Winter road trips
uly saw us heading off to Tauranga to catch up with RV industry players again, checking out the fabulous Cougar fifth-wheeler as featured later in these pages. Unfortunately rain followed us, so our trip was a short one. Tauranga is one of those places that makes you think ‘which way will we go’ – Paeroa-Karangahape Gorge through Katikati to Tauranga, or down the expressway; negotiate Hamilton and head over the Kaimais from there, or through Matamata and over the Kaimais? We often avoid Katikati way now, as the traffic can be a nightmare getting into Tauranga, but going back the other way to Auckland is acceptable. We went the Matamata way, did our business over a couple of days, then headed back via Katikati to catch up with Caspar’s little buddy Louie, then we stopped again in Paeroa – what a cute little antique shopping town. The St Johns charity shop really impressed me, first by luring me in with what at first glance looked like a bondage shop display – where is my head at? It got me in the door, and it was obvious inside that one of their volunteers had clearly worked in high-end fashion retail. The goods for sale were displayed as
