Sunday, January 11, 2009

Otama Beach, Coromandel Peninsula



MDR & MB visited the very large contingent from Pukekohe making a two week camp at the Otama Beach Summer Campground. This site is a lovely grassy area with very basic facilities - long drop dunnies and water fed to parts of the campground from an adjacent dam. It's a true getaway with no power and no mobile phone access.
The beach is stunning, bordered by a very large sand dune and one never tires of the view to the outlying islands off the beach. Walking over the dune is something else, the sand is white, silky and feels almost sensuous.
The Pukekohe crew are great fun, incredibly generous and could not have made MDR & MB more welcome. A spare tent and airbed was available so MDR & MB could stay a couple of nights. The pair abided by the camp rules and did the dishes that night with the other new arrival, Janine. Dinner numbers on the first night were 21 and the next night increased to 28.
Philip was pretty chuffed with his new speargun, he had speared a fish without even diving underwater, just merely floated on the surface in a life jacket. He was giving MDR a hard time about it and challenging him to an Aussie v NZ competition and pressing neat tequila on MDR to give him a hangover. This spurred MDR the next day to head out with Philip's speargun and spear 9 fish. Yet to hear of Philip's latest catches as he is still there and out of phone range.
MDR & MB happened to be there while NZ was having a heatwave and did catch a bit of sunburn, but it still wasn't as hot as home in Cairns.
Lots of holiday homes in this area and MB would love to go back for a longer stay some other time.

1 comment:

Annie and Steve said...

"Paradise Lost" Must be great to get away from the rat race. Half your luck!