Caravans and Coves

For those of you who have been following the oil slick crisis on the East coast of the island - The powers that be assure us that they are keeping a close eye on things and that the tiny globs of oil found just below the surface of the sand, are being cleared as soon as they are discovered. There was a report the other day about it being the one hundredth clean up day on the beach! Evidently, the oil tanks on the container ship are as empty as can be expected after weeks of pumping it out - and so the next step is to remove the containers (those that have not plunged into the sea that is). Six containers per day is the maximum that can be salvaged off the decks - s'gonna take awhile.

Motels are fairly expensive - especially over the holidays, so we did all the research, approached the bank manager and shopped around - in the extreme! Our caravan was eventually found in Whangarei - 617km from Wanganui! North of Auckland! Never daunted, we saddled up our trusty Volksie and drove up there to fetch it!  A 'made in England' two berth with en-suite - our Fleetwood is vastly and dramatically luxurious compared to the 'crawl space only' tent!  And light enough to be towed by the 'what we already have'!

We had to stop and take this picture for you - the colour of the sea is quite incredible. The coast north of Auckland is particularly beautiful and we shall be spending some time there in the future - it's definitely the sort of area one could spend a few weeks exploring! This spot is just south of Whangerei, quite close to Waipu Cove, which has a lovely caravan park right on the beach where we stayed overnight before tackling the long journey back to Wanganui.

Dis al.