Beautiful!

Yesterday evening was so beautiful that we bought fish and chips and went into Whiteriea park down to the beach. The boys found a washed up boogie board and were using it to slide down the hill.





The light was so lovely across to Plimmerton that I had to take some photos.





Then coming back over the hill look what we saw: that's Mana Island in the right foreground and the South Island in the sunset! Too beautiful

More about Momorangi Bay

The whole area apart from a few bachs and the two Post Office houses, is a campsite. There is only one little shop there that sells basic goods (milk, bread etc) and doubles as a cafe/take-away place. (They make the BEST chocolate cake there and I got the recipe.) Anyway, because of this, there are no young adults etc there only families with children.

The boys made friends with lots of kids and one of the dads invited them to go out on his boat on the "hotdog" one morning. Well, they jumped at the chance! They had to wear sunscreen, hats and lifejackets and they set off very excitedly. They were out for about three hours and came back beaming! They'd had a wonderful time and both the dads who were out with the kids said they were brave boys. Yes, they fell in but all they did was stay where they were and they boat came back round to pick them up. I didn't manage to get many photos as they went across to the other side of the sound and my 10x zoom didn't reach that far!

Another favourite was to jump off the end of the jetty there - they would meet up with their friends and just spend the day jumping in together, swimming round to the steps and then doing it all again.

No one missed TV, PlayStation or PSP as there was so much to do and all of it outside in the sunshine and fresh air.

Question

I know that there are lots of "ordinary" scrappers; friends and family who visit here and at each other's blog; and I know that we all visit the "scrap celebs" (aka as DT members) blogs but do they visit us plebs at all?

My useful little tool .....

known as a Lil Chizler it's great for lifting the letters off the sticky carrier sheet from my WishBlade!

Home again

We're back after a very pleasant crossing on the ferry. Of course, the seasick tablets helped as well as sitting in the middle of the boat so it was quite blustery, but I didn't feel anything. I have some photos but I need to go through them all and pick some to upload. We're all brown and had a wonderful two weeks in the sun just relaxing, eating when we felt like and what we felt like and reading lots of books.

Where shall I start? Momorangi Bay is just beautiful - it is a DoC campsite as well as a few bachs. We stayed in the green roofed cottage you can see in about the middle of the photo. Even though this photo was taken about ten years ago, only the trees and bushes have grown

It was wonderful to be able to just sit in our lounge and look out at the water. The boys would get up in the morning and just head for the beach. While we were there, we drove the long and winding road to The Portage. It was beautiful but if we ever go again, we will go by water taxi.

We also went across to Lochmara Lodge where we had a wonderful day and the boys spent lots of time in the water

Then we had a week in Nelson and although we spent lots of time on Rabbit Island, we were also there in the strong storm that passed over. Unfortunately we missed the pod of orca that came into the bay but we think we saw evidence of them being there - a number of chewed up rays on Rabbit Island beach. Also the storm at the beginging of last week brought down a few trees. This one fell right where we always used to spend the day

We also went back to Natureland and I saw a peachick for the first time - look how small it is!

They also had three of these birds that had been injured as chicks and would never survive in the wild - at least two groups of Kiwis did not know what they were!

What is it with Blogger that it cuts my internet connection every second or so??? It really makes me cross as I'm trying to upload photos and it just won't work!

Ice creams!

Outside Richmond is a PYO berry farm and we usually stop to pick raspberries and whatever else they have. We stopped on Sunday and the PYO were finished but we did buy some raspberries and strawberries that were delicious. e stopped again yesterday to buy more raspberries but there were none left. Ross asked for an ice-cream which we've never had there before. He chose booysenberry and they make it on the spot - a block of vanilla icecream and a smaller block of frozen fruit all get put into a machine which pushed the fruit icecream out like a soft serve shape. We decided to have raspberry and it was delicious! I can't believe that in all the times we've stopped there we've never had one, but we'll be back.

It has been really hot here but started raining yesterday and is still raining today. Even so, at 8.15am this morning it as 24 degrees C inside this morning - that's with all the indos and curtains open overnight! My car has to go to the garage today (always when we get here :-) ) as the ABS system has no fluid left. The wind is also bloing a gale today - feels so much like Wellington!

Thanks for all the comments so far!

