We continued up a rough gravelly road and crossed the Coromandel Peninsula to the East Coast that way (instead of via hwy) - beautiful! Prehistoric - looking forest! Then to see the Pacific Ocean, to the EAST!
We eventually pitched our tent here at Hot Water Beach, where in a limited area people dig big holes in the sand and hot thermal water seeping up out of the sand creates a hot pool. We observed, but lacking a shovel didn't attempt it. Walked the beach, then came back to our site.
Hoho! Along with showers, kitchens, this place also has "LAUNDRY" facilities. So we took basically all of our clothing (but what we had on - shorts, leggings, swimsuit...) and piled our wardrobe into one of these ancient washers, complete with wringer! It took a while, but finally we were ready to hang them up to dry. Before going to bed we rigged a rope at our site to hang the stuff from (there is an offical clothes hanger/dryer we used first) - then we snuggled into the tent...
Soon the rain began - a hard, steady, ceaseless rain!!! It's pouring down even now! (6:46 A.M.) - So, our clothing is still even more so dripping wet! We'd already agreed to buy more (practical) clothes today but then realized that it's SUNDAY, and everything will be closed! Hahaha! CAMPIN'!
LATER...
Broke camp quickly this a.m., wrung out the clothes again and threw them into the trunk - drove south - it was a steady, often heavy rain - stopped in Whangamata, first at a very hip clothing store (Ocean Devotion) which had the best (and really most reasonably priced) clothes I've seen yet, some of it consignment. I got a sweatshirt and a cool pair of shorts, Jim got a couple of t-shirts. The guy who worked there directed us to the laundromat (Jim in shorts and rain slicker, me in leggings, bathing suit, and slicker), where we spent $4.50 on the dryer and still had damp clothes! We dinked around in town til the stuff was out of the dryer, then continued south.
Now we are warm, dry, and relaxing in our flat at Mt. Maunganui (just outside of Tauranga, on the east coast) - it's very large and cool, and it was a pleasure to cook and eat dinner in our own warm kitchen!
