Coromandel

Rainy morning - we drove from Tauranga to Thames.  Sunny in the afternoon so we went on a tiki-tour by car to Coromandel township.  Had a drink in the old pub.

Great scenery near Coromandel town and the road north of Thames is amazing - not many places to stop for photos though.

Opotiki

We are heading quite quickly for Whangarei now so not doing too much stuff en route.  We did cycle the dunes ride at Opotiki though, just a nice 2 hour ride with sea and coast views.

Lake Tutira

After 5 days in Napier (1 walk, 2 bike rides, 1 winery, 1 pub lunch some cafes)we moved to Lake Tutira on the road to Wairoa... 

...where we did a 2 hour loop walk in the Boundary Stream reserve.  This is an 800 year-old matai

on one of the ridges

lunch overlooking a deep ravine at the top of a cliff

lots of gnarly old trees in the bush, also lots of cicadas shedding their skins but not so many birds (robin, tomtit, tui) looked for kakako and kea but didn't see/hear any.  A good walk though - we also did a 40 min loop near the road which had lots of signs telling us what the plants are.

Around Napier

Yesterday was a hot, sunny day.  We did a cycle ride with Katherine from Puketapu - it is a loop ride beside a river, over a bridge and back.  About 1&1/2 hours flat riding, though we did have the wind against us on the return section.  Then we had lunch at the country pub at Puketapu.

 

Today was even hotter - easily the hottest day of our trip so far.  I went into Napier, had a smoothie at a café opposite all this art deco architecture

Then I found this bookshop, on the store room stairs were these boxes...

 

Te Mata Peak

This morning we went with Katherine up Te Mata Peak (the blue track this time) it was cloudy but warm. After a 2 hour lunch at Clearwater wineries there is not a cloud in the sky. Lovin' this Hawkes Bay weather - though rain is forecast for Wednesday   This is on the first bit of the track, Katherine forging ahead.

We went up this ridge and along to the summit

good views

Selfie with camera - hard to know where the lens is pointing!

 

Blenheim

Back at the top of the north and enjoying the sort of weather we have been missing! After leaving Kaikoura we retraced our steps to Hanmer Springs, over the Lewis Pass and back to Murchison.  We had more of the West Coast cold, wet weather but then we had a couple of great days in Nelson and are now at Blenheim. This afternoon we walked around the Wairau Lagoons. We have been here before so the wreck of the boat didn't come as so much of a surprise - but it does seem to be high and dry in a grassy valley until you get up to it and see the channel. This is a wetland area but it was super dry.