We made the decision to stay put today. The kids were happy running around on the playground, mostly playing tag, and Anne and Etienne needed to so some errands and return the surfboards. After the wind died down we headed to the beach where we practiced our body surfing and enjoyed the sunshine.
Later in the day, we all piled into our van to drive to a nearby river. Ines and Adrian knew of this spot and offered to take us there after Ines got off from work. The drive followed the hilly, windy roads, typical of the Coromandel, to a small campsite and hiking trail. This area is still being actively mined for gold, and Ines told us that a large percentage of the residence are involved in the mining operations. From an outsider's perspective, though, there’s nothing obvious to show that. It’s fortunately no Butte, Montana where the tailings and mining headframes are visible all over town.
The walk through the tall fern trees was very pretty ending with a fifty meter stomp through a narrow tunnel where we were able to see a few glow worms. Once on the other side, Adrian led us into the water where we swam up the narrow canyon and scrambled over some slippery rocks where we could jump from the rock ledges into deep pools. I was proud of the older kids (Louis, Dex and Kylie) that braved the cold water and surprisingly strong current to get there.
To thank our wonderful hosts, we searched out dinner at the small Waihi Beach Hotel. It was a long wonderful meal complete with wine, activity packets for the kids, and post meal gelato. I was somewhat aghast to see that my Cambodian watch apparently did not like the cold New Zealand water. It now had a small spot of water on the inside. Seven dollars doesn't go as far as it used to!
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