The Thursday off sick

Hi,

Well, I woke up and I must have had a touch of Toby's bug.  The day off did wonders I think as I am at work.  Although still not quite right.  But the day looms ahead and then it's the weekend.  Mike and Monica arrive for a stay in the best little capital in the world.  Can't wait to see them.

Yesterday I did go to dragon boating training after work.  As I hadn't actually been sick and nothing else seemed to be happening, I thought a session outside might do wonders.  My timing was off.  But I can hardly blame my poor health.  I suspect it is ineptitude.

But most of the day Toby and I read in bed and I think I slept for a bit.  Mike got home after I left and looked after Toby.

This weekend looks like fun - showing Mike and Monica around Wellington a bit.  Yay!

Right.  Time for a tea.  And water.

Have a great weekend.

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday back at work

Hi,

Toby had a lot of fun with Emerson and Duncan on their urban scavenger hunt.  Yesterday they had to go to both their new schools and take a photo of themselves outside the school and send it to a parent.  Then have lunch.

Today was supposed to be a trip to the Mt Vic lookout, and Te Papa.  But Toby has picked up some bug that ties him to the toilet.  Not nice at all.  Mike is staying home with him and I will cancel his appointment that was later today.

It's a shame for him.  I hate it when he's sick.

Anyhow, before he got sick he said he had a great time and he was excited because the scavenger hunt earns you points for the tasks you complete.  He was negotiating what he might cash in the points for.

I went out to the first dragon boating training session on an actual boat yesterday.  Had the best evening for it.  Warm, still.  I could have jumped into the sea!  We seemed to do ok.  To my completely untrained eye.  Let's see, eh?  A few more practises and then two race days.  One on Feb 13th (that's a fun race day) and one on Mar 5th (the big race).

Time to have a tea and water and start the day!

Have a good one!

Love,
Angela

The weekend that was long, and had Toby come back

Hi,

What an amazing weekend - it was packed full of all the things I like to do.  Camping.  Running.  Time with Mike. Time with friends.  Reading.  Poking around into new places.  Eating.  And seeing Toby again!

Iced coffee at Colonial

I caught up with Reimer in the morning and heard about his break and exchanged news.  I had an iced coffee at Colonial and it was good.

Iced goodness

We had a team lunch to celebrate Celia's birthday and a new team member starting.  Went to MoF on Bowen and it was good!  But I couldn't have another iced coffee.  Mainly because I think the first one was still mainlining through my veins!  I was jumping!

Testing Celia's selfie stick on her birthday on Friday!

Eventually I managed to haul Mike away from work and we ubered home using my second uber driver ever.  And had another clown of a driver.  Two from two.  This one didn't say boo until he came across a random breath test, and then he said it was lucky he wasn't driving drunk and that kava isn't picked up by this test and all sorts of dumb comments.

But, we got home and we were packed for the weekend within 20 minutes.  Ooossshh!  Took a bit longer to get it all in the car though.  But we were off - via the closest petrol station as we were empty.  Then we were off.

And made it to the holiday park at Paekakariki Beach easily.  Pitched the tent super fast, threw the stuff in and settled in for a chat in Gemma and Henrik's tent.  Ange was there already, and Bryce and Teri arrived just after us.  A few more arrived the next day, including Celia and James (and the girls and Zack).  We stayed up chatting until midnight.  Oooohhh.

Up late the next morning and Mike and I went to the Perched Parrot for brekkie.  Yummy.  Then off to explore Queen Elizabeth park.  We wandered around the US Marines memorial (very nicely done) and then the opening of the new bike path.  Mike rode on an old Raleigh 20 bike and then we both had a ride on an electric bike.  It went like stink!

Paekakariki beach

An old Raleigh 20 bike

Fooling on the tram tracks

We walked back to the car the long way - along the beach, up the new bike path, along a bridle track, picked blackberries, played on the tram tracks.

Then we drove to the tram museum and spent some time looking around that.  Fascinating!

I wanted an ice cream at Waikanae so we sat in slow traffic all the way there, and then decided against ice cream in favour of lunch at the Front Room.  I had a really nice chicken salad.

Iced coffee at The Front Room in Waikanae

Smile!

