Twilight at the waterfront
Sometimes you just need to take a walk.
Taking a much needed day off…
After 4 or 5 weeks (I’ve mercifully lost count) of working really long hours and not really being the laid back “I-don’t-have-a-job” part time blogger – we took a day off yesterday and spent the whole day at the beach.
Where our biggest worry was whether the storm that the Met Service was promising was going to materialise. When we arrived there was absolutely no sign of impending storminess:
It did start to get grey and cloudy just after 1pm, but we ended up having an afternoon nap and by the time we woke up it was once again clear blue skies and warm sunshine.
After another coffee, we decided to use the paper cups to build sandcastles with – so we hereby introduce you to the lesser-known Sand-Henge:
It was an absolutely lovely day. No phones, no laptops, no decorating, no “must sit down and get info together for the lawyers”. Just a day on the beach with us the only people on it.
Like what Avalon has to say?
Click Here to buy Avalon's Guide or Click Here to buy the E-Book
Tranquil Wellington
Filed under: Beaches in New Zealand, Life in New Zealand, Things to do
We took some time out yesterday during a day of personal appointments and headed off to Oriental Bay with some coffee (as you do). We spent a pleasant half hour just sitting in the sun watching the boats and just spending some time. The clarity of the water here is really something, and where we sat, you can look over the harbour wall and see just how clean it is:
Like what Avalon has to say?
Click Here to buy Avalon's Guide or Click Here to buy the E-Book
Surf and flying sofas.
It was a glorious sunny day in the Wairarapa yesterday, so unsurprisingly we dashed off to the beach as soon as we had stuffed ourselves with a decent brekkie. As my new camera takes videos, I decided to film the sea and share it. Becasue it really is so lovely it needs to be shared. Now these are certainly not Lucasfilm quality clips or anything – but the first one does have the advantage of a surprise appearance of a guy skimming across the water on a tabletop.
I want one of those!
The second one shows the sea a bit closer. I had to take the sound off because by this time the wind was really getting a bit powerful (we were hit with the edge of the cyclone that caused such devastation in Australia). It was jut too noisy and covered the sound of the sea. But you can see just how big some of the waves were – which is just how I like it.
Because the wind was so strong – after you got knocked over by a wave and came up on the other side, the wind was blowing the spray all over us. It was like being in a sea water rainstorm.
Quite spectacular.
And the interesting day didn’t end when we left the beach! On the way back, we were following 2 cars with loaded trailers. We got to a straight bit, and hubby pulled out to overtake and put his foot down. As we came alongside the first car and was about to pull in, a 2 seater sofa in the trailer behind the front car lifted up and out of the trailer and came hurtling towards the spot we were going to pull in to.
And we had the hood down!
Hubby put his foot down some more and got past the guy as I watch the sofa bounce towards the back car (it missed), and we got in front of the still oblivious driver of the front car and got him to stop. He was gobsmacked. And the kids in the back were really impressed with the coolness of the situation. Which to be honest – it really was. I guess I would have thought differently if the sofa had killed my car (or us) but no harm was done, and there was nifty driving from Hubby and the guy behind us.
Life is an adventure somedays.
Like what Avalon has to say?
Click Here to buy Avalon's Guide or Click Here to buy the E-Book
You can’t beat Wellington an a good day :)
We had a lovely lazy morning today: Hubby was off work and some meeting we had to go to didn’t start till late morning. The sun was shining and the sky was blue – so we decided to have breakfast down by the waterfront. We plumped for Beach Babylon – the Fat Bastard Breakfast (highly recommended even if it had the meanest serving of hollandaise I have ever seen on a breakfast). Steak, Eggs, Bacon, Mushrooms, Tomato and chips if you want them.
All served just opposite Oriental Bay beach.
After we stuffed ourselves silly, we grabbed an extra coffee and went to chill for a while on the beach:
Really; you can see why it’s worth moving here!
Like what Avalon has to say?
Click Here to buy Avalon's Guide or Click Here to buy the E-Book
Boxing day in New Zealand: Beach or…
Filed under: Beaches in New Zealand, Life in New Zealand
Shopping?
Apparently, according to the news (so it must be true) boxing day is the busiest shopping day in New Zealand. And given the fact that as we went past the Warehouse in Masterton yesterday on the way to the beach, the carpark was overflowing and all the spaces on the street were full of cars – there does seem to be some truth in this.
