Yellow Lava

On Saturday we picked up our super cool Escape campervan, called yellow lava, but please leave a name suggestion in the comment section at the bottom each blog (winner announced next week…). Conversation with the woman at Escape went something like this: don’t chip the windscreen or we will charge you, don’t crash or we will charge you, don’t die or we will charge you. Drove off sufficiently terrified. James of course, successfully manoeuvred this automatic giant all the way to Thames.

Arrived in Thames and bought some necessities, beer, wine (food). Found the campsite, it was a case of pick your own site because not many people camp in the middle of autumn you must be mad! Set off on a bush walk that took so long it was almost time for tea when we get back (big, fat sausages for tea, delicious).

Got up early doors Sunday morning and went for a run along the beach. Drove around 50km along a coastal road to Coromandel. Coromandel town was just a street with a couple of shops, cafes and a bank so after taking in the views of the surrounding areas we hopped back in the van and headed across to Whitianga. The roads leading up to it were about as windy as they get and very high up in the hills, all making for a very picturesque (if not narrow and slightly scary) ride. Whitianga is a lot like Coromandel (i.e. small), realised that what NZ call towns are actually more like what we would call villages, nevertheless had a walk on the beach and another magnum - good times!