At the beach

On Saturday, we drove to Tairua on the Coromandel coast for a family birthday party. They party was held at a bach there (pronounced “batch”, and it’s what a holiday home is called in the North Island; in the South Island, it’s called a crib). It was right on the beach and even with rainy weather it was a very nice spot.

I’ve never visited Tairua before, but since it’s a couple hours drive from Auckland it’s a bit too far for frequent weekend getaways, so I don’t know how Aucklanders can handle that, though many do. The road is pretty diabolical in spots (5 kilometres of twisting, hilly roads, a short break, another 5kms, and so on for half an hour or longer), but at certain points in summer it can be practically bumper-to-bumper.

Nevertheless, the town is nice and it’s a good place to visit. We had a great time (and so did Sunny and Jake who came along with is; all up, there were six dogs of various family members there).

The photo above is part of the view from the deck of the bach (a storey above the ground). It was taken with my cellphone because I didn’t know where my digital camera was (turns out is was in a bag I’d brought with me—doh!). Still, despite the low quality, you can get the general idea.

The photo below was taken on my phone with an App called 360, which creates panorama shots. It’s not perfect, and it’s still limited by the resolution of the phone’s camera, just like the shot above, but it gives a better idea of what the view from the deck was like.

Like I said, it was a very nice spot.