A juicy one for you, Mike

Steam!

 On the way back, we went to the train museum and explored the steam engines.

Nicely renovated carriages

Then I had a date with my book in the tent for a long while.  Until dinner was cooked, actually.

My view!

We had an early night and that meant I was up at a decent hour.  Mike and I went for a walk/run together.  Two minutes together and then I started running.  But I went the wrong way at the first intersection, so I passed Mike again later - much to his surprise.

Ran to the US Marines memorial and back and then explored the beach a bit.  I really have to come back here again.  It is lovely.

We packed up the tent and I convinced Mike to have lunch at a cafe on the way home.  Woot!  We then had a lazy day, waiting for Toby's plane to get in.  It was 30 minutes early so we hurtled out of the house at 11:08pm and got to the airport at 11.16pm as Toby's plane was nosing into the gate!  And Toby came out of the customs door at 11.29pm.  He must have run through!

Dubious toothpaste from Australia

Toby at Yum Cha in Sydney - looking gorgeous

Toby had such a good time in Sydney.  He loves York!  And he has some weird bacon flavoured toothpaste.  I tried it.  Not good!  He loved seeing his cousins and would go back tomorrow!  He said so!

Monday we had a lazy day.  Well, I did.  Mike went tramping by himself.  I did some housework and read lots.  Mike went to see Josh to sort out this week's activities for Toby with Emerson and Duncan!  Should be fun!

I caught the bus in this morning - first time in ages.  Dragon boating training tonight.  And Mike and Toby are tramping.

Busy, busy!  Have a wonderful day!

Love,
Angela

The Thursday with no Toby but no dragon boating either

Hi,

Well, the blustery day meant dragon boating was cancelled - so I still don't know what the boat is like.  Tuesday is our next training session.  Oooohhhh.  Anticipation builds.

But, we met at the pub to discuss tactics.  Hahah.  Or not.  Maybe just to talk rubbish and eat and drink.  I had dinner with Ian, Jo, Celia and Hayden while Mike went to the Southern Cross for a tramping presentation.  After we ate, I caught the bus to Cuba with Eugen and wandered up to collect Mike.

Carpet like our lounge when I was a kid

The pub had this retro room, and the carpet was just like the one I remember in our lounge when I was young.

We drove home and Mike watched some weird television shows while I read and then I fell into a coma.  He may have still be watching programs.  I can't remember.

Rode in with Mike this morning.  He is so slow getting ready in the mornings.  I have never been that late riding down the hill.  Hahahah.

Time to kickstart the day with water and tea.  We're off camping this evening - back Sunday morning to tidy up before Toby comes back!  Yay for Toby's return.

And it's a long weekend here.  Monday is Wellington Anniversary Day.  Fun in the sun!

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with no archery but a catch up with Aidan

Hi,

After another busy day at work, I realised the evening was actually really nice.  So I asked Ange if she was keen on a spot of archery.  She said yes, so I changed into my bike gear (t-shirt and bike shorts) and sneakers and we drove out to Lower Hutt.  The day was lovely, so the window was down and we navigated the peak hour traffic just fine.

But when we got there, the club containers weren't open.  So we sat in the car and chatted away, hoping someone with a key would come and open up.  After about 25 minutes we decided that it wasn't likely to happen.  Ange dropped me home and I changed into some normal shorts and drove down to see Aidan.

Aidan has been learning the violin and I had a wee concert from her before Christmas and another one last night.  The difference in the two sessions was amazing.  If she keeps improving like that, the neighbours will be happy within another month!  Hahah.  I enjoyed it - the tunes are recognisably songs now.  I'm sort of hoping she might try a Bruce Springsteen song or two.  He has Suzy in his concerts to accompany along on many songs.  Jeepers - it looks like hard work though.  The fret board on a violin has no markers to tell you where you put your fingers.  You have to know where B is.  I'd be hopeless.

I also got a book to read from Aidan.  A fantasy about dragons.  I started it last night before I went to sleep and it looks like a good read to me.  We're off camping this weekend so I'll take it along and see if I can make in-roads into it.  She's good to me.

