SHE…….
After leaving Raglan we hit the road headed up north to the East coast. It was our first night with no real plans. In New Zealand there are many places that have public campgrounds, clean facilities, picnic areas, are safe, and free! After being tired of driving we found a pull off with bathrooms on a spot called Langs Beach. We both agreed that we would stay there for the night but first go into Waipu to find a place to eat. Driving into Waipu I saw this bright yellow building called the pizza barn, we turned around and stopped. Walking into this place was AWESOME! Plaid all over the walls old photos of gum miners, a fire place, and the atmosphere was just right. The funny thing is in NZ you have to go to the bar, order your drink and food and pay for it right there. Anyways, we ordered an delicious pizza that had artichokes, olives, fetta, onions, red peppers, and gherkins (pickle) best pizza I have had! We then headed back to our spot at Langs beach to play a game of yahtzee (by the way Todd kicked my butt, but now I am the reigning champion for the last week!) In the middle of the game another camper van pulled up next to us. we go out and introduced ourselves. It was a family from Tasmania on holiday for the month (the rest of the world has figured out time off for family vacation, why hasn’t the US yet)? Anyways, they have a poppy farm and are employed by Johnson and Johnson to grow poppies for morphine (alkaloids) for surgeries. Pretty crazy! They invited us into their camper where we showed them photos of Costa Rica over tea and macadamia nuts. We finished our yahtzee game and went to bed. The next morning we woke up walked the beach where I went into my photo zone and zoned out. It was a beautiful beach and a perfect morning. When leaving I spotted a old cemetery and had to make todd stop for photos. It was a really cool older cemetery,.
HE…….
Was the first night we camped road side. The call it “freedom camping”. Here. We drove most of our day to begin our north of Auckland tour. We weaved our way through Auckland (population 1.2 mil) Which is surrounded by water on almost all sides. We will be returning for the marathon at the end of October, so we veered right and stayed with the Pacific. Still adjusting to driving, culture, jet lag, we were led by the coast line near sundown to a place called Langs Beach. One of thousands of bays in literally what is the “Bay of Islands” We found a great pizza and beer place near by and filled our stomachs and minds reviewing the previous few days. We cruised back to Langs and played Yahtzee before going to bed. However, we were surprised when a Tasmanian family pulled up next to us in a campervan. We joined them for a cup of tea and exchanged stories, went to bed. Upon waking we were pleasantly surprised at how calm they were. Literally like “Lake Erie” and how cold it was. No surf, no chance, we explored and then headed further north with no destination in line.
we found out from an older local, waiting for his pizza that it use to be the local post office!!
