Today we both received an email from the NZ CAA saying that we have been approved to have the NZ Validation for 6 months to allow us to fly unsupervised in NZ. This is very impressive as the NZ CAA only received the paperwork on Friday and today is Monday!

Lynne was on call from midday so we went to Piha in the morning.

The rock below is called Lion Rock. You can just about see why but erosion is happening quite quickly.

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About to walk up some of Lion Rock.

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We had a coffee at Piha and then drove back to Auckland.

We left Lynne and Keith in the early afternoon and headed off for the Coromandel. We went up its west coast. A pretty drive with much of it beside the water.

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Found this on the beachfront at Waiomu!

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Looking across Manaia Harbour

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Looking across to Ponui and Waiheke Islands.

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At Coromandel.

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We were recommended to go for dinner to The Top Pub on the edge of Coromandel town so we went in search of it. It turned out to be the Coromandel Hotel, known locally as The Top Pub, but initially we drove straight past it looking for “The Top Pub”.