We chatted over a cup of tea and Ed arrived and had his tea too.  The boys were recording gaming sessions but with hot tea in our hands they had to stop that and let us into the lounge to chat.  Hahah.  Good fun.

Went home and Mike got home not long afterwards from his tramping club night.  I absolutely crashed when I turned out my light, but I was awake before my alarm - so it must have been a perfect sleep.

Dragon boating tonight - first time in a real boat.  Ooooo.  It's going to be huge!

Have a great day!

Love,,
Angela

The Tuesday with no Toby but meeting Josh

Hi,

Bit of an odd day again.  Maybe it is just that I am missing Toby in my life that is making me slightly discombobulated.

[Note:  I am chuckling to myself that I have used that word in a real sentence]

I had lunch with Mary and Dave at work to welcome Mary back to work.  She got back into the flow really fast!  She's organised our lunch time run for the year on Tuesdays now.  Can't wait!  I need to up my game after a lazy Christmas break.

Celia also brought in loads of avocados from her parents tree.  Mmmmm.  Serge lined them up like wee kiwis and took a photo.  I took one of his creation too.

Kiwis

After work I met Josh for a drink at the Royal.  We had only just started drinking when Mike and Andrew showed up.  Mike was working out ta Lower Hutt and Andrew and Sally only just got back into town.  So Andrew came in for dinner with us.  We chatted about Andrew's epic bike ride up the entire North Island.  It was great fun.

We dropped Josh home and then Mike ran into Aidan's place to drop off spare avocados.  Then it was a drive out to Sally and Andrew's place to see Sally and chat for a bit before heading home and a crash into bed!

Up early for my run!  5 km.  Sweaty time.  Then a ride in with Mike and into work!  Ooosshhh!.

Mike's mother has headed back to Dunedin.  She made such huge in-roads into our garden that I need to keep it up.  And Toby really wants a vege patch again. So I'll sort that out and get it ready for planting.

I wonder if archery could be an option this evening?  Mike is off to tramping club and we have a quiet evening planned after that.  But maybe I could get some archery in...

Enjoy your day!

Love,
Angela

The Monday with no Toby

Hi,

It is very odd not having Toby around.  I bet he is hardly giving me a second thought.  I drove home with Mike yesterday and we had dinner.  As we got home, we listened to the thunderstorm approaching and then it bucketed down rain.

Mike went for a run/walk on the treadmill while we watched some television.  We never watch television, so it was a real treat.  Nurse Jackie - season 2.  Yes, we're fair behind.  I saw there seem to be seven seasons of that now.

Went to bed fairly early as Mike is really tuckered out at the moment.  Got up when my alarm went off and the rain had stopped.  Yay.

Good morning Wellington

As I ate breakfast, the sun peeked out and brought out the deep green in the hills over the valley.  Lovely.

I found Michelle's birth card last night and enjoyed reading it.

Look what I found!

Cutie!

My ride in was on wet roads, but it is sunny now, so I stayed dry.  Bumped into Josh on the number 20 bus.  We're catching up with him after work today.

Right.  Time to have a big drink of water and some tea.

Have a great day!

Love,
Angela

The weekend with no Toby

Hi,

What a weird weekend that was.  Toby had a play date with Emerson and Duncan and Aidan bravely took them all to H2oXtreme.  She isn't doing that again in a hurry.  It was a school holiday crowd - and packed and noisy.

We went to Aidan's house on Friday night and had a great time celebrating Emerson and Duncan's birthday.  Ed is over at the moment, so we caught up with him and exchanged news about what we'd all been doing.

Pizzas were ordered in and consumed.  Josh made birthday cake which was a huge hit.  But we had to get away early because we still hadn't packed for Toby's week away in Sydney.  Josh dropped us home and we packed for Toby's week away.  We went to bed early as we had an alarm for 3.45am!

When we got up at that very early time, Mike had a text from the airline to say Toby's flight had been cancelled.  So he got onto Air New Zealand and stayed on hold for 30 minutes.  But in that time they had re-booked Toby onto a flight into Melbourne and then onto Sydney on a domestic flight.  That meant Toby had to clear customs in Melbourne and then transit to the domestic terminal for a flight to Sydney.  My little heart was concerned about this change in plans.

