So, it's off in the carlycampa for another adventure, the leyland brothers we are not. I got a lot of the list-making & packing done early on in the week in anticipation of an early get-away -> HA. I make no apology for the fact that I am a list-maker queen. I even have a menu plan for our camping weekends. We (i.e. me) is trying to downsize the amount of stuff we need to take away & I am currently in love with the idea of stuff that can double-duty. Miss Angelface did a sterling job of wearing & re-wearing her clothes each day, well not the reg-grundies of course. Now if only she could translate that determination to at home, then my washing days will be numbered...... one can wish.Hahei beach resort on the Coromandel peninsula here we come. Miss AF had a half day at school, missing lunch, so of course was starving. She & Fairygirl devoured their lunch goodybags in the car before we left Auckland, which wasn't the intention, but what can you do?! We were moving along nicely, belting out all the Hi-5 hits when a big truck zoomed up past us & shot out a bullet of a stone onto our windscreen. AAAAAGH. A new windscreen was so not in the budget for a weekend away. Needless to say, the truck got away before I could write down the no. attached to the "How's my driving?"sign -> grrrr. So with a detour, we can now check off the I've been to Drury & Pukeko townships. Hmmmmm, wait for FOUR hours for a new windscreen with tired, hungry impatiently waiting to hit the beach kids or hang in for another week & add it to the WOF bill next week?!? Well - derrrrr people, hoidays it is.We hit the campsite after 4pm, just a few hours off schedule, unpacked with no help from AF ~ she'd already started her social networking with a little girl across the way & checked out the beach. Yay to King Carly Boy for picking this site. Check it out below ~ noice huh?!?
We hit Hot Water Beach the next morning, KCB swatted up before the trip & brought along our very own shovel to dig a pool for his carlygirls. Okay, so what's the drill with this? H.W. beach is a beach that has hot water springs under it in a little section & at low tide you can dig into the bech & hot water comes up, so you make a little pool & wallow like a hippo or a mermaid - it takes all sorts. Well, it was tourist central. KCB got started & it wasnt happening, so we moved site & got started on pool no. 2 & no luck- finally on pool no. 3 we hit hot water. The fact that we shimmied right up against an existing pool of tourists, well that was just co-incidence people. So, this was the end result.
The other legs belong to a new kiwi teenager originally from Spain, her dad was v. kind in helping dig the pool. Another example of how teeny tiny the world is, the dad has friends in common with KCB. These hot pools were magic to sit in. It's a tricky thing to get just right as the hot water was boiling hot coming up, so the trusty bucket of cold sea-water was used a lot. We ended up spending a few hours on the beach.
After a clean-up back at camp - kudos to the camp managers, the facilities were great. Hot showers, flushing toilets, microwaves & toasters are definately NOT overrated when one is camping. I can live I without them, but its nice to have them. The action continued with a tramp down to Cathedral Cove. It's a 35 minute walk in & Miss AF pretty much well ran, skipped & hopped most of the way ~ oh to have some of that energy. Miss FG was in the back-pack, leaning over KCB's shoulder the whole way. It's a great spot ~ filled with lots of people, but still managed to not look over-crowded. Very pretty, KCB took his scenary pics, he's a bit keen on that, check it out:
Cathedral Cove is the little black spot down the bottom of the white cliff, we walked from this spot down to it. It's not really that small.... that's Miss AF in the front of the walk-thru!
Anyway, we had a great time of it. Never in my life had I seen so many campers in one place. They are obviously v. popular homes on wheels. We were the only camper-trailer in the campsite. I love camping & think that we are pretty good at respecting other campers, but some campers are TOTALLY CLUELESS. Case in point, the campground gates close at 10.30pm. The roads are v. windy & would be a task for the big campers on the road, so you'd expect that they'd be parked & set up way before that time. Nuh uh to the big camper that pulled in at
10.15pm in front of us. Okay, we can handle that, no probs here. Until, HE started talking. A big man - yankman I'll call him. He had to navigate the camper into position. The sites are all marked out ~ how hard can it be? But he had to describe the whole process - 20 minutes it took, unti eventually the outcome was "Freakin awesome spot man". Hmmm, okay, well they'll get sorted quickly & quietly & we'll be right. NO WAY. The 4 guys proceeded to sit outside drinking & discussing the merits of world series baseball & why doesn't it affect the world, the US currency & why all nations should use it etc. This was increadibly annoying as it was past midnight & keeping us & other campers awake. You could have taken a sauna in the amount of steam coming out my ears. I just couldn't take the crap anymore & marched over to ask them if they were aware how loud their voices were & to keep it down. I was nice people ~ it was a HUGE effort not to tell them what I really thought...... anyway, nearly an hour later & they finally gave it a rest. And the next morning my little AF & FG got up very, very early & mummy didn't ask them to be quiet, just sent them on their way to play as noisily as possible in the playground -> right next to the
yankman camper. Payback - thy name is
Carlygirl...... HA HA HA.
Great weekend was had by all.
These bambinos look like the real deal & she should know, having had 4 real ones ..... (big smooches to my gorgeous nephews & nieces). This is just the tip of the iceberg of what she can do. Kudos to my S-I-L Dann, but could you just share a little sprinkle of some craft talent around? Pretty please with sugar on top?!? Maybe just tip some into a thimble & post it to me.
