OK, time to find some sunshine. The news is full of reports of mudslides, flooding and closed roads all over the island. A mudslide destroyed a campground under Mount Maunganui just outside the town of Tauranga with a couple dead and several missing so far.
We checked the weather on the entire north island to see where we might find some sun and the east coast seems the most likely, and the most likely place is in the Bay of Plenty where Deb found a nice, inexpensive hotel, the Ocean View Motel, right on the beach in a little town on the east coast called Ohope Beach. The only bright spot in this foul weather is that many Kiwis are not out and about and there are plenty of vacancies.
We left on the early side and planned on a breakfast stop somewhere on the way. We also needed gas. The little Prius is getting about 55 mpg so the tank is small. Taupo is a good sized city and we filled up the car and found The Garden Cafe, a nice little cafe for an eggs and toast kind of breakfast. Sure enough as we got further east, the rains slowed down and by the time we arrived in Ohope, all the rain had stopped and the sun came out.
We got settled in and then walked down the beach in the warm sunshine and a steady but comfortable wind. The beach is very wide here and probably 4 miles long or so. We walked 2 miles or so down the beach into town and got a cider and a beer, then walked back to the hotel stopping at a couple of restaurants along the way to see what we could do for dinner tonight.
After a little rest we took the car back into town to the Mexican restaurant, Cadera's, which had very nice tacos. After dinner we found a short trail up a mountain nearby to get a birds eye view of the shore and surrounding bays and mountains. After that we toured the rest of the peninsula which makes up the town and then back to the hotel.
Tomorrow morning we will look at the weather again to determine where to go. Stay tuned.
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