The Round Trip

 We were all set to go down on the 21^st of Jan to see Fred, but Leigh rang and said that he had been readmitted to hospital, and we weren’t able to visit him. We could tell by the crack in Leigh’s voice that things were serious and decided to go down the following week regardless, and check on how Leigh was doing too.

Fortunately Fred was now out of hospital. We arrived in Napier after lunch, only to receive a text from Leigh to say that they were at the medical centre, awaiting the results of an Xray – which had us guessing.

Fine we said, we’ll go to Trinity Hill and taste some wines.

Fred had fallen down the stairs, and twisted his ankle and hit his head – fortunately no broken bones. We enjoyed a glass of wine (Fred’s rationed by Leigh) and some nibbles together.

Nick, Cindy and their children Frankie, Oscar and Arlo have moved back from Western Australia and are living with them at present, Nick has a job at nearby Sacred Heart College.

Fred hopes to try a new medication this week which he hopes will give him a better quality of life. Let’s hope so.  We stayed in the Te Pania Hotel in Napier which was very pleasant.

Next day we travelled over the Napier Taupo Road and went to have lunch with John and Linda Tarbutt - more optometry friends. They have just bought a new home in the countryside - but in a new subdivision - close to Cambridge. It was very interesting catching up with them and looking at their retirement setting. We dropped Duncan's exercycle off for a service in Hamilton and headed out to Wren and Margaret's to stay the night.

Just picked up where we left off, even though it is so long since we were at Hahei. Wren is looking very fit for 80, and over COVID has taken to making up flat-packs of drawers and cupboards etc which he gets from Mitre 10 (the clients choose what they want and Wren makes them up).

I have long wanted to go to Zealong, the tea place which is just around the corner from Wren and Margaret's

The setting is beautiful and it was a gorgeous day

The top shelf

Just a wad of salmon left on my tower!

Here we are with our High Tea nibbles - just a stand each!!

The park-like surroundings are most enjoyable

Looking up towards the factory

There is a walk up to the Tea house with lots of brass statues to adorn the edge.

After a short nap it was off to pick up the bike, and then to my Medical Appointment with Grant Christie in Grey Street - just up the road from Duck Island Icecream Parlour that we used to take Theo to.

After that we headed over the Kaimais to Tauranga. The queues of traffic were appalling. We stayed  in a cheap motel and had some nice Turkish food, with a glass of appalling wine - we were glad to get back to our unit an open up a bottle there.

Next morning we visited John and Bev Watt - who coincidentally lived in the next block to the motel! They have a lovely view over the harbour, but are feed up with the traffic and the lack of town planning. A shift is on the cards - maybe to Christchurch.

So we got home quite late on the Saturday, but it had been a most entertaining trip away.