Oakura holiday 4

Lots of pictures below. We are almost at an end of the summer holiday and we have had a ball. We left our own bit of paradise last week and went down the east coast for a couple of hours to a settlement called Oakura. We found the bach on a website and it was very reasonable. The view from the deck was fantastic, out over a sheltered bay along the beach. There was always something going on: fishing boats going out, people hooning around on sea-bicuits, paddle boarders, kayakers, walkers, swimmers. The tide went in and out - as it does. We had the time to watch it and plan our activities around its movement. We all had goes at fishing, swimming, diving.

My own favourite kayak was the one on the very last morning. Chantelle got up at 0515, had a coffee and were on the water before sunrise. The water was very calm. We paddled into a perfect sunrise with the Poor Knight Islands as a backdrop. We caught no fish big enough to bring home, but we could see them shoaling about in the clear water below the boat.

We also drove to a DOC reserve 1/2 hour down the coast at Mimiwhangata. Even more beautiful beach. We had a go at snorkelling in the rock pools.

We took all our boys plus a friend. They are all pretty much living on planet teenage, where the conversation is crude, film-based and inconsequential. The activities are based around sugar and staying up until the small hours. The years of our family holidays may be coming to an end.

 

 

 

 

Oakura holiday 3

 

 

 

 

Oakura holiday 2

 

 

 

 

Oakura holiday 4

 

 

 

 

Fruity

 

 

 

Party on dude!

 

 

 

New Year's Day garden 1

 

 

 

 

New Years Day Garden 2

 

 

 

 

New Year's Day garden

 

 

 

 

Christmas Day on the beach

The last picture is obviously Christmas day on the beach. We went to "pink beach" which is just north of Henderson's Bay. The weather has been pretty stuffed up all summer and no concessions were made for it being Xmas day. A strong Easterly was blowing. We had some shelter from the rocks and it was warm enough out in the sun. We had a nice day. BBQ courtesy of Chantelle and Rissy. Mike and I are New Age and are happy to let the women-folk take charge of the barbie!
There was beach cricket, exploration of the rock pools, I even managed a snorkel in a sheltered rock pool. No kina there though.

The most remarkable thing was when we were going home. We had a 3 car convoy and we were the last car. There is a windy metalled (ie gravel) road for about 5km from the beach to the main road. We came across an upside down car. The driver had taken a corner too fast and had rolled his car a few times. Luckily neither he nor his girl friend were injured, though she was in a state of shock. A few other cars stopped, the car was first turned the right way round, checked for damage. they tried to start it but it was not going anywhere. One bloke then towed the wreck to the side of the road so that no-one would crash into it. Mike and Rissy too the couple back to Kaitaia to arrange a tow truck. They then drove them all the way to Kerikeri where they had booked accommodation. All this without any involvement of AA, police, ambulance etc. Realistically, if we had managed to get mobile reception to call out any of those on Christmas day, it would have taken them hours to get there.

Happy Christmas to all our friends, realtives and lurking readers. Feel free to comment on the posts. Just let us know who you are! We see that we have people reading all over the world. Introduce yourselves. Go on now ...

 

 

 

 

Summer Solstice

More boring pictures of long-line snapper. Thing is, when you catch such a beauty, you just have to take a picture. And then it is only natural to share picture with your friends and family. Added to which we have had a couple of unsuccessful trips recently (past 3 in fact) so it is good to have visual reminders of the fish that we have caught.

It was the solstice (as usual) on about December 21st. I cleaned out the bush bath from its long winter hosting all the baby trees. Added a few candles, filled with water and lit a fire. Our first bath of the season. We as a species spend too much time indoors so it is always good to have another reason for getting outside. The mozzies are the only downside. The smokier the fire is the fewer hassles we get from mozzies.