Cocoon

After our short visit to Napier, we headed back up the country, in the hope of some nicer weather.  On the way we stopped and had a walk at Lake Taupo.  Apparently it’s the skydiving capital of the world, with 30,000 a year.  You can also do kayaking, whitewater rafting, bungee jumping etc.  All the sorts of adrenalin sports that we hate!  In the summer it looks like it would be a beautiful area, but in winter it was a bit limited for us so we continued on to Tauranga.  The caravan park there was quite sweet, there seemed to be several old people living there, I met an old man wandering around in his slippers. People in campervans don’t usually have slippers, although that’s a sensible form of footwear.  Was Cocoon a film about lots of old people in a holiday camp, that's why I've given the post this title, must check.

Next day we woke to a cool but blue sky day.  After breakfast we set off around the bay up the east coast of the Coromandel peninsula.  We stopped off at Wentworth Falls for a 2 hour walk to the falls and back.  Very good path, no danger of getting lost.  Lots of tree ferns made it feel very wild.  We agreed that we’re not keen on waterfalls.  For me, it just seems a loud noise and rush of water, and there isn’t really variety.  Whereas the sea coming in and out has a rhythmic hypnotic quality.  And when we got to Hahei for the night, we had a pitch with a seaview, and could hear the sea all night, far nicer than a waterfall.