Who needs a road to drive on?

Saturday 07 March - showery at first, sunny later 23C. Drove 200km

Having bought supplies yesterday, we treated ourselves to bacon and eggs for breakfast, but still managed to leave the motel early to go and explore the coast to the south of Raglan.

A very odd thing about driving in New Zealand is that I feel like I am on the wrong side of the road! This is despite the fact that vehicles drive on the left the same as UK. I have decided that it must be because I expect to be driving on the right when I leave UK, very strange.

A minor road follows the coast south from Ragland passing Ngarunui, Manu and Whaaga (or Whale) surfing beachs. We spent some time watching the dozens of surfers riding the waves, some more successfully than others. By dint of good fortune, we found the road leaving Whaaga going south, which started well, but very quickly deteriorated into a gravel track. Well, the sign said it was gravel, but it looked more like mud to me, some of it quick thick and slippery. The track continued winding its way up and down hills and headlands for 22km, some of it very remote. The track takes a course between the sea and Mount Karioi and is very scenic.

Finally, we found ourselves back on a surfaced 'main' road at Te Mata and followed the signs for Bridal Veil falls. After a short walk down a very jungly track, the falls are spectacular with a vertical drop of 51 metres into a pool surrounded by jungle. Back in the car, we continued on the 'main' road which turned back into gravel again and stayed like that for a further 28km! Once again, a very beautiful and scenic road. Eventually, we came to a junction with a real main road, the SH23, that took us directly into Kawhia.

On the map there was a tantilising label that said Te Puia Springs which was on a beach just to the west of Kawhia. Having found the right beach we got changed, scaled the huge black volcanic sand dunes to discover that the tide was wrong and we would be unable to dig our own hot springs spa pool on the beach. Back to the car and after this disappointment we needed some refreshment. We'd hoped to visit the Blue Chook Inn at Kawhia but settled for the cafe next door and had a drink and ginger crunch. The sun came out as we left and we had close contact with a red-billed gull!

Our return to Ragland via the SH31, SH39 and the SH23 was swift. The journey in the morning by dirt track to Kawhai was 70km and took 4 hours, return by road, 130km and 90 minutes!