Hikes, Butterflies, and a Sunset

The next morning (Friday the 12th) we got up and headed further up the Kauerganga Valley to do a couple of hikes. We did a short little walk up to a viewpoint where we could see Billygoat Falls, a series of waterfalls that drop over 180 meters total. Then we went to another spot and walked to Edwards Lookout. The trail goes up about 300 fett to a rock outcroppoing that gives a great view of the valley. We were running short on water, so we decided to skip out on the longer hikes. In any case, it was a great way to ramp up to a little hiking.

We went back into Thames and bought a couple 10 liter jugs of water--one to drink now and one to hold in case we ever ran out of water again. Kerrie also spied a mint Kit-Kat in line at the checkout, so of course we had to get it. Verdict: OK, but it loses the inherent nature of the Kit-Kat. It could be any minty cookie.

Our next stop was the "tropical butterfly house and orchid garden" just north of Thames. It's a big greenhouse kept at 100% humidty and god knows how hot to simulate the tropics and it's just filled with butterflies of all different types. It was a cool stop, and none of my pictures do the butterflies justice. The buggers just would not sit still! We finally left when we just got too hot to stick around any longer.

We hit the road again, headed north on the penisula. I think our longest stretch on the road was about 15 minutes--we kept pulling off to look at and take pictures of the gorgeous coastline. Finally we resisted the call of more stops and made it to Coromandel Town where we had a nice picnic and wandered around looking at some of the shops.

After our time in town it was getting late enough that we decided to find a campground for the night. We stopped at Shelly Beach holiday park, which is considerably more developed than either of our previous camps. This is the first place we have stayed where I can hear the road noise from outside our van and there are neighboring cans all around us. Still, we used the facilities to the greatest extent, topping off our water tanks (whew!), doing some laundry, and using the kitchen for our cooking. I also learned that heaven is something as simple as an unmetered hot shower. At our previous campground, 20 cents bought about 3 minutes of hot water, and we didn't have enough coins!

The camp is also on a pretty beach where we managed to catch a great sunset. After we ate we wandered back down to the beach to look at the stars. On the way, we surprised a few rabbits, and also ran across a hodegehog. We resisted the urge to pet it and moved on.

(Alas, the internet terminal is out of time--I'll have to continue the post later! Forgive the typos as well!)