Coromandel to Wellington "The Project"

Arriving at Stony Bay Doc Camp on sunset

The Doc Camp at Stony Bay is another remote Coromandel Peninsula camp ground - up the Eastern side. More windy dusty gravel roads - our poor car, so filthy. We had been told the last part of the road to the camp from Sandy Bay was even windier so we unhitched the car to drive over separately. I was pleased to be following Bill as it was very narrow in places - very difficult for passing, luckily not coming across any other vehicles on the road.

Bill sorting out his Ducklings

Arriving late in the afternoon, the sun already behind the hills, we parked by the beach, looking for the perfect spot, but not good for the morning sun! Great in summer to keep cool under the huge Pohutukawa trees but not good when you are reliant on your solar panels. So after a quick reconnoitre of the many and varied camping spots we relocated further into the camp, up onto a grassy knoll overlooking the wee bay. On the Peninsula this is the largest Doc camp - initially couldn't see how it could be but the camp opened up further in behind the front of the camp. The new location was perfect for the few days we had here. Bill had another go fishing off the "stony" beach, losing one of his spinners in the rocks. Two more attempts were made over a couple of days from the beach but no takers :{(

We also completed the Coromandel Coastal Walkway, walking back to the Lookout we had reached previously from the walkway at Fletcher Bay with Diana. The track on this side was a much easier walk - a lovely wide track, with not much of a climb compared to the other end.

Coromandel Coastal Walkway
amongst the Manuka

Our last evening at this camp we met up with fellow motorhomers Mark & Sharon, although Kiwi's, they have been living in Melbourne for the past 30 years and are now popping back over to NZ for a few months at a time  to travel around NZ in their camper. Hopefully we will meet up another time on the road - perhaps down south next year when they return.

Bill's fatherly instincts kicked in when a mother duck kept bringing her 7 ducklings over to see him and hang around the bus. But sadly each day she turned up, the number of her babies was diminishing. At the end of our stay she was down to 3 - it's a hard life raising babies in the wild! (Sheryl loves roast duckling

.... just putting it out there!)

At the end of the week we headed back over the hill to Sandy Bay to meet up with High School friend Julie and hubby Steve who were renting a Bach to have another catch up. We had caught up with J&S at Waihi Beach and prior to that at their Bach up at Rangiputa last Spring.  On our way through Sandy Bay to Stony Bay we spotted a Reserve that had places allocated to Freedom Camping just along from their rented Bach so it was nice and handy. We actually ended up moving over to their property the next day to have all our supplies more available.

Julie still perfecting the Selfie
(with a glass of wine of course)

Steve & Bill heading off to catch lots of fish in Sandy Bay

Well! One is better than none 😉

Sandy Bay is a peaceful little Bay of approximately 30 Baches, just around the corner from the very tidal Port Charles. Not a big bay, but probably perfect for swimming in the summer. We drove back over to Stony Bay to walk the Coastal walk again, this time with Steve as it had been on his "to do" list. Unfortunately Julie only joined us on the first part of the track and had to return to the camp as her newly operated on knee was not up to the full challenge yet!

Bill & Steve tried fishing off the rocks with no success, but on the last evening took out the kayak where Steve caught a large snapper - nice to catch something over our three day catch up. They also headed back to fish off the "Fishing Rocks". Said fishing rocks were an epic. Over the course of the week Bill had observed the rock being fished from, and maps showed a track to the spot. But it was not easy, the track was easy enough till reaching the headland where it followed a steep ridge down getting so difficult that ropes had been placed to aid access. It did occur to Bill that it was difficult enough, loaded with the basic fish gear let alone the extra burden of a 20 lb Kingi. Fortuitously, some might say, they had no such luck, and after a fruitless bone chilling 90 minutes were able (just) to climb back up the roped escarpment and arrived back at the Bach cold, tired but more to the point, as far the women were concerned fishless! And not worthy of a beer even. Needless to say this sentiment did not prevail........

F&C's with a lovely Porter - thanks Wayne

We headed back to Coromandel after our second week away to empty our waste and pick up more Custard Square! Hmmmm I think they had a different cook today - it was still nice but not delicious like two weeks earlier.

Heading back to Waihi Beach we stopped in at Thames and caught up with brother Wayne who had his newly converted electric bike (750W compared to Bill's 300W) and a fresh brew of Porter that he had been promising Bill for sometime. We enjoyed a bottle with our F&C before he returned to Auckland and we continued on to Waihi Beach.

Quite tight on the Paekakariki Hill bends.

Thanks G&C for your hospitality once again and for storing our excess gear, we repacked our vehicles, returning the basement back for their own storage. Nice to catch up with Wendy for dinner too and touch base on our upcoming Northland adventure in February. Yummy dinner G as always.

The next day we continued heading down to Wellington for Labour Weekend, catching up with Shannon & AC, and the Big Project.

We parked up at John & Sarah's Waitarere Beach Bach so we could leave the Bus here till next week, heading into Wellington on the Friday of Labour Weekend - a busy enough  day on the road as it was, without the accident occurring on Highway 1 into Wellington at Pukerua Bay which closed the road for the day. This meant we had to go over the narrow windy Paekakariki Hill Road - thankfully we didn't have the Bus as we wouldn't have been allowed over this road and would have ended up stuck along with all the trucks that got held up. We might have been able to make some money though, supplying the stuck truckers with home cooking :) though by all accounts the locals did there best to keep the frustrated drivers well catered for.

