The LLW had a call with Vince from Stafford this morning so we were up bright and early for the 07:30 call. This was accomplished via Skype with excellent quality and everything was dealt with by 08:00 meaning we were ready to leave by 09:00.
Some cloud around as we drove south down the Firth of Thames which separates the Coromandel Peninsular from Auckland and the area south of Auckland. Great views of Coromandel as we travelled and soon we left the Firth to drive further south on the SH27 and on to Rotorua.
The area around Matamata had apparently been used for the scenes of Hobbiton in the Lord of the Rings films and it was very clear why. Mound after grassy mound lined the road on both sides; obviously Hobbit territory.
The roads were busier with commercial traffic back after the New Year holiday but there were no hold ups and we arrived in Rotorua just after midday. The LLW had decided that our supplies were very low so a visit to a supermarket and in this case, Countdown was needed. The trolley filled very quickly and the wallet was considerably lighter as we took bags of goodies back to the van.
The van has an amazingly capacity to contain everything thrown at it and having been concerned about storage space initially we keep finding empty nooks and crannies all over. We decided not to venture into Rotorua now since there was a considerable traffic jam on the other carriageway going into town.
Time for a very pleasant ride along the lakeside near to our camp site and after giving the traffics time to die down we drove into Rotorua. We had a few arguments with the SatNat which had to be reset since it refused to find the satellites and after resetting the narrator changed sex from male to female only to revert back later.! All very confusing.
We did eventually find our camper van parking space down by the lake and unloaded the bikes for a lovely ride in late afternoon sunshine. We went along the lake and up through the gardens where an attractive colonial building is supposed to be a museum. I see supposed to because the building was damaged in a earthquake about 3 years ago and is still unsafe to reopen. A major strengthening project is about to begin.
Now the question emerged of where we would eat tonight was in the forefront of the LLW’s mind. We stood astride our bikes at the corner of a road considering various options when very helpful lady traffic warden offered expert advice and local knowledge. I have never before met a traffic warden so helpful and so cheerful.
Apparently the place to head for was Eat Street (sic) and when we found it, there were wall to wall restaurants of every variety possible. We did vaguely remember it from our visit 10 years ago but it has developed hugely since then. We chose a Thai restaurant called Wild Rice and had an excellent meal with enormous portions.
When we arrived back at the campsite, I spoke to some of our neighbours who were clearly Muslim and they immediately asked us to join them to share their chicken biryani. Being very full we had to politely decline but once again were amazed at the kindness of pretty much everyone we have met.
Some cloud around as we drove south down the Firth of Thames which separates the Coromandel Peninsular from Auckland and the area south of Auckland. Great views of Coromandel as we travelled and soon we left the Firth to drive further south on the SH27 and on to Rotorua.
The area around Matamata had apparently been used for the scenes of Hobbiton in the Lord of the Rings films and it was very clear why. Mound after grassy mound lined the road on both sides; obviously Hobbit territory.
The roads were busier with commercial traffic back after the New Year holiday but there were no hold ups and we arrived in Rotorua just after midday. The LLW had decided that our supplies were very low so a visit to a supermarket and in this case, Countdown was needed. The trolley filled very quickly and the wallet was considerably lighter as we took bags of goodies back to the van.
The van has an amazingly capacity to contain everything thrown at it and having been concerned about storage space initially we keep finding empty nooks and crannies all over. We decided not to venture into Rotorua now since there was a considerable traffic jam on the other carriageway going into town.
Time for a very pleasant ride along the lakeside near to our camp site and after giving the traffics time to die down we drove into Rotorua. We had a few arguments with the SatNat which had to be reset since it refused to find the satellites and after resetting the narrator changed sex from male to female only to revert back later.! All very confusing.
We did eventually find our camper van parking space down by the lake and unloaded the bikes for a lovely ride in late afternoon sunshine. We went along the lake and up through the gardens where an attractive colonial building is supposed to be a museum. I see supposed to because the building was damaged in a earthquake about 3 years ago and is still unsafe to reopen. A major strengthening project is about to begin.
Now the question emerged of where we would eat tonight was in the forefront of the LLW’s mind. We stood astride our bikes at the corner of a road considering various options when very helpful lady traffic warden offered expert advice and local knowledge. I have never before met a traffic warden so helpful and so cheerful.
Apparently the place to head for was Eat Street (sic) and when we found it, there were wall to wall restaurants of every variety possible. We did vaguely remember it from our visit 10 years ago but it has developed hugely since then. We chose a Thai restaurant called Wild Rice and had an excellent meal with enormous portions.
When we arrived back at the campsite, I spoke to some of our neighbours who were clearly Muslim and they immediately asked us to join them to share their chicken biryani. Being very full we had to politely decline but once again were amazed at the kindness of pretty much everyone we have met.
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