|
Gail and I feeling our bones. So Ne had to go camping without us. For her first adventure, she brought Jackie and Bonnie along.
They went to our favorite place, Kauaeranga Valley near Thames. Jackie didn’t remember it from when we used to go there in the 80’s and 90’s with the Whites. Apparently, the place has changed dramatically, so we shall have to go next summer to see for ourselves. There was an extraordinary amount of rain for them.
Was a short turnaround, before Ne was out the door again, this time with Stephanie. They went to the far north of the Coromandel Peninsula to get photos of scenery for Steph’s painting subjects.
They lucked out with splendid weather and only mishap was a flat tire.
by Catho |
The month of January is New Zealand’s peak month for activities. Christmas and New Years celebrations are taken care of, its now summer and school is out. In the old days there was a saying that NZ closed down for the summer as most factories and government departments actually did so. Everyone went to the beach.
Thirty years later it hasn’t really changed all that much, and summer is for catching up with those people and places that you don’t see the remainder of the year. This summer Gail and I could only make one trip, mainly due to my poor health, and it was a short one at that. After about 6 years saying that we would get back to the Mount, we finally did it. Object of our attention was Ken and Colleen’s new place and their pleasant company. Two laid-backed genial people who have maintained the island easy-go manner from their days in Fiji where I spent three years with them.
As usual we compared what we knew about friends from the “good old days” and what our kids are up to.
Neither of us are grandparents, but Bruce’s (who’s graduating from Uni in May) partner has a girl. Had excellent Indian meals at the Bombay Brasserie that evening.
The following day we hiked around The Mount (previous visit Gail and I climbed it) with them. Could tell that the area had grown substantially in past few years and I wouldn’t mind moving there.
Another friend from 30 years back, but this time from Rosehill days,
David Smithers and family came by for an afternoon in the pool. Last year he and Annette moved to Christchurch and they are extremely happy there with the slower lifestyle compared to Auckland and
did a good job convincing us to look into it for our next domicile.
Our special visitor was Yukiko, who was at Rosehill in 1997 and is the first of the foreign students from that era to return to NZ.
She has completed her university studies and before beginning her career as a junior high teacher in Japan wanted to spend time with her kiwi friends.
She was with us for a week and in that time we played Chinese checkers, that she learned from us and loves, several evenings. International Checkers
|
| |
