Summer holidays - Part 1 Ohiwa

 It was a slightly unusual start to our camping holiday as we had left the caravan in Ohiwa, and it was a matter of stuffing everything from Christmas trees to bikes in the back of the car. It did mean we forgot a few things, as we would normally pack the fridge rather than the chilli bin. Of course it was a fast trip over, not towing, and we got set up on T12 and the gazebo up before dinner. there was a patch of the site that was very wet, and I had to sacrifice one of my cheap plastic tablecloths to put over the muddy part.

On the Sunday we went for a walk along the beach which was very eroded.

Next morning we were up bright and early and heading via Taupo bypass to Fred Swains funeral in Napier. It was a celebration of Fred's life - made easier by the fact that he was already cremated - no dead body in the room. We went back to the house afterwards, and stayed the night in a hotel. Then we came back on Tuesday.

Picture taken in Jan 2022

There was still some more rainy patches to come, but we managed a couple of swims, did quite a bit of reading and scrabble playing.

We picked Heather up from the bus in Opotiki on the 22nd, after we had bought a lovely outdoors mat at Mitre 10 to help with the muddy patch, and restocked at the Supermarket.

Next morning Heather and I walked up to Bryan's Beach which needed a bit of a tidy up. The bar structure there was also damaged.

We came back via the inland track, and it was lovely to see that young pohutukawa trees are springing up under the older trees. The little grotto there has a good waterfall of water going, and the mosses were enjoying it.

We went to Carla and Craigs for nibbles that night, and the weather was starting to perk up.

They are well set up on E8, and even have the Christmas lights going.

Christmas meals were three courses over the day. The Brunch course was like appetisers - something to nibble at while we had our Champagne. 

The main course had a South American flavour to it, with a spicy quinoa salad , BBQ lamb, with avocado topping. The dessert was apple tarts with a macadamia filling.

One of our neighbours had decorations which featured presents which didn't have a bottom. I kept checking for chocolates, and sure enough, on Christmas day they were there! 

We were up bright and early next morning, and complete with Heather in the back seat headed for Gisborne, to frantically mow lawns, garden and do some washing before Heading South for the New Year part of our holiday. Heather and I did manage to have a visit to the Art Gallery to see a couple of exhibitions - one very focused on eyeballs, and the other botanical in nature.