Threatening rain and humid today. We decided to take a walk almost to Pukehina Beach. Ten days ago we drove to Pukehina Beach, almost 25km (15.5 miles) and had a nice walk, collecting shells. Today we walked 3km (about 2 miles) and looked over at the Beach across the estuary. It was a very pleasant walk, it was nice to be out in the breeze!

Starting down the hill there are nasturtiums growing wild! Climbing up the trunk of a tree fern!

We reached the end of the road at the Holiday Park. We went into the office/store and got ice cream bars to cool off. Love the jandals on the fence!

At the end of the Holiday Park is a nice spot to sit and look at the bay and across to Pukehina Beach. We could hear the waves crashing on the other side of the peninsula, but it was calm in the bay. There were even some stand-up paddle boarders in the bay.

At the beginning of the Holiday Park there are permanent trailers with the million dollar view of the bar where the ocean waves enter the bay.

We hiked up the road, sweating from the humidity, back to the Bach to start packing for our 3 day road trip tomorrow. It started raining so Robert set up the grill under cover at the front of the Bach and we had delicious lamb cheeseburger salad with grilled broccoli, mushrooms & onions, garnished with nasturtiums I picked on the way home!

Bright, colorful & delicious!

More rain overnight, more rain this morning! No wonder it’s so green here! We did more work on the computer.  Then we got a local call, tickets are available for the matinee performance of “Footrot Flats” today! Yay! We had an hour to get cleaned up and go! It was pouring rain, and we finally had something to do, inside!It is a local Repertory Society in a small building next to a community athletic field.

The entryway was decorated with depictions of the cartoon characters.

The small stage was in the center, with the audience on either side. Only 75 allowed. It was a small space, but fit the over one dozen characters!

It was a blast! So funny, and so many references to sex, both the animal breeding part of farm life, and the interactions between Wal’ Footrot (the farmer) and his girlfriend Cheeky Hobson (the local hair stylist). And the animals! The dogs, sheep, pigs and the barnyard cat! At the end of the play we perused the posters of many of the plays the Repertory Society has put on in its 70 year history! This is one I’d like to have seen!

Afterwards we headed to a local brewery, The Packhouse -Lumberjack Brewing, for a delicious pizza with melt-in-your-mouth braised lamb and some excellent Hazy IPA!

The back covered patio where we ate & drank with the rain pouring down, talking with locals and the chef as he grilled wonderful smelling steaks!

The predicted rain finally came, all day long! We spent the time planning another 3 day trip. This time to the Coromandel peninsula which we skipped past on the way from Bay of Islands to Bay of Plenty. We’ll head out on Tuesday, Nov. 21 and return Thurs. Nov. 23. One night near Colville on the west side of the peninsula, and one night near Whitianga on the east side, near hot sand beach! Robert also found a scenic train ride we booked, Driving Creek Railway Tours. I found a local Repertory Theater in Te Puke, putting on a show called “Footrot Flats”, a musical based on a cartoon strip that ran in NZ and Australian papers from 1976 to 1995. It has rave reviews, but was all sold out. I put our names in on a waiting list for the next 3 days to see if we can score some tickets. I looked up the website for the cartoon and it’s pretty funny, here’s the link; Footrot Flats. A great way to learn some Kiwi lingo!

It reminds me of ‘Shaun the Sheep’, our favorite stop motion animation, with anthropomorphic farm animals, and blundering human farmers!

Another day with projected rain that never showed up! We finally headed out for a walk to take advantage of the sunshine despite the wind! We headed down the hill to town and chanced on a couple of vintage cars in the parking lot of the local restaurant.

Model A’s , gorgeously restored!

It takes you back to what we think of as a simpler time.

Walking on we came to the free workout stations on the waterfront. The ocean wind was much appreciated as we tried out all the stations and worked up a sweat in the humidity!

I tried all except what I thought was a sit-up station. It looked like a back killer!

We walked back to the Bach via the Gully walk, welcoming the shade. We have a few blocks to walk and we have a view over another gully filled with what looks like native vegetation, to distant paddocks and a peek-a-boo of the ocean.

We had some errands to do in Te Puke (te-pock-eh); shopping, having some documents printed out and getting our necessary capuccino & chai latte! Since it was a nice day we decided to explore the area a little more. We found a nearby waterfall to hike to, Raparapahoe Falls, and after having our picnic lunch in the parking area we headed down the trail, and I mean down!

The steepest of many stairways on the trail!

We met a couple coming up the trail, huffing and puffing, then a group of young people coming up in swimsuits with towels. It was a great hike down through the woods then along a stream bank where the trail had washed out in a few places, to a steep walled bowl where the small falls spilled into a beautiful emerald green swimming hole!

Approaching the falls. I took the high road, climbing up through the trees, Robert took the low road, climbing over rocks on the edge of the stream flowing out of the pool.

We both met at a spot we could view the falls. We would have to get our feet wet to get any closer, and we were not prepared to go swimming unfortunately, it was hot and humid enough though!

As we hiked back the way we came, we could see the steep walls of the canyon on the other side of the river.

Covered with tree ferns and tropical looking vegetation, the steep walls were well disguised.

The steep hike back up! A good heart-pumping workout!

We knew we were close to the end when we came to the trail paved with the roots of this huge tree!