Come wintertime in the northern hemisphere, Miranda’s vast mud flats are teeming with shore birds. What now seem to be endless abandoned acres of slick mud are filled with nesting birds, picking at the aquatic worms and crustaceans that fill its depths and enjoying a beautiful, warm NZ summer.
Miranda was our first stop as we began our drive through the North Island’s Coromandel region, and we were lucky enough to find a sandy pull-off available for free camping right on the banks of the muddy Firth of Thames. Believe it or not, it was actually our first night not in an organized camp site or on free Department of Conservation (DoC) land, and it couldn’t have been much more peaceful.
There for the wonderful beachy solitude rather than the birds, we weren’t too put off by our lack of neighbors -- although it must be a quite a site to see the flat jam-packed with waders come December.
