Coromandel

How did they get here? Taranaki was wet so picnics in the car and a wet walk to the waterfall. Moved on to New Plymouth on the north side and found a beautiful place to stay. Taranaki was not wet on the north side so they walked up to 1100 m. The car park is at 946 m so that's no big deal. E realised that this mountain was not impossible to climb but the weather reports were so bad there was no point in waiting. Therefore they set forth in sunshine to Waitomo where there are caves. Wow the caves are fantastic. You can sit on a rubber ring and float through the caves on the underground river. Or you can sit in a boat and be ferried in the darkness looking up at glowworms. Left Waitomo in sunshine and drove into Auckland to pick up E's new passport. That should fool them into letting her through LA. Drove out again and turned east and found an expensive place in Coromandel. K had seen some cheap chalets up the road with a sea view so they are there for the rest of the holiday except for monday night in Auckland before they fly out. Here there has been only sunshine, boat trips into caves and down the coast, horse riding in the hills and a little incident with a sea kayak that we may write about later. Hope Gillian is expecting her sister on wed 3rd feb.