New Zealand - Day 10

The NZ road report said that the road we were to travel on North today was closed due to landslides but the road back the other way was also closed! Pauline, our lovely hostess at the Nga Puriri B&B did some ringing around the police stations and hotels and came back with the report that by the time we got to the closure points they should be fairly clear but we may have to wait a while.

So after another of Pauline beautiful breakfasts we set out from Hicks Bay headed for the Bay of Plenty. True to prediction, we came to our first stoppage just past Te Kaha. Chatted to the stop go man for quite a while (hey bro) until a big enough space was available. Huge landslides all along the highway some of which we going to require a lot of work to clear. Had two more similar stops until we got to Opotiki. Spectacular scenery all along this highway so we were so pleased to be be able to manage it.

From Opotiki on the road ran mostly along the  coast of the Bay -beautiful beaches all the way. Stopped at Whatatane for lunch and then ended up on a toll road ($2) which took us into Tauranga - a city we've never heard of but it had a massive amount t of traffic  and took ages to get through. We eventually made it to our home for the next 5 nights - Birds eye B&B - which sits on a hill overlooking Waihi which is a sizable gold mining town at the base of the Coromandel Peninsular where we will be exploring the available walks at over the next five days.