Sunday started a bit damp and I thanked Peter and Ann for having me. I headed downtown to check out the chandleries along the waterfront. I was thinking about getting a small portable toilet so I could do some self-contained freedom camping. I also needed to go to a supermarket and provision the Bongo.

 

I hadn’t quite decided which way to head for the first few nights, but decided on Miranda on the “Seabird Coast” (actually the west side of the Firth of Thames) after talking with Ellen. I was easily able to call her using my MacBook at a Telecom Wireless HotSpot in the cafe at the supermarket.

 

After buying food, I was off to Miranda via Clevedon, Kawakawa Bay and Orere Point. It is a nice route through the hills after Clevedon and after Kawakawa Bay. It had turned into a clear, sunny day by noontime and the drive was a pleasure. The route is a mecca for motorcycles and I saw dozens coming the other way.Just the way to ride on a sunny summer Sunday.

 

I arrived at the Miranda Holiday Park at about 4:30pm  and checked in for two days. Ellen, Sam and I had stayed here once before in our travels in the Bongo. Unfortunately, the “Pet Friendly” area is actually the parking lot outside the park proper, so it wasn’t so great with Sam. Since the amenities were very nice, I decided to give it another try.  The grounds and facilities are quite well-kept and fairly modern. They even have their own hot springs pool (the holiday park is next door to the Miranda Host Springs). The actual powered sites are fairly small and close together, but more room than some we’ve seen.

 

They originally assigned me to a really small site right by the entrance that surrounded by other small campervans, obviously their small campervan area, nothing longer than the Bongo could fit into one of these sites. Since the park was fairly empty (It seems the cool damp start to summer has put off the usual campers), I looked around and found a nice tree shaded site within the park and asked to move to it. They agreed with no problem.

 

The interior of the Bongo was littered with bags stuff and food that I’d bought over the past two days, so the first order of business was to clean it up and find places to store what needed to be stored and attach what needed to be attached. This took a while and by the time I finished it was well into dinner time and a bit too late to go for a bike ride, as I’d hoped to do.

 

One of the items I bought on Saturday was a new bike rack. After driving around for a while with the bike in the back, it seemed obvious that it was not going to be practical in the long term.

 

For some reason we shipped the one we had on the Bongo back with our household goods, and since they still haven’t arrived in Cohasset, I didn’t even have the possibility of bringing back with me. Hedgehog Cycles, where we bought it, didn’t have that model available but had another brand, fairly inexpensive, that seemed to fit when we brought it out of the store and held it up to to back of the van.

 

When I went to install it, however, it was not so simple. While the rack will sit against the back door without any problem, one of the straps passes over the backup mirror when the rack is centered on the door. It will fit off center, but I don’t think that is a safe way to carry the bike. It will sick out beyond one side too far for my comfort. Also, the top and side straps have hooks which fit over the door frame, but the bottom straps have hooks which will not fit on the door but must go under the bumper and hook on the frame. This means that I’d have to remove the rack every time I want to open the rear door; not exactly practical.

 

It looks like its back to Hedgehog in the next day or two to return it. If they can’t get me a rack like the old one, I guess I’ll have to live with inside storage while traveling.

 

After all the sorting and packing and storing, it was off to the kitchen for my first on the  meal, pasta with pesto (jarred, of course) and a salad with a nice ripe summer tomato -- Tea and cookies for dessert.