Wednesday 06 March

Hahei, The Coromandel
Sure enough, we woke up this morning to a warm and sunny day. After having a luxurious live-in and a cup of coffee in bed we definitely decided to stay here for another site. Last night we had to fill in Census forms, I don't know how often there is a Census in NZ, it was not as long and thorough as those we are used in the U.K., no more than four pages. We only had to fill in about 5 questions, nationality, place of residence, age. For the New Zealanders it seemed to concentrate a lot on ethnicity, and for Maoris on tribal affiliation. There were also questions on income and work status. We handed them n this morning and asked for a camping pitch for tonight.
We did one of the well-known walks, it was very popular, lots of people doing at least part of it today. We started from the campsite and walked along the beach and then up and over a headland. The walk took in four bays, first we dropped down to Gemstone Bay, then to Stingray Bay and finally to Mare's Leg Bay. Ponce on Mare's Leg Bay there was an archway in the rock, leading to Cathedral Cove and the end of the route. The vast arch resembles a Cathedral Nave, hence the name. The beaches were smooth and sandy, the sea a gorgeous turquoise. It was quite high tide so to get from Mare's Leg Bay to Cathedral Cove required a dash through lapping waves, some quite large as this is the Pacific Ocean. I rolled my shorts up but got them and my haversack wet. For the return dash I decided to just keep my knickers on and hold my almost dry shorts up in the air, so the result was that I got those wet as well. John went swimming in the sea, but it was too rough and too cold for me. I need the warm waters of the Aegean to get me in.
So it has been a good day, there were some dark clouds at times and a few drops were squeezed out, but not enough to wet anything. The coastline is stunning, all the small coves and pinnacles of rock jutting up from the sea,and disappearing into the distance. The other highlight of the day was watching a pod of dolphins jumping and frolicking close to the shore. They seemed to be playing around a small boat, leaping out of the water, often in pairs, jumping together.
So off tomorrow, hopefully making it all the way to the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, to a DoC site.