New Zealand Part 2, the end

I was thinking that there wasn't much more to say about my trip, but then I looked at my photos and realised that there was a bit more fun to tell of.

After the rainy day visit to Hobbiton, Dianne dropped me off in Morrinsville to meet my lovely friend Debbie, only she got held up at work so I met her hubby, Hilton, in the bike shop instead. He is an avid biker and I am sure this is his favourite place to hang out. I was mightily impressed with this fat-tyre bike that was sitting on a stand. The tyre was close to 4" in diameter. FREAKY! But I wanted to ride it. 

I spent the weekend with Debbie and Hilton, just hanging out and eating, basically. Deb and Hilton know their comfort foods!

It was lovely. 

Hilton dropped me off at my nephew's house on Sunday morning, where I got to hang out with two very cute kids. Seth showed me their resident monarch chrysalises (there's a word!) and caterpillars. He likes to put the chrysalises in his bedroom and then when they hatch out they fly around his room until he lets them out. What a guy! The chrysalises are so beautiful, with gold dots that look like precious metal beaded around the circumference.

And here it is on the swan plant, which is of the milkweed family. 

Then we drew a city on the patio with sidewalk chalk. It had a park, airport, school, firehouse, library, a railway station, and lots of other things, and they all had a lunch room. Apparently, Seth really likes his lunch. And Lily drove the cars around the roads. 

And then it was time to say goodbye, and the children said, Oh please don't go, we'll eat you up we love you so.....

And on the way back to the beach we stopped at the Domain in Te Aroha, which is gorgeous and had this great swing, 

so Anne and I made John push us until we fell asleep.

Not really, because the seat was kind of uncomfortable, but it was peaceful and relaxing, and John is always happy to oblige his females.

On one of the days we went to visit Mum we stopped in Whiritoa, a tiny coastal town where Anne and John almost settled. We walked along the beach.

And we found this little lagoon, which was quite shallow and protected from the surf, although every now and then a large wave almost disturbed the tranquility.

Well, more than almost.

Then we decided to hike over the hill to see the blowhole.

Sometimes, a day is just too full of gorgeousness.

I deeply regretted leaving my shoes in the car right about now. We had to walk up through the bush, and my white feet are not used to the barefoot thing. Much "oww"-ing and "ouch"-ing ensued.

The blowhole did not disappoint.

We I managed to not fall off the edge into the frothing ocean, and then we decided not to go back along the trail in deference to my feet, but to climb down and then walk along the back of the rocks.

Anne, being brave, tested out the depth of the water we had to cross in order to get to the trail. 

It was above our knees, we being short, but barely came above John's calves, him being tall.

And we walked along the stream bed,

back past the lovely lagoon,

and then we went home.

On Thursday we drove up to Whitianga, where I met Dianne again so that we could take a glass-bottomed boat trip together. Partners in crime. I was a little disappointed because it covered a lot of the same ground as the boat trip we took in 2013, but there was the glass bottom thing and also some promised snorkeling. 

Dianne enjoys herself wherever she goes!

Cathedral Cove, of course. 

Because the boat pilots feed the snapper, they congregate thickly underneath the boat, giving the riders a good view. Some of them were very large, making me have second thoughts about the whole snorkeling thing.

The boat was woefully unequipped to offer snorkeling along the lines of what we encountered on Kaua'i,  so there were no prescription masks, no flippers, and no floaties. I was willing to give on the first two, but a floatie I must have, so I took one of the bumpers from the side of the boat and used that. The water was not warm, so I only lasted about ten minutes, and I was very afraid of having my lily-white toes nibbled upon by the snapper, but I managed to emerge unscathed in spite of someone throwing the food into the water right next to me.

Anne and John were waiting faithfully for me at the wharf.

We picked up some fish and chips and found a peaceful place to eat them.

Someone had decorated the trees with shells.

We bought two servings of fish, which is usually plenty, but as you can see, the fish is sorely under-represented.

We ate our few bites of fish, trying to decide whether or not to go back to the fish shop and complain. Our sense of justice won out and back we went. Anne looks a bit peeved, doesn't she?

Funnily enough, we didn't have to fight it at all, because as soon as Anne told the woman in the shop what had happened, she remembered that she had only given us one serving and refunded us our money. Which we spent on a hokey-pokey ice cream cone. 

Well, I did.

On Friday, John and Jacquie drove all the way to pick me up and I spent the last weekend back in Temple View with them. 

These here are four of my favourite people in the whole world.

