78 at Papa Aroha Camping Ground - our little slice of heaven where we go to relax and rest and rejuvenate our batteries which is what we needed to do this year when we were home so we spend quite a lot of our time there.
Wayne won the battle for catching the biggest fish...but that didn't mean I gave up trying. The fish have never tasted so nice as when you catch them yourself and bring them home and cook them up to eat...whether that be breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper or anytime in between.
On one of the days when the weather...well rather the sea was not suitable for fishing...we decided to go for a drive further up the Peninsula. First stop was at Colville (only has a store, cafe, petrol and school) for a yummy breakfast of pancakes and bacon along with a good cup of coffee. We bought some muesli bars and a cold drink as this is the last shop till we come back..it is also the only way back! The drive is rather beautiful, following the coastline and farmland. We stopped to take a photo of some horses on a ridge when we looked at each other and remarked about the bird life we could hear...it was an incredible sound. Looking around we realsied it was kakas and tuis flying, drinking nectar and calling out in the bush. Standing there and marvelling at how fantastic it was to hear was beautiful.
Kaka is from the parrot family and they have a splash of brilliant orange and scarlet under their wings. Their beak is used as an extra leg when climbing and it can also open hard seeds.
This one above is in full flight of singing - it seemed like they were calling out to their mates telling them we were watching and coming quite close and observing what we were doing.
These birds were in some rejuvenating bush and enjoying the nectar from the pohutukawa.
After spending a couple of hours here we walked over to Poley Bay...was suppose to take 2 and a bit hours there and back but with our dawdling it was like a 5 hour walk. Fantastic scenery - I did manage to find a silver fern.
Christmas Eve and Beth arrived with her children. Santa came to everyone in our two caravans which surprised our older boys when they arrived mid morning. While waiting for them to arrive - so we could open our pressies - we played with the zorb...and had lots of fun.
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| Dominic about to throw. |
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| Jacob keeping his eye on it. |
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| Claudia on her rock about to throw. |
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Beth catching it.
Thankfully, Logan, Lloyd and Anna arrived so we could open the pressies. |
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| Claudia was so proud of her new 'pink' phone. |
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| Dominic watching Jacob closely open his gift. |
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| Anna showing Lloyd that he can now make cheese! |
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| Dad and his two of his sons watching him closely. |
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| You can't have Christmas without a Christmas Cracker and Beth found some huge ones. First up it was the Howes children against the Chaplin children with the Chaplins winning. |
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| Then it was the girls against the boys.... |
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| No surprise who won this one. |
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| Then it was time to go fishing and catch the big one...well not quite the big one this time but a good lot for dinner. |
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| It was time for father some bonding. |
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| Dominic helping his brother get his boat down to the water with the expectation of a ride in the boat. |
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| But no it was Matt and Jacob. |
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| After all his hard work, he was left on the sideline watching them putter across to the mussel farm where they caught more than the guys in Da Boat. |
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| Everyone was back on dry land when those left behind decided to take revenge and have a water bomb fight. Claudia was using her initiative to get Wayne. |
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| But oder and wiser sometimes works. |
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| Obviously a fun time - little did we know that Waynes phone was never the same for the rest of the holiday...but never mind...when we got to Kuala Lumpur it started working again. |
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| Beth between the two tall boys! |
I never thought I would see the day when Beth would be opening mussels let alone eating and enjoying them.
thanks for the feed of them Matt...they were delicious.
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Then it was off for a few days in Hawera to meet up with Anna's family. It was so lovely to meet them after all this time. Thanks Anna for pushing us to do this! While there we went into a local museum and were fascinated by the detail this man has put into the museum.
Mt Egmont showed its peak for us on our way back to Thames.
We stayed two more nights in Thames then it was back up to Auckland to meet up with Logan at Airport Garden Hotel before our flight out. Singapore Airlines is a direct flight to Singapore and we then caught a connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur. We had to exit out of immigration, pick our bags up and go to Terminal 2, go through immigration again and then find where our flight gate. We went to the gate printed on our ticket only to be told after I had gone through that we were at the wrong gate. The other gate was the furtherest one...we had to walk smartly across the entire Terminal to the new gate and yes we did arrive in time.
As usual I felt sad about leaving New Zealand but know we are doing the right thing. We both know that we are not ready to come home to NZ just yet as there is still too much to see and do here. |