Derro Dad
Arriving in style at Shannon's

Shannon & Bill had a plan to start her "Project" of building a wall unit she had designed. The plan was to remove some of the many bookcases they have and having one large unit that covers the whole wall. Big project! Great father and daughter bonding!

"The Med". Wellington.

Labour Weekend saw perfect weather in Wellington but unfortunately Shannon was getting over a cold that AC had shared with her. So while she spent the weekend recovering, Bill & I had time for some lovely walking around Wellington, including catching up with Diana who was returning to Nelson with her camper. The rest of her travels went smoothly  up north,  well  pleased with her new Camper.

Government House - to visit another day 👍

We visited the Dominion Museum in the Pukeahu National War Memorial Park and took the 45 minute tour of the Great War Exhibition seeing what NZ's role was in World War 1 - an exhibition created by Peter Jackson and his team. Unfortunately we couldn't do the Trenches tour as we hadn't booked in advance - being the long weekend it was quite busy. The tour was well worth taking, so much information and history that we hadn't taken on board (or retained) from earlier history lessons. But like the Gallipoli exhibition we had taken on another visit to Wellington - very depressing to think of all those young lives wasted by so many mistakes. The huge losses for NZ and particularly the Maori Units who were sent to defend a King that had just conquered them. A terrible time to have lived but also a time of so many changes. If we don't know our history we are doomed to repeat our mistakes

So...the painting begins - hoping it won't rain.

Bill tutoring Shannon in the art of cutting to plan

Hard to recognise Sarah & Johns Batch  - great drying area!

It's coming together slowly

FINISHED - Well done 👏

Shannon & AC live in Evans Bay which is perfectly located for walking up through the Victoria Tunnel (very noisy with all the tooting - we will no longer toot going through here) past the Basin Reserve onto the Dominion Museum. After our tour we walked down to the waterfront for a late lunch before heading back around Oriental Parade to Evans Bay. Wellingtonians made the most of  the perfect weather. Couldn't believe how busy the little beaches were along the waterfront - Oriental Parade looked like the Mediterranean - except for the temperature of course! And lack of brown bodies.

After the long weekend we packed up and headed out to Waitarere Beach where Shannon and Bill were to build her wall unit. The Unit consisted of 13 boxes. Hiring a trailer from Wellington and taking it through to Foxton where Bill had organised the plywood from a Whanganui supplier to be delivered to the Foxton Joiner who cut the panels to predetermined sizes for easier handling.

Meeting Shannon at John & Sarah's Bach, we unpacked. B&S got straight into painting the many panels. This took two days, the unpredictable weather thankfully not eventuating and slowing the whole process. I think Shannon was quite surprised how much labour it took with painting and assembling - she's keen to keep her desk job. (pays much better too Shannon). Three days full on left B&S shattered at the end of their days - particularly the last day when we heard from J&S that they were coming out to their Bach that night for the weekend. A bit of a panic to restore their place back to normal rather than the "workshop" -  but what an achievement Guys.

Friday it was all packed neatly into the trailer (unfortunately the photographer overlooked getting this photo) and taken into Wellington to S&A's apartment. Being early afternoon it was very quiet in their basement so we could pull in with the trailer right by the stairwell and lift. S&A's entrance is on the first floor so wasn't far for B&S to carry the units up rather than the lift. But a little tighter carrying them up into their second floor where the units were to be assembled. I took the Building's Trolley, taking tools and our gear up in the lift which was easier on me as Shannon had shared her cold with me by this time.

After returning the trailer, it was time to pick Nick, up who had flown into Wellington from Perth for the weekend to be MC at a friends wedding - apparently he had introduced the couple-a flatmate from his Dunedin student days to his work colleague at Audit NZ in wellington . It was lovely to catch up with him over the weekend as he stayed with S&A too.

Bill then proceeded to fit the 13 boxes to the wall being under strict guidance re earthquake proofing etc. This part of the job also took 2 full days with fitting doors to the bottom cupboards etc. The job generally went well achieving a good result for everyone.

Nick got a bit of time out to play 😊

Shannon & AC then generously took us and Nick out to dinner on the Sunday evening to a restaurant in downtown Wellington called Charlie Nobles, a fabulous meal was enjoyed by all, a most convivial night.

Nick flew out early the next day and with S&AC gone to work, Sheryl & Bill were left to quietly pack up and headed back to Waitarere, but not before dropping into John & Sarah's Ngaio home to look at a couple of little issues with their kitchen joinery.

Waitarere was reached whence we proceeded to repack the car and bus before continuing our odyssey, turning north once more, in deed coursing to Papamoa about an hour south of Waihi Beach to house sit for the next two weeks.

We had a couple of nights in Taupo at Whakaipo Bay on the way through where we only managed a 5km bike ride along the Great Lake Trail before Bill's peddle fell off! Another wee job for Bill!!

Not a good look to be holding your peddle!

Ah well, at least a nice setting to try and repair his bike.