The long and winding road

To make up for the slightly awful weather that the South Island inflicted on mum and dad, we decided to take them for a weekend to the Coromandal, which has to go down as one of my most favourite places in NZ – it is full of beautiful beaches, lovely clear blue water and mostly pretty much deserted!
It was with some trepidation that we set off on Friday morning, after having to cope with the previous day’s trauma of Colin’s disappearing car (yes it was stolen from outside our house!), so I was given the responsibility of driving Jessamy’s car to Opito Bay, along with a collection of bikes on the back! Sensibly, it was only halfway into the journey that I admitted to mum and dad that in the last 12 months I had probably only driven for about an hour if you added it all together, and that I had never driven with a bike rack at all!!
The drive to the Coromandal is a beautiful one, although it does contain some very hair raising bends around narrow corners with no such thing as a guard rail in sight! We were also slightly hampered at times by the ‘gutless wonder’ nature of Jess’s car, but we eventually made it up all the multiple hills, past the fabulous views, and along the unsealed 6km road that had a section falling down the cliff due to recent heavy rain and into Opito Bay…

View from the top of a very steep hill

Opito Bay is quite tidal and a tiny hamlet without even a local 'dairy' so the beach really is the main focus. Mum and I got very over excited about the excessive amount of shells that we could collect on the beach, so after a nice walk along it using Dad as our official carrier bag we waited for the rest of the crew to join us…

Not alike at all...

The weather being its own glorious mix of clear blue skies and sunshine, after a wonderfully cooked breakfast of pancakes (thanks Jess) we headed down to the beach for a thoroughly relaxing day for some, whilst other male members of the party felt the need to prove their manhood by showing their ability to provide, and refused to quit until they had caught something fishing...unfortunately the fish sometimes just didn't want to die...

The whole gang

Jessamy does her usual sterling job at the BBQ

"Le singe est dans l'arbre"

Strike a pose

Not sure how this will feed 12 people....

HELP! Its alive!

Beautiful Opito Bay

The evening brought with it another beautiful BBQ and a night of star gazing (the lack of light pollution made the night sky look amazing!) as well as a sing song with the guitar, making us fully ready to face another strenuous day on Sunday… at the beach again!

After a night fishing trip, I still don't think thats going to feed 12 people boys!

The happy couples

Shianne wins the 'who can make the best cocoon' competition

Mum and Dad do their best homeless impression

Cake?....Anyone??...Cake...

Josh realises that there is another pose other than 'Blue Steel'

Ben was placed on cooking duty for breakfast (loved the hat) and we moved to a new beach...This time, it was Cathedral Cove, a famous NZ landmark, and a place you might recognize from earlier blogs, as we took JZ there… this time we went prepared with a picnic, our ‘togs’ so that we could swim, and cold beer…

Just so pretty...

We forgot the cups..so sometimes you just have to skull it!

With plenty of rocks to jump off, calm water, and none of the annoying bag sellers you get on European beaches, it was a lovely afternoon, and I was even inspired to ignore a risk sign and run through the arch to the beach on the other side…

That would be Colin hitting the water!

Most of my fave girls all in the same place

The Ziebart women

Having risked life and limb we made it to the other side!

The postcard shot

Do you recognise the tree stump JZ?

We left Cathedral Cove with just enough time to make it to Hot Water Beach for low tide… it was the usual mass of slightly hysterical people desperate to dig a hole and fight the waves, but mum and dad were quite impressed by the sheer weirdness of it all…

MZ poses whilst Jess and Colin do the hard work...and steam rises!

OOOh...its a bit hot!


On our way home we stopped for 'Fush and Chups' and Mum and Dad marvelled at the way you could just drive all over the grass and park!

It was a lovely weekend, and lets hope the weather holds for when we return back there in a couple of weeks with James and Carey... or there will be some very glum photos!