Tuesday, March 24: Changeable, with some dark clouds and rain around the middle of the day; starting and finishing sunny

On the Beach Backpackers, 46 Buffalo Beach Rd, Whitianga 3542, tel.: +64 7 866 5380, double/twin as single in a unit shared with just one other party; kitchen, living room, TV, fridge, large balcony with BBQ equipment shared (BBH, $38 + $3)

Liz gave me the whole rundown of her neighbourhood dispute this morning before I left; in any case I was in no particular hurry to get going. The plastic shop did in fact carry a salt-and-pepper shaker set but didn’t have any in stock; the cutlery set looked just as useful as the stuff I already had; but for $4 I got two cosmetic containers which were just larger than my filters and a snap top bottle obviously designed for some sort of liquid that could also be used for salt (the pepper part was not so important). Filled the tank & then I was on my way.

Katikati prides itself as being a mural town but I have saved it up for the proverbial rainy day. Whangamata was in the throes of “Beach Hop” which is a meeting of vintage car/1950s enthusiasts and I spent my walk up and down the main street taking photos of the cars. In Tairua I stopped at the library (not in the main street as per memory but just off it in a side street) to email Chinara about staying on Saturday. As it was raining very lightly I decided to stave lunch off until arriving at the backpackers. Was here around 2:15. The layout here is very generous – this is obviously a family unit for which the bedrooms are being separately let. Anyway for the price unbeatable value. Will have to consider staying here until the end of the week & doing some serious kayaking (they are free, but their condition looks a bit iffy).

Showered and have started the washing which in the course of a couple of days is causing the car to smell. Will see about celebrating the Great Walks tonight.

Went out for some shopping and then walked into town to see what there was to eat. I settled on roast pork fried rice (large) for $11.5 and it will do for two days as usual. Had a bit of a problem trying to identify a pizza place, but there was one with large pizzas in the $20 range, and, interestingly, gyros, which if it were in Germany would be a good sign. Anyway will have to decide fairly early tomorrow morning if I’m going to stay another two nights. I could probably kayak up the river tomorrow, and see how far I get around the bay on another day, and then take a walk on the day in between. High tide looks like around 12:00 tomorrow, so that would be advantageous.

I am sharing with two Chinese girls, Penny and Xiaoxiao.