So I was right we didn’t leave the sitting room yesterday as we were in control of the fire, but unfortunately we had to leave our new home and set off for our next location Whitianga which is on the Cormandel peninsular. It was lovely and sunny when we left but we did hit a few showers on route but nothing serious. Our first stop was historic Howick which is a living history museum showing the life of ‘the fencibles’ who were ex military men who had completed their service – normally in India or Asia who signed up for 7 years in New Zealand providing ‘defence’ against the Maori. They were allowed to bring their families and after 7 years they were given 1 acre of land and they could buy an additional 5 acre’s which most of them did and according to the records none actually returned to the UK. The other major immigration in this area was from Ireland because of the potato famine. They have moved a number of houses to represent a village which was really interesting, some they have restored, others they have left in the unrestored state so you could see the ‘inside’ of the houses. What was fascinating was that some still had the original newspaper / wallpaper from the 1850’s. We probably spent longer than we should have but it was really interesting and by the time we had finished walking round it was lunch time so we went to the cafe and had a coffee and something to eat before setting off again. I think I am going to run out of ways to describe the scenery in New Zealand but yet again it was the star of the show, it is so dramatic and changes so quickly one moment we were driving along the coast and the next it is rolling hillsides very reminiscent of England. We drove along the coast road for quite a way, through Thames which looked quite quaint, then turned off onto a back road in search of Waiau Falls which are a popular swimming hole but we resisted taking a dip! Finally we arrived in Whitianga and our new home for the next few days, Baileys at the beach which is really nice, we have a room on the first floor with a great view over the sea so after unpacking we actually did some ‘housework’ a load of washing and them went to the supermarket to top up on beer and wine supplies then back to the room for a well earned rest and decide what we are going to do tomorrow. Total distance today was 259 km.
