a very strange place to sleep.... I love the spontaneity of traveling :-)