We arrived at Wilderness at 10am and the friendly and efficient staff went through the paperwork and showed us round our campervan … our home for the next ten days. We unpacked our stuff into the ample storage on board then did a run to the supermarket to stock up. A slight hitch, in that one of the rear storage locks outside the vehicle was faulty, and while we made sandwiches and had lunch, they replaced it with a new lock.
Finally we were able to hit the road and we were off. Our first stop was just 100km away at Ray’s Rest in Miranda, a freedom camping spot overlooking the Firth of Thames with the Coramandel Peninsula in the distance. A few campers had already arrived, and we chose our spot and made a cuppa. The tide came in as we walked along the shore, watching the birds and collecting shells and also sea beans similar to those we had seen in Mexico, but sprouting. The wind started picking up.
Our first culinary adventure was pasta with broccoli and a jar of Dolmio sauce with added mushrooms and was delicious.
The sun set …
… and it got dark about 9 and we turned on the battery light to finish playing our game, and were tucked up in bed by 10. We could hear the water lapping and the wind seemed to howl most of the night and we could feel it moving the camper from side to side. Joanna wondered if we might have floated out into the firth … but when we awoke in the morning all was well!
More tea, and we watched the sun rise, and the squall begin. The rainbow appeared and we retreated to the dry of the van.
We set off after breakfast to Coramandel.
Off Travelling Together 