New Zealand March/April 2012 - North Island

Friday morning in Patumahoe we had a sad start to the day as we heard that Jackie's Aunty Brenda had passed away. While this was very sad news it wasn't altogether unexpected and it was good that Jackie was in the country to say farewell to her Aunty.

Saturday we went to see our good friends Bec and Calum at their lovely home in Stanmore Bay. A great bacon and egg pie, some yum beer and big walk along the beach.

Our walk along the beach at Stanmore Bay, weather wasn't the  best but was great to be walking along a rugged NZ beach

Sunday I took part in the Anderson Family golf day. After a very wet start to the day it turned out to be a hot and sunny day. The format was ambrose, I was a team captain, I think Phil had built me up a bit. My team (Josh and Kieran) managed to do quite well with a creditable second place, absolutely no thanks to me, my golf was atrocious, and while I don't like blaming the equipment I did have a monster drive on the last hole with someone else's driver. After golf was an Anderson family lunch, with ladies bringing a plate. I'm getting used to these gatherings.

On Monday we ran a few errands and took a drive out to Beachlands, a suburb/town I would like to live in one day. We had a yum bakery lunch by the beach. The sun was out, it was hard not to fall in love with this place.

Beachlands in the sun, we drove around looking at all the houses there picking out the ones we liked. 

Tuesday I flew down to Gisborne in the morning with Theo, Jackie stayed back for Aunty Brenda's funeral. It was a tough decision to make for me to go ahead with Theo but given the gorge into Gisborne was blocked there was limited availability for us to change flights and all be on the same flight. So off I went with Theo to the airport, Jackie and I were both more than a little nervous. As I got on the plane I walked to the back with Theo, I could see the fear and confusion in the other passengers eyes - "Is this tiny baby going to scream all the way!?", "And where on earth is his mother!?". Well no one needed to worry. Theo sat quietly for take off. During the flight he gave everyone the glad eye and he decided to doze off for landing. What a relief! We did still have to get through the day feeding with a bottle but Grandma had that covered and Theo was a little gem.

Out for a walk with Grandma and Granddad, beautiful weather so time for a snooze

We were all pleased though when Jackie turned up later that day.

A glass of wine as the sun goes down in Gisborne

We had some great weather in Gisborne. We had a lovely lunch at the Marina restaurant where mum had her 60th birthday party. We did some errands, Jackie did some shopping, we went for walks around the vineyard and around Gisborne and caught up with a good friend who lives in Gisborne. All in all it was a great relaxing few days, Theo loved the attention and loved his play pen that was set up for him with copious toys.

Theo's play pen was great, he loved hanging out in here

From Gisborne we drove down to Havelock North for the weekend where we met up with my Aunty Heather and went to a wedding.

Time to pack up again, Theo was used to it by now.

Havelock North is a lovely town. We went out for a nice meal on the Friday  night. On Saturday we looked around town, mum bought shoes. On Saturday afternoon Jackie and I went to the wedding, leaving Theo with mum, Heather and dad, who when dropping us off at the wedding let it slip that they were planning on heading out to do some wine tasting that afternoon with Theo - not what we expected of responsible baby sitters!! We did manage to relax and enjoy ourselves at the wedding, which was at Craggy Range winery and was a spectacular event, definitely one of the best weddings we've been too with so much thought going into the whole day.

Jackie looking gorgeous at Craggy Range,  with a refreshing Epic Pale Ale , I think this was my beer that Jackie had confiscated. 

We were relieved to find Theo still alive when we got back to the motel, he was hungry but other than it seems he was well looked after. Sunday morning we went to a great cafe called At E's, if you're ever in Havelock North it's definitely worth hunting out.

At E's Cafe, great spot in Havelock North

After brunch and a walk along the parade in Napier it was to the airport for our last internal flight, back up to Auckland.

Monday we did some jobs, went and saw some people and headed into town for dinner at a friend's house. Tuesday was our last day, lots of packing and dinner with the family.

Hanging out with the cousins the night before flying out

Wow, loads of territory covered and lots done. Sorry there isn't much in the way of interesting stories or detail it's been busy here so it's taken a while to get this written and with me having a memory like a sieve I might have missed some out!

Anyway, stay tuned for part 3 in the trilogy coming soon.