Baileys Beach

Overcast but quite warm and as expected woke up with a bit of a headache cased by a late night and too much sun.Decided that it's a day for domestic duties and a day on the beach.We made the mistake of walking to the beach which was a good 15 min walk down and consequently a very good 20 min back up! and when we got there we realised that vehicles are allowed on the beach and we could have driven down, never mind the exercise did us good! Spent the day reading,sunbathing (tho there was no direct sun)in the sea and generally messing about.Peter had to be careful in the surf because the rip was bordering on dangerous. The Surf Lifeguards were on patrol 3 of them and the recommended safe area was only 100m wide.
Sat 10 Jan Packed up and said goodbye to Steve and Jules as they are going north and we are going south to Port Waikato, about 300k allowing for navigational errors ( without,about275k!) It's a long way and we have to negotiate Auckland with it's holiday traffic still on the move, not quite as bad as the week before,tho still heavy. Off the motorway the second attempt, and eventually find the road to Port Waikito. When we get there we wonder why we picked it as it is so far out on a limb with nowhere else to go except back the way we came 35k. It is pretty quiet and we could choose our spot. We had a long walk to the beach which was ok with black sand but then the sun disappeared and the temp dropped, threatening rain, which it did.
Next day set off for the opposite coast in heavy rain and gusts of wind still not having worked out why we we came( and it didn't have internet access either when it said it did) Phoned up Waihi Beach first camp was full( which should have told us something)and managed to get into Bowentown just down the road, the last place again! This place is like Butlins and we are packed in like sardines!We never quite seem to find the happy medium either overcrowded or half empty. The drive down was uneventful, scenery got better when we reached the Karangahake Gorge very pretty but nowhere to stop and look.This site Waihi is in the beatiful Bay of Plenty a lovely beach but very touristy and we will be moving on tomorrow. They did have Wifi but it was down when we arrived but later it was up and running and we caught up with emails and the Blog.