Up early again with a vague yet possibly comprehensive plan of action for the day. First of all a couple of photos of the harbour in the gloom of another overcast day. 
Starting on the east side of the Coromandel and heading in an anticlockwise direction the plan was to go round the top, back across the "old 309 road", nip into the hot water beach, back over the top again and then head off Gisborne way off down on the east side. The 309 road involves a scramble up to castle Roack a volcano (extinct, one presumes, if dopey tourists are encouraged to climb it). However, as we drove north the overcast day and low clouds suggested that clambouring to the top of something in shorts and a T-shirt was a bad idea. Hot [no pun intended] on the heels of that was to not go to Hot Water Beach -- who wants to stand on a freezy (OK a faint chill) windy beach with your feet in warm water? And you have to be there at low tide. So instead we pootled around the coast with few photo opportunities ("see how the cloud covers these hills too!").
I finally gave up the driving ghost as the tachometer was nearing 1600km (not all today). Helen proceeded to first of all nearly kill us with a reckless overtaking manouever I didn't know the lane was going to end
then replace that with some over-zealous reading of the speed advice for bends. You're allowed to do 100kmh on most roads but they helpfully suggest a maximum (as in the UK and elsewhere) for sharper bends which occur a lot. Some of them are genuinely sharp (I turned a 15kmh bend) but on the whole you can take the advice with a pinch of salt especially if the suggested maximum is 75kmh or above. I chose to doze off rather than be a back seat driver.
At Opotiki, where we dicided to stop rather than face another two or three hours to Gisborne, the Holiday Park has facilities for some chalets, near derelict pseudo-permanent caravans as well as space for the usual caravans, campers, tents, etc.. There didn't appear to be a rate for our chalet, in answer to "what did we want" I mentioned NZ$ 20 per person and he said OK, here's the key to a chalet. The place looks quite deserted right now so I guess rates go out the window. Not that we'd manage to negotiate anything.
Opotiki is a one street town which, like many places -- if not all in New Zealand, doesn't supply food and drink in comfortable surroundings to the masses. I've yet to figure out what Kiwi's eat (the people, that is). The only food shops are "4 Squares" (like small Co-ops rather than the superstore versions, rarely more than 50 ft square which are packed with rubbish food, to my trained eye) and there are few restaurants. We dined on hamburger, hot dog and potato wedges with a thick dollop of "sour cream" that was reminiscent of stodgy mayonnaise. We retire early, exhausted by our early starts.
Opotiki Holiday Camp, Opotiki S38.00275
E177.28348 Elev. 9m. 
Copyright 2002 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.