Tapu Creek

After leaving Thames we travelled a short distance up the Coromandel Coast road to Tapu where we’ve set up camp Tapu Creek Campground for a couple of days.

We are doing the coast road in short bursts for two reasons,  a) we have 5 weeks to explore the area & b)the road is so narrow and winding & a challenge at the best of times, when you’re towing a 5^th wheeler behind it can be downright hideous. Not so much for the driver but the co-pilot who is sitting just about above the rocky drop offs into the ocean below. I’m sure I will settle down as we get further on up the road although we’re now re-thinking our plan to make it to Port Jackson at the tip of the peninsula. We’re getting conflicting messages, various people we’ve come across say “yes, it’ll be a piece of cake” or “travel at night so you can see approaching traffic on the blind corners”, others their eyes grow to saucers and they ask “really?” I think we’ll have to do a reccie trip from Colville to satisfy ourselves. But that’s a week or two away so no need for decisions yet.

In the meantime we’re parked up at Tapu Creek Camping Ground, a small family run ground a few kilometres up the Tapu-Coroglen road (a road we definitely would not be able to cross had it been in our plans). We’ve managed to squeeze ourselves through the entrance and around some trees & had the pick of sites as the Coroglen road is closed for some bridge repairs at the moment and they aren’t as busy as usual. The owner was delighted to tell us once we were settled that we were the biggest van they’d ever had in the park. Hmmm…….I’m thinking I know why he didn’t tell us that before we manoeuvred our way in here, we may just have had a re-think. Oh well, we’ll worry about how we’re going to get the rig out of here when the Sunday comes.

Anyway, now that we’re here it’s very peaceful with lots of birdlife, we even have our very own swimming hole just down the bank behind us which was very pleasant to cool off in this afternoon. The owners are very friendly and helpful, they gave us some freshly caught snapper fillets to have for dinner as the husband had been out competing in a fishing tournament and they had surplus fish. The complete opposite of the Miranda Top10 Holiday Park where we stayed for one night before leaving for Thames. They had a page full of rules & regulations to follow, mind you they were very friendly too & we thoroughly enjoyed soaking in their lovely big thermal pool.

Check out more photos from Tapu Creek here