The wee fantail through the window

Took off for the Coromandel Peninsular – first south and then east to the Thames Estuary |(it isn't called that but my brain isn't working too well. It has taken ¾ hour to load the picture!) There we wound our way up the coast road beside all the gnarled pohutakawa trees that leant their branches out over the water. They would have had crimson blossoms around Christmas but now they are just deep green foliage. There are so few other vehicles on the road even though this area is much more populated than the south island – only 4.5 million people altogether. We visited a couple of gardens but it was really the wrong time of year for them although there were some spectacular trees and oddments. The Coromandel township itself was an attractive colonial tourist trap with beautiful little old houses with verandahs.