Monday dawned clear and calm and cooler – only 7.5 degrees. We were up to see the sun rise out of the sea at 7:25am. We packed up and stowed away and farewelled “our” bay. We decided on a short hop to Taipa at the near end of Doubtless Bay. I reassembled the A-frame and readied the car for towing; it wasn’t going to be far but was good practice with the new brackets and stronger A-frame. We headed off at 10:30am, after six wonderful days at Maitai Bay. It is a little paradise which we had mostly to ourselves. We rate it right up there with Mutton Cove (Abel Tasman) and Simpsons Beach and Port Jackson (both Coromandel).
It wasn’t far to Taipa where we pulled up at Fred and Dorothy’s POP. They have a lovely location beside the estuary and room for a couple of campervans beside their house. We left the car there and drove on a few kms to Mangonui and the public dump station there. We stopped off on the way back through Mangonui to collect our mail and enjoy a coffee at the cafe. The post shop is in the wharf store, where you can see the bay below through holes in the floor. Back at Taipa we set up Suzi and sorted through our mail. Later in the afternoon we got on our bikes for a ride/explore around Taipa. We discovered a bakery that had good prices on stuff at the end of the day. What could we do but help them out J