One woman interviewed on the news said they had been queuing at Sylvia Park in Auckland since 6.15am. 
Well, sod that.
We headed straight to the beach – no detouring for “sales” and crowds of people. Sun, sand, surf and coffee is what an NZ Boxing Day should be like for me. Chilling with a book and and freezing in the waves. Chomping through a picnic of left over Christmas dinner.
Today, we aren’t actually off to the beach – but there will be no shopping, with a high probability of lots of lounging by the pool, a bit more reading and a swim or two.
Like what Avalon has to say?
Click Here to buy Avalon's Guide or Click Here to buy the E-Book
The beach is open for summer :)
Riversdale today: Lifeguards out on duty and they brought the sun and beautiful turquoise seas with them. And some stellar sandcastle building.
f
Like what Avalon has to say?
Click Here to buy Avalon's Guide or Click Here to buy the E-Book
In total contrast…
… to todays devastation in Christchurch- this was the view we woke to this morning.
Hubby and I then went to the beach for the afternoon. We were supposed to be doing some work in the attic, but just couldn’t face it.
Seems the local Seagulls love my open top car as much as I do.
Like what Avalon has to say?
Click Here to buy Avalon's Guide or Click Here to buy the E-Book
Our First “weekend in the Wairarapa”.
Filed under: Beaches in New Zealand, Cost of living, Life in New Zealand
Well, this is it – we are now officially City Dwellers, having taken our first Saturday morning (well, afternoon actually) jaunt out of town for the weekend. So this is how it went.
Friday Night:
We decide at 8.40 pm to go to the 9pm showing of Eclipse at the Reading cinema, and are sat in there by 8.55 with coffee and Diet Cokes. No “ah yes but it’ll take us 90 minutes to drive, 10 minutes to park, then we have to come back home”.
Saturday Morning.
Wake up at 9.30.
Realise we don’t have any eggs for breakfast, so rather than nip across the road to Moore Wilsons, decide that we will use our “eat out” budget to spring for bacon and eggs at Mr Bun’s. (Cheap and cheerful). Throw a few things in a suitcase, and pop off for breakfast.
Finish breakfast at 10.30, head back to the flat and work out how to fit a suitcase, two laptop bags and a handbag in a tiny car. Thankfully, because I couldn’t be bothered to get eggs from MW, I also didn’t pick up a 5.5kg frozen turkey that I was planning on buying to stick in the big chest freezer ready for Christmas.
Leave at about 11.30, feeling that possibly we haven’t really got this who “weekend” concept quite right. We are heading for something more like “Afternooners” or “4pm-ers” at this rate.
We finally made it back home by 1.30pm, and only that by not stopping in Greytown with the other hoards from the city for lunch. Passed a few other convertibles there I can tell you!
So here we are – in the peace and quiet. Not having to listen to the bars and clubs over the weekend. Getting our fix of open countryside and greenery.
Possibly off to the beach tomorrow!
Like what Avalon has to say?
Click Here to buy Avalon's Guide or Click Here to buy the E-Book
Beach Time
Filed under: Beaches in New Zealand, Hubby's Views, Life in New Zealand
I’ve learnt to relax about time since we came to NZ.
In the UK I’d always be wearing a watch and needing to keep an eye on the time. Time to be somewhere, do something, time to get somewhere else – especially during the working week. Much like Alice in Wonderlands mad march hare – mustn’t be late!
Holiday’s always used to be down time, where I didn’t wear a watch ‘cos I’m on holiday and the time generally didn’t matter.
So having moved to NZ and got used to people being more relaxed here, I stopped wearing my watch. While of course mobile phones are everywhere, and I’m hardly without mine these days, there is still some symbolism for me in not wearing a watch.
So today in talking with Avalon about some other people saying they haven’t got time to do stuff, I was pondering beach time as we drove back from Riversdale.
Beach Time, it’s a bit like Island Time for anyone who has been to the smaller south Pacific islands.
It goes something like this;
- What time is it? – time to head to the beach
- What time is it? – time to head into the surf
- What time is it? – time to dry off and read a book
- What time is it? – time to apply more sunblock
- What time is it? – time to turn over and continue reading my book
- What time is it? – time to have a snooze
- What time is it? – time to head back into the water
- What time is it? – time to get some ice cream
- What time is it? – time to go back and get some coffee
- What time is it? – time to catch some more waves
What time is it? – who cares, we’re at the beach!
Avalon’s Guide On Facebook
-
