Kuaotunu Bay Lodge Whitianga

... and planted a row of potatoes before having a nice group dinner and jam session.

This morning we had our last group coffee and said bye to Steph. Brad and Caitlin's van wouldn't start, so we had to jump it, but then we four wwoofers drove to Coromandel Town in a vonceow and shared lunch a the Driving Creek Cafe before parting ways.

It turns out I will be staying in Coromandel Town fo the month to work at the cafe. I start on the 14th, so I have a ...

... way to Mount Maunganui we picked up a few passengers, two of whom were Patrick and
Sandra. When we got to Mount Maunganui it was almost winter but in the summer time it is one of the most popular destinations to visit in New Zealand. Some of the caravan parks are booked up two years in advance for Christmas. It's easy to see why, the beach is lovely with nice soft sand. I collected a few nice shells on our walks on the beach. We got a bit of sunshine when we were there ...

... be fine. These last couple of nights, I've just been washing dishes like crazy (they enjoy the fact that I'm not some 15 year old kid with my head in the clouds because I actually, you know, get the dishes done in a ...

... town to start the morning. We wanted to arrive there in time to take a railroad trip that had been highly recommended. Along the way there were small beach towns with beautiful deserted beaches. We stopped and got our feet wet a few times along the way. Then the road veered inland and climbed up hill around typical NZ winding roads and blind hills. We climbed for a while, and then reached a lookout point at the top of the hill. There were beautiful ...

... called Gemstone Bay that we could see on the walk back. It was closer to the parking lot, had the same beautiful blue water, and a snorkeling trail that intrigued us. We reached the parking lot and headed out just as the largest flow of visitors was coming in. We wound our way back through Hahei, and from the hills we could see the Hahei beach. It was another beautiful sand beach that we decided might be worth stopping on another day. So many ...

... I do though think on some sunny days the level of pessimism in some fields is quite high. Today though it was raining but not all the cows were sitting, is this a indicator that it will stop raining soon or that some cows are really bad at excepting they were wrong or that this method of weather prediction is slightly flawed? Answers on a postcard or just leave a comment?

... Jennifer) and Liz from Holland. Yes, they put me in a room with 4 women for the night! Are they mad?!! Danger Zone! The holiday park was OK though. It was very much like a caravan park in England, with toilet blocks, laundry blocks, tv room, kitchen block etc. It was all we needed. The internet was a rip-off though - NZ$8 per hour!! In the evening we all chipped in for a Barbie. No, not the little plastic doll, that wouldn't make sense would it?! This was ...

... potting plants in the nursery. I'm doing some extra work this week so that I can have the weekend off to visit Cathedral Cove. Eric came over for dinner, which was a nice surprise. I went to bed pretty much straight after dinner, so that hopefully I will feel better tomorrow. Wednesday 4th June I woke up feeling worse again. Piet noticed that I seemed unwell so he said that unless I wanted to go back to bed, I should just stick to working in the nursery ...

... that lie just off the coast. The path wound down and around the bush (wilderness), past some cattle and eventually down into Coromandel Cove. We took some more photos, even in the sudden downpour that hit us. There were several other "toursits" down there, including members of a Kiwi Experience tour group. KE is somewhat of a rival to Stray. They are geared more towards a younger crowd.... around 18 years old and are known for a ...

... One of the photos shows a waterfall that we came across after we decided to just take a turn off the main road ( And for you scenics we werent lost!). This place was really cool, only a ourselfs swiming in the plung pool at one stage untill a hand full of others joined us. This really was what we were hopeing all of N.Z would be like and made it even easier to understand why Lord Of The Rings was filmed here.