Rotorua

Today I left Auckland to go to Rotorua to meat up with my friends, who have a company in cultivating flowers; Gerbera's, which they mostly deliver to florists all over the country.
Getting out of the city was rather easy and I rapidly found the M1 to go down south. My plan was to go to Coromandel Peninsula first and from there follow the coast and finally turn to Rotorua which is a bit more in-land.
I followed the road up to Coromandel, a beautiful one along the cost. Very narrow, sometimes steep but all the time with stunning scenic views.

All most at Coromandel I was stopped a the local Fire brigade as an accident happened. This is something occurring often. There is no room for errors here. Many signs along the road state that, the one most commemorable was; we do have two cemeteries, no hospital.
There are only a few roads on the Island, so instead of turning back I was suggested to take the N309, a small and winding road through the mountains. It was steep, wet ans slippery but worth driving. halfway I stopped at "The Waterworks", some kind of museum. I met the wife of the owner and she used to work as a lecturer in Peru and also worked with e-learning in the past. She asked if she could do something for me in Peru. Was a very nice conversation and left my business card, you never know :-).
From there it became even steeper and greener and looked like going through "Peru".
At the other coastline I went south again and after several stunning hours and left for Rotorua. In Rotorua I tried to call my friends, but it seemed the number I had (mistyped ...) was wrong, as was the address. What to do? I went into a bigger store and asked if they could help. They were very friendly, but also did not know the address. Finally we called the AA and they made some new address out of the info I got and I went to find that. It is winter here so it is completely black ... and not so easy to find the roads, let alone the address itself. At tyhe same time I also had no mor petrol, so I returned to a gas station and they helped me to look up the phone number. So after a call it was easier to find. Actually I had been to the address very close, maybe some Km from it.
Now I found it as the address states also the amount of Km you have to drive at a a road, the State Highway 30. Pitchblack I finally entered the premises and met with my friends, who already live for 13 years now in New Zealand. I only met them in between in the Netherlands. The evening we talked about the past, having fine New Zealand wines. Tomorrow we will go to some state parks, one of the reasons I am here.