Ron Laughlin The Ultimate New Zealand Travel Guide
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Trail of Discovery!
with Ron Laughlin - the Guru of NZ Travel
with Ron Laughlin - the Guru of NZ Travel
Day Two - 25 Dec - Christmas Day
Christmas!!! - It was the first full day of this holiday and it was raining! Oh well why not. Hardly anything is open in New Zealand on Christmas day so we had stopped at a supermarket on the way back to the Jucy Hotel to get whatever we would need today to eat. Might have a place to cook it or not?? so had lots of goodies such as cheeses and a variety of crackers and, of course, chocolate.
I had planned to stay the day at the Clark's Beach Holiday Park about 45 minutes south of the airport and a place I stop at whenever i get the chance. Really enjoy the company of the people who own and run the place. Almost family and I thought that would be great on Christmas day.
First i drove north out of Auckland and to the West Coast to introduce a Virginia Beach girl, who goes to the beach there every day, what a Tasman Sea beach looks and feel like. I picked Muriwai Beach because it has a bonus - a Gannet colony. (look it up if you don't know what a Gannet is).Had a walk around and a breakfast picnic before the rain got started again and the Christmas vacationers began showing up. Perfect timing and off we headed to Route One and south.
By the time we got to Clark's Beach it was hosing down and cold. The ideas of walking the beach, taking out a kayak and boating was out of the question. Even the covered pool wasn't inviting so I decided to change tactics and go further south a bit and east to the Miranda Hot Pool Holiday Park where one of the finest covered hot pools in New Zealand is located (in my opinion) plus they have a great kitchen with all the cooking items we required.
We had picked up a marinated chicken at the super market so it became the center of our attention this late afternoon for our dinner along with bread, red wine and other assorted goodies. By the way the chicken was delicious!
My guest soaked her long flight battered muscles in the hot pool and was able to relax for Christmas day in style......
and so the day progressed into evening and we headed back to the Jucy hotel to catch up on sleep and prepare for the
big Trail of Discovery I have outlined for us...............Better get some rest now as in days coming up it was going to be
full on.................tomorrow it is an underground world of discovery at Waitomo Caves.............bet the sun comes out!!!
Here's some photos of Christmas day:
I had planned to stay the day at the Clark's Beach Holiday Park about 45 minutes south of the airport and a place I stop at whenever i get the chance. Really enjoy the company of the people who own and run the place. Almost family and I thought that would be great on Christmas day.
First i drove north out of Auckland and to the West Coast to introduce a Virginia Beach girl, who goes to the beach there every day, what a Tasman Sea beach looks and feel like. I picked Muriwai Beach because it has a bonus - a Gannet colony. (look it up if you don't know what a Gannet is).Had a walk around and a breakfast picnic before the rain got started again and the Christmas vacationers began showing up. Perfect timing and off we headed to Route One and south.
By the time we got to Clark's Beach it was hosing down and cold. The ideas of walking the beach, taking out a kayak and boating was out of the question. Even the covered pool wasn't inviting so I decided to change tactics and go further south a bit and east to the Miranda Hot Pool Holiday Park where one of the finest covered hot pools in New Zealand is located (in my opinion) plus they have a great kitchen with all the cooking items we required.
We had picked up a marinated chicken at the super market so it became the center of our attention this late afternoon for our dinner along with bread, red wine and other assorted goodies. By the way the chicken was delicious!
My guest soaked her long flight battered muscles in the hot pool and was able to relax for Christmas day in style......
and so the day progressed into evening and we headed back to the Jucy hotel to catch up on sleep and prepare for the
big Trail of Discovery I have outlined for us...............Better get some rest now as in days coming up it was going to be
full on.................tomorrow it is an underground world of discovery at Waitomo Caves.............bet the sun comes out!!!
Here's some photos of Christmas day:
Muriwai Beach.
Gannet Colony
Clark's Beach Holiday Park
Clark's Beach
Enjoying the Miranda Holiday Park Hot Pool
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