Waikanae & Mana

An interesting night at Te Horo. We had dinner and watched a bit of tele and were just preparing for bed when there was a knock on the door of the bus. A local parks ranger informed us that we could not spend the night there. He had had a complaint from an "awkward Local"(his words) and we must move on. He pointed his torch 500 metres down the beach and said we would be all right down there. At least we were not asleep like the English couple in a van next to us!
Next morning we moved on and found a delightful spot at Waikanae Beach called Waimuangu lagoons reserve. Here we set up and did three loads of washing in the little machine and hung it all out on lines under the awning. The day was spent lazily watching the washing dry. A local kitesurfing enthusiast and motor homer came by and chatted for quite a while. He told a story of a goose on the lagoons who was left behind in a cleanout and befriended a swan with a broken wing. The two became inseparable. The swan mated with another swan and the goose took over the task of raising their cygnets. This has happened over several clutches of eggs and the goose is now a permanent part of the family. As we had used all of our on board water washing clothes we left to fill up with the intention of returning for the night However we turned right onto highway one and by the time we found a shop to buy milk we had come 10 ks down the road so we carried on to Natitoa Domain at Mana. We filled with water at the Mana Cruising Club hard stand and spent the night beside onther motor home in the car park of the sports ground. We have moved this morning to a grass area alonside the Paremata river wher we are continuuing to dry the clothes. Hand wrung washing takes a while to dry.