But we got up and rushed out to the airport for Toby's earlier flight to Melbourne and we popped him into the customs area and sat and watched the airport life until his plane took off.

I was a little anxious until I heard from him in Melbourne.  He had got through customs and was sitting at the gate for his flight to Sydney and he was happy!  Yay!  Eventually I got a text from Karen to say she had him.  And I was much happier.

Mike and I went out to Isy's place for a BBQ dinner with the Nepal crowd.  We were early so we popped in to see Sophie.  We interrupted them a bit.  Oops.  But they were all gracious.

Back at Isy's place and we tried to see Sophie's house from Isy's backyard.  They must be just over the brow of that hill behind her fence.  We ate loads of food.  I caught up with everyone.

BBQ at Isy's place

We didn't get home until midnight.  Oooo.  Party animals.  Next morning I was up to collect Ange for archery fun.  We hadn't been for a month so we had to get our eye in.  Ange's first bow kept losing the sight off it.  She'd be aiming and shoot, and the sight would hurtle off.  She switched for a better option.

Not quite on target

After a hot archery session (we shot with a 14 year old called Ella - daughter of Eddie - one of our instructors) we went to Caffiend for lunch and a cold drink.  The breeze coming in was lovely after the hot sun.

Iced coffee at Caffiend

Ange and I came home via Mitre 10 and Guthrie Bowron for some work Ange needed to do around her house.  Then she invited us for a BBQ tea.

We left our house in hot sunshine and got to Ange's house (5 minute walk away) inside a foggy cloud.  So we ate a BBQ in the cloud.  Dee and Nick came along too.  Good fun to catch up.

Pretty flower at Ange's house

Back home to collapse in a heap in bed and sleep like the dead.  My walk into work was beautiful.  Not a breath of wind.

Stunning harbour view on my walk into work

 Time to kick start the day.  26C and humid here today.  Yucky weather.

Have a wonderful week ahead.

Love,
Angela

The Thursday with John!

Hi,

What a great day!  After work I walked to the pool for dragon boating training.  I am almost possibly sort of nearly getting the idea of paddling.  Maybe.  Hahahah.

Dragon boating foot

From there I got changed and wandered over to Vista over the road and Mike, Toby and John got there at the same time.  John was flying out of Wellington super early this morning and had been catching up with family in Golden Bay.

Vista was lovely.  Toby ordered the pan fried snapper and scoffed it down like it was Tim Tams.  I haven't seen him eat like that in ages.  And that was after a lot of bread dipped in olive oil too.  And then the chocolate mousse came out and Toby thought he'd gone to heaven.

John got us caught up on his news.  His mother has a house in Pohara.  His brothers are doing well.  Heard about Judith, John and Clare.  Judith's family.  And I passed on best wishes from Karen and Ma!  So, all caught up.  We dropped him at Adam's house afterwards, catching an awesome sunset from close to Island Bay.

Seaward Kaikouras from the south coast

The sky changed as I watched it

This morning Mike and I walked in.  Nice.  Toby is off to spend the day with Emerson and Duncan (thanks Aidan) and we have a birthday dinner at her place tonight.  Ed is there, so I'll finally get to see him on this trip.

Toby goes to Sydney tomorrow.  He can't wait!  Wish I was going.

Right.  Time to start the day.


Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with nothing much

Hi,

Well, I rode home in the lashing wind and rain.  Where did that come from?  Jeepers!  I had lunch with Ange on the roof at work, and as we sat in baking sunshine, these clouds came over from the south and changed the day completely.  I never realised by quite how much until I went to ride home and found rain to contend with.

But it was the sort of wispy rain that never really gets you wet.  So apart from hanging up my jacket when I got home, nothing else seemed to matter.

Mike cooked tea and chatted to his mother.  She had started clearing the grass on the brick patio and it looks amazing!  After tea they chatted about chemistry (real chemistry - with electrons and bonding and all sorts) and then Mike drove her home.

Mike also planted some work clothes at Sally and Andrew's house and cleared the mailbox again.  He is intending to ride out there today for work and shower at their house before work.

