We had a fairly good drive to Coromandel with hardly any holdups even going through Auckland. We stopped at Thames for a look around before continuing to our B&B in Coromandel town.
Thames is the service hub for Coromandel and was once an old gold town. In the 1870's it was the largest town in New Zealand and boasted 120 pubs for its population of 20,000. There are several museums associated with the goldmining days but they are run by volunteers and not open when we passed through. There are many well preserved wooden buildings and two rather nice churches.

From Thames it was an easy run along the coast to Coromandel town and our B&B. We had texted our arrival time and Jeff our host greeted us with a cup of tea and later provided us with a very good evening meal.