Wednesday, March 4: Very cloudy the whole day and very warm with some rain drops in the late afternoon, clearing again by sunset

Tramping: 8.1 km

Waitarere Beach Motor Camp, Park Avenue, Waitarere Beach 5510, tel.:+64 6 368 8732, tent site ($17)

• GPS
• Topo
• Youtube video

The start to the morning was much better organised, and having all the necessary stuff distributed logically over just a shopping bag, a chilly bin, and the pack meant that I could try out my experiment tonight and camp out in the tent.

I was ready to go by about 9:00 even after having switched on the computer, gotten the reservation OK for Hamilton, and installed an update. Today’s drive was not going to be long, so there was plenty of time.

First stop was Foxton, to see the murals, but all is apparently not well – the last competition seems to have been held in 2013. I walked around town first window shopping, and then I fetched the camera for the dozen or so murals that were either unsold participants of the last competition or otherwise new, a shot of the abandoned Mitre 10 store, and one of the windmill – all as brackets.

Then I continued on to Levin and parked on the main street for $1 and set about finding a replacement universal sink plug and small plastic boxes for the filters. As it was getting on for lunch I bought a pie for $3.5 from Mr Bun. I then went around behind the main street to the aquatic centre and had the pie and one of the peaches I bought yesterday. Being at the swimming pool brought me onto the idea of going for a swim. Inquiring I found out that one lane at least would be free and that if I paid admission before 2:00 it would be half price ($2.5). Had a brief look around the info centre, and on returning grabbed my togs and took a dive. Times were as short as 8’00” for 200 m, but after a while I decided to take it a little easier.

Beer and lemonade had to be bought and then it was back to Waitarere for an attempt at recovering the past. This could be the place – only that the number of permanent caravans (like everywhere else) has increased to the exclusion of free spaces for itinerant guests.

Had a longer walk down the beach with the camera while it rained a little. I was back in time to go down to the local to see what I could get for dinner. Settled on fish and one scoop of chips for $6, which was way too much. Just noticing that this motor camp has almost nothing in the way of kitchen utensils, so breakfast will be just possible, but time again to think of what would be necessary if camping were to be the rule (good set of dishes, cup, cutlery, towels, sponges, etc.).

Waitarere Sunset

Will head down to the beach to try the sunset. Went down, tried the sunset, batteries were running out, came back here, got new batteries and time lapsed what was left of the sunset. Enough photography.