This evening I have dragon boating training and then our friend John Holloway is in town for one night only.  Sounds like a huge event.  Well, I guess it is.  Looking forward to seeing him.  This time it is just him.  Maybe next time we'll see Judith and the kids.

I have to pack for Toby's trip to Sydney.  Ooohhh - he is so excited.

Have a great day!

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday that felt like Wednesday

Hi,

Yep - the days continued at the pace of a snail.  But jammed packed with so much frantic activity.  Oh well.  I did hear from Andrew and Sally and Andrew has crossed the Kaipara harbour to Dargaville.  How amazing is that?  He has two days left - maybe three - to get to Cape Reinga.

Iced coffee at Colonial

I did get brekkie with Steph yesterday - by far the highlight of the day really.  Toby got to go to dog training with Vivienne and I can tell he really loved it (see Vivienne's facebook feed for a photo!).  Pretty sure that was his highlight.

Other than that, the day passed by...

This morning I have brekkie with Fran!  Woot!  Haven't caught up with her for months.  Can't wait to see her.

Have a fantastic day!

Love,
Angela

The Monday with work making it feel like Wednesday today

Hi,

How can one day at work feel like two days?  Last night I was sorting out my day ahead and for the life of me, I thought it must be Wednesday the next day because I felt exhausted from two days at work already.  But ... no.  My boys assured me it was only Monday.

We went through old photos because we're sending a whole heap of negatives with Toby to Sydney so Scott can slowly convert them to electronic format.  Some should never have come out of the shoebox.

My Year 11 school photo.  Too funny!

Me with Michelle and Vince on my bike

Skiing in glorious 80s colours!

Anyway, I also sprayed round up over the budding weeds, trying to keep it all looking fabulous.  And Toby has dog training with Vivienne tonight.  She thought he might enjoy it, and Toby leapt at the chance.  I really need to investigate the fostering kittens with the SPCA.

Right.  Time to get stuck into work.

Have an awesome day.  Hope it feels like Tuesday to you, wherever you are!

Love,
Angela

The weekend with me and Toby

Hi,

Toby and I had such a good weekend together.  Friday night we watched Back to the Future part one.  And we slept on the floor in his bedroom like we were camping.  Mind you, I woke early (5.30am) and crept up to my bed for a snooze before waking again to read.  Toby didn't surface until 10.30am!  Hahahah.

We went around to Vivienne's and John's house and had lunch with everyone.  The day was stunning and the lunch was good fun!  Vivienne made the two of us seafood chowder and it was amazing!

The view from Vivienne and John's house on Saturday

Awesome seafood chowder from Vivienne

After lunch we watched Benjamin and John deal to the lawn before taking the dogs for a walk to see the tree where the kakas fledged.

From there, Toby and I went home and chilled out for the rest of the evening.  We watched Back to the Future Two but I slept in my own bed!

Sunday morning I was supposed to go to archery with Ange but it was a howling gale.  So I finally went for a run and then realised around 9am that the wind had died away completely and it was beautiful.  Ange picked us up and Dee, and we went to Eastbourne for brunch.  Toby really enjoyed himself.  He bought a newspaper and ate bacon and poached eggs and had a thickshake.

Iced coffee and thickshake goodness

Toby with his newspaper at the cafe

 Ange happily took me to do my messages in Lower Hutt.  I bought a lamp for the lounge that I had my eye on and I bought a bed head that Mike had liked.  Ooooohhhh.  Can't wait for the bedroom stuff to be delivered - late Feb.  That'll be a good birthday present.

Lounge looking good

Back home and I tidied a little before Mike got home around 5pm.  Earlier than I thought he would.  He enjoyed the lounge effort!  I think it is mainly because I took the Christmas tree down that it looks so good.

Anyway.  The week looms ahead.  Busy, like usual.  Kinda wish I still had the Stewart Island trip this week.  Oh well.  Never mind.  My birthday is coming and that is something to look forward to.

Have a lovely week!

Love,
Angela

The Thursday with dragon boating training

Hi,

My day at work was a bit pants.  You get that.  I did get flowers delivered at work from Mike.  He's a sweetie.

He loves me.

I also caught up with Aidan for the first time since before Christmas.  Seems as though she had a good time over the break.  Ed is here today for a few weeks, so that should be lovely.

