Camping at the Bach

It all began with a few New Zealand "spa buddies" who didn't proofread their emails:

Hi my spa buddies!
Now that we know each other sooooo much better after Becky's party (if you don't know what this means, don't ask! ;-)  ), wondering if anyone is keento go camping by the beach for the Xmas to New year break?
This is a tentative idea, as I know many have other plans (Bruce K. and afew included).  It's open to anyone in Life.
I was thinking of somewhere up North with a beautiful beach, good campingground, sparsely populated - impossible at that time of year!!???!!  Anyoneknow of such a place?  The ideal would be a free bach!!! ;-)
Will need to get sorted soon though and book a place if there is interest.

Cheers,
Teresa 

Another member suggested some camping spots, which is how I realized where they lived:

Dear Spa Spunk,
You are becoming more risqué by the day!
Camping by the beach is a great idea - there are some awesome beaches out on the East Coast near Gisborne.  Sparsely populated with a good camping ground is easy, and tenting is a definite go, but I could find out about a house/batch if that were required. 
Would be a real bonus for me as my family live in Gisborne and would be great to be able to catch up with them enroute at some stage.  Could do New Year in Gisborne, Tolaga Bay (Whale Rider), Tokumaru Bay, Ruatoria (Rastas), Te Puia Springs (Hot pools), Onara Bay (paradise), East Cape (lighthouse) ... Te Kaha ... or any other great spot along the way if people are keen. 

Cheers,
Martyn 

I promptly plugged some of these spots into Google Earth to help with the planning:

As far as free bach goes, I don't think we should have any trouble with that, since he's been in the public domain before it even existed! Recordings, though, still require royalties to the players, but there are some great cheap (yet well done) recordings everywhere, especially if you buy used (I found Beethoven's Ninth Symphony for FIFTY CENTS on the discount rack at a VIDEO GAME STORE!! Don't know how it ended up there, but it was still in the shrink wrap and everything!). It might be more fun to try to PLAY some of his music... anyone up for it? I don't know how many of you guys are musical ;-)... but we could always start easy. I've got a portable keyboard we could bring up north!


And as far as that goes, I do think we should go up north... Gisbourne is alright, but if you really want to feel like you're getting away, that's not the place to be. Plus, I don't think they call it "Poverty Bay" for nothing, lol.
-- E>
Ben

 To which I received the following reply:

Hmmmm..did i spell "bach" wrong ;-) ...or is it batch (but that's like"I'll bake a batch of muffins" ;-)  What should it be????
Cheers :-)
Teresa

No, you spelled Bach perfectly. But you still can't spell "beach."

Oh, whoops, I thought you really meant Bach :-(

Well, the offer still stands
-- E>
Ben

They ended up caming up North after all. I'm glad to know that I could help the mildly illiterate Spa Spunk (gross) get to know each other sooo well.