Saturday was full of pouring rain of the ilk that leaves deep puddles everywhere, but we braved it and went ferreting around in an antique fair and op shops. And we ate and talked and had a generally lovely time until Sunday, when they took me to the airport.

And here is my favourite photo of the three Wilson girls. Which was the point of the trip, really.

The end.

Lazy and loving it

One week in the land of the long white cloud and I am turning into a slothful Susan who is making the most of her entitled status as favourite sister and long-time friend.

Leah, my flatmate from my days in Wellington, and her husband picked me up from the airport at an ungodly hour of the morning last Saturday and drove me the two hours to my sister's house on the Coromandel Peninsula. The sun was rising and mist was lying low in the green fields, and it smelled like home.

We stopped at a roadside stand and I nabbed a box of fresh Gala apples, $3 for three kilos.

Crispy, sweet, and scrumptious.

Later that day, John rolled out his big surprise.

Walter, his trusty roadster.

We went for a tiki tour up the coastline, and this was the view that Leah and I had from the rumble seat.

Derek and Leah went home on Sunday after church, after being thoroughly spoiled by Anne.

And that left just ME to be pampered.

We drove up to Whitianga one day and had a picnic next to the sea. These scenes are from the drive.

Anne and I have been spending lots of time with Mum, who is in a care home an hour away. One day, we hit all of the op shops that we could find on the way down. We love ferreting around for bargains and had a glorious time. 

We had some fun with these statues in Waihi.

On Friday, my old school chum, Dianne, treated me to a Hobbiton visit. 

See? Spoiled. 

First, we had a delicious lunch at the Punnet Cafe, where I had rice pudding with poached peaches and I thought I was in Heaven.

As we pulled up in the Hobbiton parking lot, the rain started. It continued, in vary degrees of obnoxiousness, until we pulled out of the parking lot three hours later.

I was mortally disappointed in the use of this apostrophe, but managed to not let it ruin my day.

J.R.R., I am sure, would be mortified.

Here we are, in our flattering plastic raincoats.

The climb was quite steep.

The view across the pond to the Green Dragon tavern.

Bilbo's house, of course.
I was very disappointed that we couldn't go in. All of the inside scenes were filmed in Wellington, and the houses are only facades.

We were very bedraggled by the time we arrived at the Green Dragon, but the tour was fun and our Scottish guide was patient with our lingering. 

This was the view from both sides of the door as we dumped our umbrellas. 

Raising a toast with our mugs of ginger beer.

I was hoping for a hot cup of Milo, but no such luck.

Thank you Dianne, it was a fun afternoon, in spite of the rain.

Next stop was a weekend with Debbie, my friend from my first real job, and her husband, who have renovated an old church out Te Aroha way. There is a lovely bedroom in that house that catches the afternoon sunlight and has my name on it. Two days of complete relaxation, delicious food, music videos, conversation, and coddling ensued. It's kind of scary how quickly I devolve into slugdom.
I wish that it was possible to store days like these in my pocket so that I could pull them out later when I need them.

Trees and blooms

It was such a beautiful day yesterday that Jeff and I went to the Tualatin Wildlife Refuge for a stroll.

As we approached the trail, we saw something that looked like a tiny helicopter, alternately hovering about thirty feet in the air and then dive-bombing some flowering currant bushes. 

What is it? I cried.

A hummingbird, said he.

And he was right. It was an astounding sight, as the tiny bird was darting around so quickly that we couldn't really get a good fix on it. Jeff managed to get a couple of good photos when it hovered to feed from the flowers. 

It was so beautiful, and when it turned towards us, its ruby throat was brilliant.

And then it flitted away.

The trees were in fine form, all covered in fluffy moss and with the sun shining through.

I love trees, and mossy trees are my favourites.

The springtime wild flowers are busting out all over.

Yellow violets.

Trillium in several shades.

This old stump, covered in thick moss and ferns, had a lovely slab of fungus attached to the top of the hollow.

This wee chipmunk was very shy and I had to surreptitiously zoom in to get a picture.

Not sure of the identity of these leaves, but we saw them in several shades of green and purple, and I liked them.

The air was full of beating geese wings and their honking cries. I wondered which goose decided when it was time for his particular flock to circle the skies. There must have been hundreds, if not thousands, of them on the refuge. 

 Bright yellow Oregon grape flowers.

And as we approached the beginning of the trail again, we saw the back end of this fat squirrel.

I just looked at Jeff's pictures of the outing and had to steal a few.

If you are local and haven't visited yet, do it! This is the best time of year, in my opinion, and it is free. There is a visitor's centre and frequent weekend activities.