A quiet day today driving along SH45 – The Surf Highway, so

called because along this stretch of road, there many excellent places to go surfing. You are warned in no uncertain terms that the surf here can be very dangerous and should only be attempted by serious surfers! We pass through a number of small towns and we stop at Opunake where we discover a very quirky place called Sugar Juice Cafe https://www.facebook.com/people/Sugar-Juice/pfbid0WWRr2HvQNsFrTHUAmKCdKeqrddCkK7nX2NXr9rRq6oYQJFSUf61TAYEWWcQXxrGql/ where we stop for very good flat white coffees and a slice of extremely good carrot cake. We keep heading down SH45 towards Hawera. Fantastic water tower here and some interesting street art. Our next stop, Yarrows who have been making bread since 1823! We buy a fruit loaf, toasties for lunch and Don has his first custard slice of our trip! We camp for the night beside a lake on the Rotokare Scenic Reserve – a predator free zone with a huge high fence, electronic gates and no signal of any kind. But. There are kiwi and pukekos!

After a night which felt like we were in a hurricane, we drive to Stratford (no not upon Avon!) where Don was born. We have fantastic flat whites at Fenton Street Gallery – which also happens to make gin and has a great coffee shop! https://www.facebook.com/fentonstreetartscollective/ We visit Don’s mum’s cousin and her husband, parents to an All Black. We have a lovely time chatting and catching up. Stratford, as you can imagine, has named a number of streets and places after Shakespearean plays or characters – Don’s rele’s live just off of Oberon Street. The library is located on Prospero Place, I could go on. There is also a gallery which had a portrait competition on display – some amazingly talented artists on show. At 1pm, the town clock (a German inspired glockenspiel clock) starts to chime, not with ding dongs, but with Romeo & Juliet popping our of various windows quoting lines from the play! We head back up Mount Taranaki – the east side this time – on the road that is the highest on the mountain. It is howling a gale so we head down again stopping at the Stratford Mountain House https://www.stratfordmountainhouse.co.nz/ where there are a couple of places to freedom camp. We park up for the night and head into the house for a beer on a comfy sofa next to a lovely fire. Don surprises me with dinner here. I am a lucky girl! We have Whitebait fritters for our starters – you can’t usually buy these fish in the shops and are a bit of a rarity on menus. They are also one of Don’s favourite seasonal dishes.