OFF WE GO AGAIN

 Well, here we go again.

Off on another adventure away, just the two of us.  We shall be leaving around 9?, depends on how long Stew wants to sleep in really.

ABOVE:  I started this runner late yesterday.  It's by no means finished.  And NOPE, it won't be staying quite like that! There's gunna be more added to it.

It's gunna be fun.  But.... not today.  I will get back to it next week.

For now... I'm off to make sure I've packed all we need, and hurry Stew along.

Catch ya later on in the day.

...Oh yeah, Stew found this when he was getting our suitcases last night:

ABOVE:  yeah, it's a rock.   But not just any old rock.  It's a memento of my time in Quarantine.  I got it from The Grand Millennium in Auckland.  We were allowed to walk on a deck up on the 3rd floor.  There were rocks all around the decking.  I snaffled that rock on my last day there.  

So, a keepsake of my time there.  I like to collect rocks.  I've got a little pile of them from the beach in Coffs Harbour too.

ABOVE: Tairua. In all the years I have traveled to Whitianga, and passed through Tairua... I've never stopped at looked at their beach! 

So today we did. And it's beautiful.

We are now having lunch in Whitianga.  More later. 

4.05 pm:  We are now at the B 'n' B.  Happily relaxing.  It's a beautiful B 'n' B, nice and new and quiet.

After lunch we did a little drive around a few places in Whitianga.

First up, our old holiday home site.  I say site, because the house is long gone.

ABOVE:  Standing on the road, nothing looks different at all.  The view is unchanged, so gorgeous.

Then I turned around........

ABOVE: and instead of seeing the beach house I knew and loved (above)...  I saw this:

ABOVE:   The section has been flattened and cut in half.  There is a completed new home on the left, and a small bach on the right, presumably there will be a new house there eventually as well.

I thought I would be upset, but instead I felt nothing!  I think if the old house had still been there I might have felt differently.  I'm so relieved it wasn't a horrible experience.

Time moves on.  Things change.  

ABOVE: I stood on the beach and looked back at the house, and the stump.

That old tree stump has been right there for over 40 years!

I managed to find a loose bit and took it... it will go in my rock garden out by the pond.

Sentimental shit I know.

ABOVE:  I played on that tree stump!  So did all my kids, and a few grandkids have too.

After visiting the old area, we did some more tiki tourning around, a little bit of shopping, then we went to the B 'n' B.

Now we are relaxing before heading out for dinner.

We are going to the local fish 'n' chip shop and getting dinner, to eat on the beach.

ABOVE:  For dinner we went to a local chippy, Snapper Jacks.  It's been in Whitianga, on the same corner for over 40 years!

ABOVE:  We sat of Buffalo Beach and ate...

ABOVE:  The freshest battered snapper you can have (caught today) and perfect chips.  Our view was gorgeous too.

We had another tiki tour around some more old haunts...

ABOVE:  Top of Centennial Drive.  

You could never get bored with that view.

ABOVE:  Watching a boat come into the bay.

Looking out over Simpson's Beach, and one of the newest subdivisions.  That's where the blue house was.  OH, lol, I've not shown you that yet.  Tomorrow.  Ya can see it tomorrow.

Right, we are off to bed, very tired after a full day.