Meeting more family

Lin here posting this on my son, Alec's birthday. Happy 26th birthday to him! This post carries on from the last but doesn't quite bring you to today!!!God this blogging is complicated...

Bowentown continued: the first night here I was feeling lazy and stayed in reading my Sebastian Faulks novel...On Green Dolphin Street...while Brent went up the nearby hill.

Saturday 10th Jan
Brent was keen to share last night's walk and it turned out to be quite lovely...a lot longer than I thought with quite a lot of uphill. We came down to the sea, which had been very calm the previous night when Brent was there with a group of fishermen. Today the tide was on the way out and the water in the channel was scarily fast flowing. We decided to spend a lazy day here and I enjoyed finishing my novel and generally not doing much. I think we both realised that our days have been pretty full and that we do sometimes need to take time out to do nothing!!!

Sunday 11th January
Arrived in Tauranga late afternoon and easily found the local YHA, which had campsites in its garden. It was very pretty and everyone there was very friendly. The hostel was a short walk from the town and we walked down to get a feel for the place. It was lovely, with lots of bars along the waterfront. It was just after 6pm when we got there and unfortunately we'd just missed out on the live music, but we enjoyed a beer before heading back to cook our meal. Spent the evening chatting to some other hostellers: a female teacher from Staffordshire who was travelling alone and using the Naked Bus, and a chap in finance. Always interesting to hear people's stories.

Monday 12th Jan
Went into Tauranga this morning and called Brent's cousin Niel, who came out to meet us around lunchtime on his Honda motorbike. It was great to meet another member of the Abbott family and Niel took time to show us some of the local sites. We loved the Mission House and the area around it and enjoyed the air museum where Niel volunteers. Late afternoon it started to rain and we said our goodbyes before heading off to find a campsite nearer to Mount Manganui. We were lucky at the 3rd attempt and stayed at the Girven road site. That evening we walked to the Bayfield Mall where Brent found a pair of sunglasses to replace those he'd lost.

Tuesday 13th Jan
This morning we drove into Mount Manganui, parked up for a couple of hours and went in search of coffee. There were loads of coffee shops but the one we chose forgot we were there and we ended up with a free coffee but a potential parking ticket.... the warden had marked the time on our tyre and if our watches were correct we'd just overrun by about 3 mins... no visible ticket but guess we'll have to wait and see. Arranged to meet Niel and Barbara after lunch and really enjoyed the walk around the base of the Mount. Once again the views were outstanding and it was lovely to get to know Barbara and spend more quality time with family. After tea and cakes we said our goodbyes. Thanks Niel and Barbara for your kindness in taking time out to spend with us. The Abbott's fish and chip shop cap is brilliant and we'll be sure it gets to Rochdale
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Wednesday 14th Jan
Got up this morning and set off for the library in Tauranga to see what was happening in Fiji. We knew that a few people had been killed and many more evacuated in the recent floods there and we are wondering if we need to cancel that next leg of our trip. The forecasts weren't good and we emailed our travel company for advice. We'll decide a bit nearer the time what to do. We then decided we had to visit our friend, June's new home in Papamoa, the next town along the coast. It was fun taking photos there and leaving her a postcard with a “wish you were here” message. June lives in a lovely place and we stopped to have a picnic near her beach before moving along the coast to Whakatane, where we found a lovely campsite on the river, with a lovely walkway into the town. We explored the town, did some washing and had an early night.

Thursday 15th
Today we took the advice of the lady at reception and did the most beautiful walk. I'd managed to pull something in my back early today, so we began the day with a bit of Tai Chi, which helped. Anyway the walk began with a steep climb through bush, up to Toi's Pa: the oldest Pa in New Zealand. (If you've forgotten what a Pa is it's the highest piece of land in the area, which the original settlers, in this case Maori used to claim their lands). from the Pa the walk continued around a headland of bush, with fantastic views of the ocean at various points. After about 2 hours we descended to the most gorgeous beach. There were 2 other small groups on it, but they soon left and we had the place to ourselves. It was as close to paradise as it gets. We swam to cool off and enjoyed our mini picnic before strolling along to Ohopi beach, the next one along. Here we had a drink in a nice bar before catching the bus back to Whakatane. After a nice meal we walked into town where 2 bars were competing for custom with karaoke nights. We enjoyed both of them and Brent was persuaded to join in one number... unfortunately it wasn't a song he really knew and I have to say it was a bit embarrassing!! Tee hee!

Friday 16th Jan
Woke up with a bit of a hangover ( no excuses!) and a very stiff back. Decided to have a chill out day and catch up on the blog, do washing etc.