The last couple of days on the road Kaikora to Coromandel

From the westcoast to the eastcoast! Kaikora is very rugged and this day we had rain! first real rain in a while, as we drove the windy ( that's wiiindy as in lots of turns not wind! haha) road we stopped at a cafe and there the owner name was Gary Robb - must be related some how,
the coast road to Kaikoraanyway he was thrilled to know that we had the same name- after that we lucked out and saw lots and lots of the New Zealand fur seals! there were so many pups playing in the tide pools! they were so cute!we drove a long day that day to get as close to the ferry as we could, we ended up staying jsut past Blenheim for the night. Headed for Picton first thing in the morning, ferry was at 12:10pm so we checked out the aquarium there. Saw our first tutatara - thats lizard thing, very ancient reptile here. learned lots and then we were off.

Arrived in Wellilngton ( 3 hr trip) and headed straight for the Te Papa museum. this is a great place, they have the only collosail squid in the world - so we learned a ton on that. spent 4 hrs there - lucky for us they are open late on Thursdays so that is how we killed our time.Maya getting ready to watch the 3D movie of the collasal squid at the Te Papa museum Wellington
this is Kyle in front of the actual size of a blue whales heart! big eh?! and Kyle is holding pumis stones they are so light.

We stayed the night in the parking lot- funny, but there was a big rugby game on that weekend called the 7"s so there were tons of campers in the parking lot for the night. quite the party! the next morning we went early to the aquatic center for a swim, play in splash pool, hot tub and showers! nice way to start the day.Next stop was the Weta Cave- this is a production company that made all the props ,weapons,ect for Lord of the Rings, Narnia, King Kong and a bunch more. very cool place. Kyle even got a picture with one of the stars of the film. see below.
they had this awesome behind the scenes movies we watched , very informative and a great place to check out!!it was in a suburb of Wellington so we drove the waterfront road around the bays, very nice!! looks like a good place to bring the boat if you wanted to go that far south.
It was now time to make headway back to Coromandel and Orca III. we missed her very much ! It was a hot ride home especially as the car kept overheating and we needed to keep the heat on to help the radiator. we took the less mountainous route going to Napier on the eastcoast and then up to Taupo , we camped just between Taupo and Rotorua for the night .one of the many beautiful gorges and rivers we saw along the way, notice the road to the left, they love the windy thing! and narrow!

Off early the next morning, we stopped to fill up with grocieries for the boat and off we went . We arrived in Coromandel around 4pm - the coast road from Thames to Coromandel is quite the scenic and windy road! very beautiful- I finally remembered to take a picture! so you only get to see one. I was enjoying the view.
the coast road from Thames to Coromandel also very very narrow, windy and extremely beautiful. some spots are only big enough for 1 vehicle to go through, don't do this road very fast!
Almost home!! getting excited to see the boat. Coromandel Harbour

We pulled into Sandy and Bryan's farm and had a great visit and then it was off to unpack! we did it in record time. making about 10 trips ( one tank full of gas) by dingy! thankfully the weathere gods were on our side and we had good seas . Steve and I went back to the farm and had a visit and dinner. On our way back to the boat we had to give a fellow boater family a tow back to their boat as the outboard quit. they were very thankful. Kyle was actually on his way to tow them as Steve and I showed up. good ole Tremblay helpfulness my son !

Yesterday morning and all day in fact was packed full of company! At 7:30 am one of the ladies we met the previous night kyacked out to the boat for morning tea. then the family we towed managed to fix outboard problem ( with Steve's guidance) and came for a late morning visit , then Lisa ( the kyack lady) brought her husband and kids via dingy for the late morning early afternoon slot. they have a steel boat as well and have been offshore to Tonga and Tahiti. so lots of stories and boat ideas were being talked about. They took my girls back with them to hang out at their place and on the farm . and for dinner we had the MacLeod clan out on the boat. they were here until just before 9pm - pushing it for the tide!! but they made it back - great visit and we will miss them tons! Very , very nice people. hoping they come to Canada!! LOve the Coromandel area, an absolute must to see for anyone coming to NZ! This has been my favorite spot so far!MacLeod clan doing the time warp!!(best I could get given the time, light and movement. they look like ghosts )

Now through all that I managed to get lots done on the blog and the kids school updated. we are heading off today to the Great Barrier Island - the adventure continues!!....................................

This is the Coromandel Harbour from the top of the road from . see the wild turkey! our boat is way down the head of the bay and to the right. can't see it yet.