Off to Pahi. Not Piha, not Pahia. Pahi. 
A very nice week away, with plenty of time to sit and do nothing, but plenty to do too. The camp site was on a reserve near the end of a small peninsula in the north Kaipara harbour. It has a shallow shelly beach with a maximum swell of about two inches, so it was good for swimmimg, provided you didn't cut yourself on a sharp oyster shell. I did.

I did a few jumps from the wharf. It seemed to be the local gathering point, where people hung out, caught fish, and jumped in. Bronwyn did a jump too. It's quite deep at high tide, but not as warm as at low tide, so there was a bit of an art in picking the right moment.

There's an enormous fig tree there, which had been planted 150 years ago. It's well over 40 metres wide, and the twisted roots and branches look like something straight out of Lord of the Rings. It's a bit of an annoyance to the neighbours, since it drops figs every few seconds all day and night, and the branches stretch out way over someone's tin roof. That house is for sale. Harbourside bungalow. Very nice garden. No shortage of figs.

Had my birthday on Tuesday, and Bronwyn made me a cake from a stack of pancakes with candles in the top. Complete with genuine Canadian maple syrup. The local boys let me use a go cart down the hill, and the local girls (led by Rachael) spent ages designing a birthday card.

Bronwyn organised a fishing trip on Wednesday. There was a local man by the name of Gravy (his boat is well known as the Gravy Boat) who offered to take us out fishing for a couple of hours. It was more like three hours! Rachael pulled in a hammerhead shark. Quite a wierd looking thing with bug eyes either side of the hammer. We pulled in several baby sand sharks, and lots of small snapper, but only two that were over the legal size limit. Gravy filleted them both for us, and we had them for dinner on Thursday.

Went to see a local village which had been turned into a museum, with a school house, post office and several other places. Noted the size of the little satchels in the school. Rachael has to carry an enormous backpack just to fit the A4 sized books she has to bring home these days. We then went on to track down some of Bronwyn's old friends that lived in the next peninsula. Went completely the wrong way and ended up having a rather interesting tour of the area until we finally found the house. We recognised it because of the two shipping containers that sat outside. Apparently the cat had got locked in one of them, and the husband had taken the key with him, so they had to feed the poor animal through a two inch hole in the bottom.

Got back in time for Stephen's wedding (Bronwyn's brother). It was in a place I've never been to before, but I must have driven past plenty of times. It all went well, and we managed to keep going until the dessert was served, and then returned to collapse exhausted. We're still all tired, mainly from being in the sun all week, although none of us were really burnt.

Back into action next week. First band rehearsal Monday, band committee meeting Tuesday, barbecue Wednesday, and someone wanted to invite Bronwyn round for a movie night some time. Then on Friday I'll be off to Parachute. Still no idea if I'm actually on the list for the cafe, or even which shift I'm on. Guess I'll have to turn up and find out!

Comments

Tim 
I told it to list the oldest first, but it seems confused by the New Zealand climate.

NicknRebekah 
- Page Generated in 0.3294 seconds.
C'mon. Faster. Faster!

NicknRebekah 
Wotcha Tim! Yes, we read it. It's Very Interesting. Can you stick the new stuff at the bottom to stop me getting Tardisitis?

Jenny 
Of course we read it@!

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