To Shelly Beach
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To Shelly Beach
  We left our camp and drove the tiny distance to see Hot Beach with the tide in, what a difference, quite green
and cold looking. No wonder this chap is wearing his woolly
jumper.
   Walking the track to Gemstone Beach,
Bear found this sign upside down, of course he had to have a look, liked it so
much that he posed for a picture. I was pleased
to see a vehicle, any vehicle,..... at least if the track was too tortuous I
could hot wire this little chap on my way back. I know Charles Darwin wasn’t
fussed on ferns but we do think these young shoots
are rather handsome. As it happens on our way back the sign was standing and we
had to pass a man working in the digger, the track there was very soft with his
new furtling about. That’s what you get for saying you
would nick it. I did not want to permanently own it, just borrow it,
I would have left it at the top, honest......
 Cathedral
Cave.
  We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to
Cathedral Cove, much changed from the
1800’s.
 Bear pulled over for this one, a tourist lorry with a shed built over it for the
visitors.......Mmmm.
   We drove through Whitianga.
 We had a picnic lunch opposite the Whitianga version of our Christmas Pudding Island back in Opua, a funny little sandstone rock with a hair
do.
 On our way out to the main road we
passed a very parsey new development, similar to
Jolly Harbour in Antigua or those we saw up the ICW, all fancy houses and your
own jetty.
   An edge
trimmer slowed us right down, just as well as it meant I caught sight of
a erythrina, a bare-naked tree
with these wonderful blooms at the tippy ends of the
branches.
 Walking back to Mabel I walked past
the biggest lily I have ever seen. Forgot to put my
finger in the shot for perspective, but it was the size of a side
plate.
  We stopped before we went over the
mountains, the road crossing from east to west
coast.
 Bear liked the
‘Give Way’ sign just before the beach.
 Must be climbing, the fir trees had
had a bit of light strimming.
   The Wicked
Witch held her nerve steady as we wound our way up the winding road. Bear and her seem to be in one of their
benign phases.
   We stopped at the lookout at the very
top and looked over the protected
forest.
  Looking east, the way we had come and west
to Coromandel Town.
  Downhill
now.
      Through little Coromandel Town, quiet before the storm of
tourists.
 Out of the town, we could see Shelly Beach.
There I was enjoying watching the
world go by when I felt a sudden need to whinge about the lack of kingfishers,
we have not seen a single, solitary one. Well, wouldn’t you now it, in the very
next half a mile we saw seven....... Bear placed an edict not to take any chaps
sitting on telegraph wires and these do look just like
the ones we saw in Tonga anyway. Well what to respond to
that.......all I did was whisper perhaps the said chaps could raise an umbrella
over their heads whilst riding a unicycle then maybe the skipper would change
his mind. Meantime big camera lay untouched.
We pulled into the Shelly Beach Camp, oooo look a bear on a post, nearing him, he was actually a pig, similar thing then. Yes dear. In the thick of the crowds, we parked and as we could see the beach access so we went for a tiny bimble before games.
Opposite Mabel was a large protea bush, every single flower had ‘gone over’ very dry and blackened, except this one bloom. Our resident neighbour seemed very blasé about our arrival, turns out she only has one leg but seems to manage alright. The tide was out but as the light was fading we went in before the bities came out for us. Wish I hadn’t bothered to play, five nil at backgammon and five one at sequence. Guess who got nominated, well told in no uncertain terms with less than quiet delivery - ssshh to make his own supper. Before you throw sympathy his way it was carbonara that I had already made, so he only had to warm it up.... Tonight would turn out to be the first night we didn’t put our electric blankets on, extra clothing, hat or gloves – now that really is noteworthy enough for a diarist to record......... ALL IN ALL A WONDERFUL
MIXTURE
WONDERFUL
SCENERY |