No change here

It's still hot and sunny - 35 degrees here yesterday!

We have taken the long and winding road to The Portage which lovely but if we never go and again by road that will be fine.

A boat from Lochmara Lodge came and picked us up yestreday and took us there for the day. It was beautiful and the boys had great fun. Kayaks were great, the rope swing to drop into the sea was great, feeding the fish (herrings), catching non-poisonous jelly fish was all part of the water fun. Then a walk through the extensive gardens where hammocks abounded, art work all over as well as a bird recovery programme all added to the wonderful atmosphere. The only way in is by boat or an hour off the Queen Charlotte walking track.

We also drove to Anakiwa where the Queen Charlotte tracks ends and it is also the place where the NZ Outward Bound school is.

I will upload photos when I can get to a more accessible internet connection

And the "w" is not working too well on this keyboard so hopefully I went back and put them all in!

Beautiful one day, fantastic the next

At midday today it as 26 degees C inside our cottage. From where we sit, we just see a stretch of Queen Charlotte Sound, the hills on the other side, boats and sun. At night we can hear morepork calling and during the day bellbird and tui - just bliss. Today we felt as though we have had too much sun!

The kids have built sandcastles and dams and then have watched the tide come in and destroy all their wonderful engineering! We bought a sandcastle building set just before we left and although Ross sneered at it at first, he has loved using it. They have swum, caught crabs (and returned them), and jumped off the wharf.

We have read, walked slowly, sat in the sun and eaten the most wonderful chocolate cake at the DoC cafe here. Last night, our neighbours here collected mussels and so I have eaten fresh mussels and bbq prawns today. Talk about relaxing - that's exactly what we have done in this beautiful corner of NZ! Linda - it's Momorangi Bay which is 20 minutes west of Picton

Another year

Woke up this morning and even though my WishBlade was a combined Christmas/birthday present, I thought I might get something wrapped up (even if it was a $2 bath sponge) or at least a cup of coffee. Nothing ... not a "happy birthday", no coffee, no present, nothing. Not-so-DH left for work and about 20 minutes later I heard bth boys awake. Nothing from them either. I gave them ten minutes and then called out "Have you forgotten something?" yes, they had but they came bounding in with a present - wrapped in Xmas paper. Inside was a cool wine glass to replace the one I smashed last week (accident - don't ask - left me with three cuts in my hand) and a wine bottle stopper.

Before not-so-DH left for work, we heard a courier outside and I thought it was the boys' DVD that they ordered - it was my prize parcel from Fiskars! It was perfect as it felt like a birthday present had arrived. Inside was some very cool Heidi Grace papers, some HG embellishments and a silver coloured HG charm bracelet!

My parents took us out for lunch; a friend came for afternoon tea; another friend brought chocolates and flowers and we went out for dinner.

Oh, when did not-so-DH remember? About two hours after getting up and he phoned me very apologetically

Happy New Year!

Ross talked us into having a party for New Year's Eve - we had about 14 or 15 people for a bbq and it was great. We decorated the garage because it was rather windy out and had music and lights in there. We chatted, drank, admired the lights in the street, drank a bit more, ate our bbq, ate dessert and by then it was midnight. Our last guests left at 1am and we quickly cleared the garage so we could bring the cars back in.

New Year's Day was glorious so we packed the car, fetched my Mom and Dad and headed for Paraparam beach where there was a slight breeze blowing which was great for keeping us cool. We bought fish and chips at Fed Up fast food (on the beach front and a great place) and washed it down with Chardon or beer shandy. The boys had a got a volleyball/badminton set for Christmas and so the four of us had fun playing that.

Second New Year and we slept late and then stayed in bed reading and drinking coffee until 11.30am - what a treat! I spent the rest of the day sewing and then in the eveing we met my online Australian friend Alicia and her family for dinner. They are on holiday in NZ and slept over before catching the ferry to the SI. How amazing to have had almost every day contact with someone for about two years yet never met in real life

I have done no scrapping but have made Adrian a pair of sleeping shorts and a summer dressing gown. Tomorrow I will start Colin's gown and then one for Ross. I also have fabric to make a few skirts for myself but I will be last in the queue. Actually I finished off this l/o by cutting the title on my WishBlade - the first one I've done! It's quite a learning curve but I'm really pleased with what it does so far.