Going nuts?

First off - Happy Birthday mum!  Hope you have a great day.  Am about to try and call you now that I'm re-connected with the radio waves!

What a weird day.......  

Slept fitfully - most unlike me.  Was wide awake at 2.00am so read for the best part of an hour.  Awake again at around 4.00 - a bit too early to get up I thought.  Awake again just after 6.00 so thought I'd just lie there are ease in to an early start.  Next I knew it was 8.45!

It's been a grey day which may have contributed to my developing ennui......or maybe it's because I now recognise that my trip around the East Cape which I have looked forward to for so long is almost through and I'm in effect driving towards the crowds.   The scenery along this part of the coast has been a mix of stunning rocky bays surrounded by pohutakawa-clad cliffs and low-lying, scrubby, somewhat derelict coastal grasses.  The scubby stuff isn't terribly appealing to spend time on but the rocky bays were a lot more appealing.  It also seems much of this part of the coast is owned by local Maori and is thus inaccessible.  I did venture onto one stretch which had a sign that confused me...... "Open" it said, then listed about half a dozen or so Maori names.  I pulled in to have a look and spotted another campervan just around the corner so figured it must be OK.  I didn't have to drive too far to decide that it wasn't my kind of place so I followed some tracks that carved out a big turning circle.......that's when I discovered that it was more sand than shingle and the van - unsurprisingly - doesn't drive so well in sand.  In brief, I got stuck!  Call it providence, but for reasons unknown to me I had packed a small shovel in the back of the van - perfect for digging out stuck wheels.  After about 10 minutes the people from the other van came over and lent a hand and with the help of a few pieces of driftwood, 2 mats from the van and a bit of a shove the van was freed.  Whew!  It turned out that this stretch of coast was in fact also Maori land and the other van had been given special permission to stay there.  Maybe that's why I got stuck - just a polite warning from the guardians of the land that I was trespassing.

One of the spots I really enjoyed today was the macadamia cafe-farm.......delicious food in gorgeous surroundings.  This was the view from my cafe table........just another one of those pohutukawa-clad rocky bays ;)

I found myself getting a little agitated towards the end of the day, I think maybe because I was facing the prospect of limited options for camping.  Each campsite I had looked in on had hordes of people and whilst I knew this a real possiblilty, I'm not yet ready to join the masses.  And then I found the wee spot I am currently in - Omaio beach, just a handful of kms north of Opotiki, local council sanctioned freedom camping site, just 2 other vans, the Pacific Ocean and White Island puffing away merrily on the horizon.  Feeling better already!

Have now managed to catch up the last week of blips now that I've re-connected with the outside world.  Check out if you're interested.....

~  28th December - More of the same but a little bit different
~  27th December - The Far East
~  26th December - Rawiri & Wi
~  25th December - Merry Christmas from Waihau
~  24th December - One man and his dog
~  23rd December - Gannets!
~  22nd December - Tyred!