After work I had a quick drink with Steph and Ange (thanks for the drink Steph - next brekkie is on me!) and then James gave me a lift with Celia (he thought he should take Celia, I guess!  :-p ) to dragon boating training.

Jeepers - it is hard work.  We went for a run beforehand and then spent 40 mins in the pool on the side with paddles trying to get some sort of rhythm.

Mike collected me at the end and rode his bike home while I went to work to collect my bike.

Today (Friday) is pants weather.  I drove in!  Rain and gales.  Yucky.  But warm.

Mike is off to Ruapehu this weekend.  I think Toby and I have lunch with Vivienne on Sunday.  But not much else planned.  Emerson and Duncan get back from their holiday on Sunday.

Looking forward to the weekend.  Enjoy yours!

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with nothing much

Hi,

But what a stunning day it was - weather-wise.  I forgot I had breakfast planned with some friends and had to have two breakfasts yesterday.  What a shame, eh?  Merran and Nadine had selected Lueven and changed the time from 8 to 8.30.  I sat down facing the doorway across from Merran and two minutes into our catch up (while we waited for Nadine), Aidan walked in with her colleagues for breakfast.  Funny!

Sushi for dinner

At lunch time I went out into the glorious sunshine to eat my bread roll in some peace and quiet.  People are still away on summer holiday, so there are less people in town than usual.  Nice.

I rode home and made dinner for Mike and Toby.  I promised sushi to Toby.  I still don't make beautiful looking bits of sushi.  Well, Mike's batch was better.  I seem to improve as I go along.  Toby's was the first batch and they look a little... like I used a chainsaw.  Hahah.

Mike got home and ate his sushi after riding home for the first time in about a year.  Good on him!

I sat in the sunshine on the deck, reading my book.  Such a pleasant end to the day.

Today after work is another dragon boating training session.  Ooooo.  In the pool.  It's going to be hard work.

Have a wonderful day!

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday back at work

Hi,

I still can't get over the work Mike's mother put into our garden over the Christmas break.  It's looking so good.  Here's to keeping it looking that way - and planting some more rengarenga to keep it tidy.

Front yard looking amazing

Wow!

We both got a lift home from work yesterday with Ange and convinced her to drop by after her supermarket shopping for a BBQ dinner.  She came with steak and sunflowers.  Made me happy!

Beautiful sunflowers

Mike tries out his new BBQ

 The BBQ worked a treat - made scrumptious steak.  Or rather - Mike made scrumptious steak on the new BBQ.  Hahahah.  Well, I am now looking forward to more enjoyable barbeques on the deck.  Especially in weather like this.

Ange stayed for a bit and we ate cheese and chocolates.  Mmmmm.  Then it was time for bed before I fell over.

Up early for my run and had a good time in the lovely morning.  Another stunning day here.

This morning is fine again in the capital

I am meeting some people I know for brekkie this morning.  Can't wait.

Have a lovely day!

Love,
Angela

The awesome Christmas

Hi,

Well, I have a lot to catch you up on, don't I?

My last day at work was Christmas Eve and I worked from home.  Apart from a flurry of activity early in the morning, it was quiet the rest of the day.  Mike and Toby went to see Star Wars with Will and enjoyed it a lot.

Mike's mother came around for Christmas Eve and we had dinner and went to sleep, excited about the day to come!

Toby was up so early - 5am!  Talk about excited.  We managed to convince him to go back to sleep for a bit.  Whether he slept or not remains a mystery.

But we were soon all up and opening presents.  Then we had to make our Christmas lunch contributions.

Christmas lunch

The day was stunning.  And the lunch was superb.  We chatted to my mother for a while to say hello.  And the phone got passed around a bit.  We left relatively early because Mike still had to pack for the trip up north and we were leaving early.

Toby and me on Christmas Day

Evidence I wore a dress

Up at 4.45am and we were away by 5.20am.  Wow!  So excited.  Toby slept and we made it to Taihape before we had breakfast.  At the slowest Maccas in New Zealand.

Peter (Lesley's father) was concerned about traffic and parking for the island visit and volunteered to drive  us to Sandspit for our trip over.  Mike rang the ferry company and they said it would be fine to get a park.  So we declined Peter's kind offer and continued through Auckland.

