He was staying at a house exchange on the Amalfi Coast, near Naples in Italy.
My friend’s exchange was a very modest house 10 minutes’ walk up a hill from a small stony beach covered in deck chairs, which could be rented for $50 a day, beside a couple of waterside cafes.
My friend is a regular European traveller but he was lamenting the overwhelming numbers of post-Covid tourists returning to hotspots such as Amalfi, Rome and Pompeii.
Mass tourism is back, with queues, crowded roads, trains, airports and high prices. It didn’t sound very appealing.
Although I live about as far from the coast as you can get in New Zealand I shared with him my own recent beach experience.
Grandchild number two, Clementine, arrived last month in Auckland so for three weeks our world was a whirlwind of meals, laundry, caring for her 2-year-old brother Herbie and their mum, as well as many hours cuddling the new addition to the family.
Mindful of the need to give the family some space we spent the odd day exploring the beautiful east coast, north of Auckland. The local regional parks are wonderful, Shakespear, Wenderholm and our favourite, Tawharanui, east of Warkworth.
Tawharanui is a working farm with camping, walking trails, beautiful long beaches, a marine reserve and native forest.
Prominent to the east is the wildlife sanctuary, Little Barrier Island, Te Hauturu-o-Toi, and in the far distance, the volcanic peaks of Great Barrier Aotea.
Even May’s water temperature was quite a manageable 18 degrees for a South Islander, thanks to the tropical current.
New Zealand is blessed with a magnificent coastline.
It is, in fact, the ninth-longest in the world, more than the coast of China or Greece, and twice as long as Italy’s 7600km.
From Central we can experience fiords, the wild Catlins coast, rainforest fringing beaches at Haast or catch the surfer vibe over a beer and pizza at St Clair.
One of the advantages of living in the middle is you have ocean access in all directions. Needless to say, the Amalfi Coast is not on my bucket list.
