We're relaxing at Shelly Beach, near Helensville, for a week or so, enjoying the beautiful weather which followed the awful storms that hit New Zealand in mid-August.
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| The Kaipara Harbour at its most tranquil. |
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| A sunny spot to do my chores. |
It's a lovely spot to park, low cost but with practically no facilities. That doesn't worry us, so long as there is fresh water and a dump site, which there is.
There are only eleven camping sites here, and most nights we've only seen one or two other vans. The first night there were four young German guys who've been travelling around for the last few months, sleeping in their (two) cars and really feeling the cold.
However, the lack of facilities does mean we have to either take a 15km trip to the nearest laundromat, or do the washing by hand.
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| Nice of them to supply a fence for our wringer, although it does clamp onto the bike rack, too. |
We carry a barrel and an old-fashioned hand wringer just for this purpose, and it gets us some funny looks from passers-by. But it does a good job - although we've not yet tried doing sheets or towels this way.
Sure, it takes a bit of time, but we've plenty of that these days.
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| Plenty of clean socks and undies, not to mention my running gear. |
