Friday 21st November- The “Million Dollar View” Highway

We have tried in the past two weeks to travel on the above tourist route and take some photos of the stunning scenery only when we got there the weather was unkind, but not today.

We had noticed that it is sunny first thing in the morning and then it clouds over by mid morning but by late afternoon the clouds disappear.

So we left after lunch and headed in the general direction of Kerikeri and then followed the signs for the Twin Coast Discovery Highway and off we went. At first it’s quite hilly and then eventually you come to the top of the hill which overlooks some of the Bay of Islands and also again later there is another viewing point. It’s a 25 mile drive up and down the hills and very pleasant indeed.

On one small beach we saw what we think was the start of a photo shoot with two young ladies in bridesmaids dresses and also a brides dress, hiking up their skirts and crossing the beach and through pools filled with water. I quickly changed lenses and the results you can see on the Photo blog.

The views over the Islands are pretty dramatic and with the sun shining and the sea a gorgeous colour it was well worth coming back again. There are a few shanty places where there is low cost housing. We have also noticed that in certain places where the poorer Maoris live it’s a bit like the middle part of America where they just dump cars when they stop and in some garden you can see as many as eight cars covered in grass and rotting away.

After we finished the tourist drive we headed to Kerikeri for some New World shopping as we have some friends coming for dinner tomorrow night.

The journey home takes about fifty minutes and we were just entering Mangonui area and a car coming towards us flashed his headlights at us which either means, turn your lights on, which we had or they are focused to high, which they were not or the Police are ahead, which they were. There were about six police cars and approximately eight or nine policemen and at first we though there might have been and accident but no, it was breath testing time at just before seven pm. I guess they are looking for the people having a few drinks on a Friday night before going home to their loved ones or wives as the case may be.

Jennifer was driving and so she was the lucky person and of course not having had any alcohol for a couple of days she sailed though the test. However when we got home Jennifer hit the bottle so as to make up for it.

A pleasant evening was had watching UK-TV with ‘Grumpy old women’ and then ‘New Tricks’. Tomorrow we have decided to go for a walk along the beach before breakfast which will be turned into a brunch when we get back with egg and bacon and anything else we can find to throw in the frying pan.