We had lunch in Warkworth after a lovely drive up with minimal traffic.  The signs in Auckland promised traffic delays heading north but there was no such thing.  We parked our car and ferried our luggage to the boat shed and waited for our ride.  We got on our water taxi and headed over to Kawau Island.

On the water taxi to Kawau Island

The Sampson family met us at Schoolhouse Bay wharf and we got a lift up to Peter's bach in the island car.  Wooohhh - luxury.

We pitched our tent in the backyard and Mike and I slept in there.  Brennan and Toby slept on stretchers in the new shed.  The girls slept in the second room in the house and Lesley and Wally slept in the front room.  Worked great!

And it turns out that Kawau Island is some sort of paradise.  I loved it!  The days have all blurred but it was an amazing place.  And catching up with everyone was great.  Toby just slipped back into their company like he had never been away.

Boat through the trees

We went for a late walk and spotted a wallaby.  The island was Governor Grey's residence for a while and he had exotic animals.  There are no zebras left, but wallabies are everywhere.  And possums.  And magpies.  And even kookaburras.  It was like I had been transported.

For a run over Mansion House Bay

Walking home after a run and swim at Ladys Bay

Found the iced coffees at Mansion House cafe

That's an iced chocolate for Lesley

South Cove for a picnic tea

We explored parts of the island.  We swam nearly every day.  If not at Lady's Bay, then off the wharf at Schoolhouse Bay.  We went out fishing off Peter's boat on its mooring one evening - me, Wally, Jess and Chelsea.  We caught loads of fish.  I found a nice running route through the trees and went quite a few times.  Mike walked lots - with bricks in his pack.  We visited South Cove and had a picnic tea.  We pulled apart the kitchen sink pump when it got blocked (not a lot of fun).

Toby and Brennan on the first evening's walk to Mansion House Bay

First glimpse of the forest on our first evening walk

Selfie!  @ Mansion House Bay

Posing (especially Brennan) at Mansion House Bay

Fishing on Runaway

Feet at Lady's Bay

Ladys Bay - one of our favourite spots

Pretty much I achieved my ambition of reading, eating, sleeping and swimming.  Lots of all of those things every day.

The cafe at Mansion House Bay had iced coffees and ice creams.  Mmmmm.  Worth a few visits.  Wally inflated the rubber dinghy and we played in that.  Watching Toby in that was funny.

New Years was a great evening, staying up late.  500 was a huge hit.  Charades - not so much.  We went for a late walk and Lesley found out that her legs didn't work properly after sitting all evening drinking the odd wine.  Or two!

We got a bit of painting done around the place too.  Well, some of us did.  :-)  At least it looked pretty good when we left - so we did achieve some things off Peter's wish list.

The rain started at 6am on New Years Day (Friday) and never let up.  We caught the 9.20am ferry on the Saturday and didn't get to Sandspit until midday!  We saw a lot of the island, picking up passengers.

We got caught in the traffic heading into Warkworth and stopped there for lunch.  I had an awesome iced coffee at Ginger Cafe - I'd go back there.  Eggs benny were good too!

This meant we were late leaving Auckland and therefore late all the way home.  We got into our house at 10.20pm.  And it rained the entire way.  Constantly.

Iced chocolate for Toby at Ginger Cafe in Warkworth

Me with wild hair and a great iced coffee at the Ginger Cafe

 Sunday was a blur of getting things sorted.  We went out to Queensgate and we bought some bedside tables for our bedroom.  Toby spent his vouchers at JB Hi Fi and EB Games and was very happy.  We caught up with Sally and discovered Andrew had started his North Island trip from Cape Palliser to Cape Reinga.  Wow!

Monday was lovely weather and we got the tent dried and finished the gardening that Mike's mother had started.  You can all come and visit again - the place looks great!

I made myself a home made iced coffee.  Mmmmm.

Home made iced coffee

So, that just about sums it up.  I feel a bit out of place at work today.  My head is still on Kawau Island with Wally and Lesley.  I loved our holiday there.  It will stay in my mind for a long, long time!

Love,
Angela