A FULL DAY AT WHITIANGA

Last night I mentioned a blue house.  

Well, we were looking around one of the newest subdivisions at Simpson's Beach (just a couple of Kms from Whitianga), and I spotted this gorgeous BLUE HOUSE.

So I got Stew to stop so I could take a photo, cos it was just the most perfect shade of blue...

ABOVE:  You know ya wanted to see him sitting in the car right?  Yeah, thought so.

ABOVE: There it is.  It's not a 'spectacular' house by any means, but it looks gorgeous in that shade of blue.

The lady who owns it came out when she saw me taking a photo, and we ended up having a wonderful yak.

(Stew meanwhile, is still sitting in the car, roasting in the heat).

Anyway, after having a natter about her home, where she moved from (Auckland), how long she'd been in the new house (1 year) and what shade of blue paint it was (sorta know, not 100% certain), we parted company. 😂😄😆

ABOVE: Simpson's Beach, center.

ABOVE: Simpson's Beach, looking right.

ABOVE: Simpson's Beach, looking left.

We always, always swam in the middle of the beach.  

ABOVE: Driving through town, and HE spots a patchwork shop!  HE DID!  So of course we had to stop and go look inside.

ABOVE:  I was VERY, VERY impressed!  Not a huge amount of fabrics, but so much more than just fabric.  AND they do classes and so on.  Maybe I'll come up for a weekend and do a class one day?

ABOVE:  Of course I found some fabric!  Just a couple of days ago I was wondering where I could find some Silver Christmas type fabric???  FOUND IT HERE.

And a little bit of other stuff.  As ya do.

This morning there is a Craft and Farmer's Market on in the park, so of course I'm dragging Stew along to that.

Can't miss a market.

Then I think we are going up the coast a bit to see some more old haunts of ours.

So, catch ya later!

...  11.01 am:  We are just back from the market and having a wander through the shops.

The market was quite small today, but talking to Doreen, the market organiser and a dear friend of mine, it is usually bigger on special weekends, like Anniversary and Easter.

She's almost talked me into coming up to do Easter!

I will check my calendar in relation to child visitations, and see if I can swing it.

ABOVE:  Stew wating for his morning tea, which was a whitebait fritter on bread.  He said it was delicious, but a bit small for $12.

ABOVE:  The market today.  Not too busy.  It is blisteringly hot outside though.  

ABOVE:  I got these shell circles for the pond.  Either in or around, dunno yet.

We are now packing our chilly bin (Esky) and heading off to beaches further up the coast.  Gunna have a few swims and a picnic lunch.

Should be lovely.

Catch ya later.

ABOVE:  Just so ya know where we are/were today. OK.

ABOVE:  On the Black Jack Road, heading over to Opito.  Looking back at Kuaotunu.

Just gorgeous.

ABOVE:  Still on the Black Jack Road, looking towards the Mercury Islands, where my Dad used to go fishing all the time.

ABOVE:  Otama beach, which is the one before you get to Opito.  We had our lunch here.  

ABOVE:  Our picnic lunch.

Gone are the days we packed a couple of cooked chickens, slices of cheese and bread and made sandwiches for the kids on the beach!

ABOVE:  We spent most of our time at Otama, Opito didn't appeal to us.

ABOVE:  We stopped at this little crafty type shop at Kuaotunu, and I found something I'd been looking for ... for months!

ABOVE:  I shall show you where I want to put it, when we get home.

ABOVE:  After lunch we travelled over to Whangapoua, above is an iconic view of the Coromandel range.

ABOVE:  THIS is a view that tears at my heart strings!  We often took the kids to Whangapoua, and walked down to the beach right here.

We even had our lunches here.

ABOVE:  Stew and I had a swim here.

I cannot get over how WARM the water was!  Way warmer than our pool even.

It was perfect.

ABOVE:  just a little video of being in the water.  Ignore the name of the video, it was Whangapoua Beach not Wharekaho!

ABOVE:  Today was the happiest I've been in a very long time.

It helped that we visited some very dear friends in Whangapoua (Gail and Jim) and spent a good two hours yakking with them.

Now, it's 6.13 pm, and we are heading out to get dinner.  Fish 'n' Chips again, cos who doesn't like the best fish 'n chips ever?

8.46 pm:  And we are done for the day.  Had dinner, another little drive around and now settled in for the evening, just relaxing. Feel very tired, we should both sleep well tonight.