Day 59, in which we are hit by a ten foot wave

Our goal today was to drive north-west from Ohope onto the Coromandel Peninsula, a huge jutty-out-bit of North Island which is jam-packed with spectacular beaches. Our particular destination was the spectacular beach of Hahei, but on route we also popped in on the spectacular Ocean Beach, just outside the gold mining city of Mount Maunganui. The guidebook says Ocean Beach is the safest ocean beach in New Zealand, but thinking about it I may have misheard the caps and Paul may have said that Ocean Beach is the safest Ocean Beach, which would be an unhelpful truism. Whatever the case, it is certainly a glorious stretch of soft golden sand and iridescently blue water.

We decided to swim opposite a fat little island opposite the beach and discovered this is absolutely the best place for frolicking in the waves, as the island breaks the waves in two, bringing the two halves together in a V-shape, cross-cutting each other and making for especially turbulent waters. The waves rolled in ten feet high, and we had superb fun diving under them, riding on top of them or simply letting them strike us face-on.

As we stepped out of the Pacific Ocean onto almost unbearably hot sand we decided it was time for lunch. I wish we had dined in Mount Maunganui, but we decided that was too industrial and drove on to try the small town of Waihi instead. Although Waihi is described in the guidebook as a small mining village, during our visit it seemed more like a ghost town. It was Saturday afternoon, yet most places seemed to be shut and of those which were open we wrote off a pizzeria (because the waitress was busy doing the hoovering) and a bakery (because they didn't appear to sell any baked goods at all - it didn't help that when I asked for directions to the toilet, the baker indicated the back door, which then led me on an excursion to some public lavatories in a park two blocks away).

We ended up in Waihi's branch of Subway, the sandwich chain, and even that was shambolic as the man behind the counter explained they had entirely run out of bread. Four people walked out from the queue in front of us but when we got to the counter I spotted a shelf full of freshly baked bread behind the counter. “It's hot” he explained when I pointed it out. It did not take much effort to persuade him we did not mind.

We drove out of Waihi as quickly as the car would carry us, and didn't stop driving until we reached the small beach town of Hahei. Thankfully, Hahei is a little more switched on than its landlocked cousin and we were checked into the Tatahi Lodge by a very enthusiastic and friendly receptionist who provided us with everything we needed to enjoy our stay, including information on cheap snorkel hire, a jug of milk and a small yellow spade.

Our 'studio lodge' is possibly the nicest accommodation yet, a lovely and spacious wooden cabin with plenty of natural light and a set of double doors leading out onto a charming little communal garden. Better yet, dinner was just round the corner at The Grange, a trendy but cosy bar/restaurant which specialises in serving up North Island-sized portions. Paul's salad came in pieces so large that – as he struggled to get any of it into his face – he compared the effort to a task on the Krypton Factor, while my burger was so large you could have hollowed it out as a comfortable home for an Eskimo. We later saw a couple of old timers from out of town laughing about the size of their fish and chips and taking photographs of their plates.

We slept poorly, not helped by a resident moth the size of an eagle.