Spending a few days over Easter with my in-laws in Tauranga which is always really nice – we get looked after very well – parents are good at that sort of thing esp when an only child is involved ;). Arrived Wednesday after one of those disjointed domestic flights from Christchurch through to Wellington then on to Tauranga but it’s a pleasant way to see the country and still very quick (hardly had time to start watching a movie on the laptop).
Rob and Candi collected us from the landing strip that is Tauranga airport and we scooted over to the Nautilus club for lunch. While definitely a cool day there was still a warm reminder that you were a lot further north than Christchurch, where temperatures had definitely plummeted over night. Back to Sixteenth Ave to settle in and get ready for a BBQ dinner that had been organised, where we got to meet a whole lot of new people including the talented family of Shane, Linda, Jamie and Jake, Mark and Carmen, Brendan and Papeeta, as well as some of the usual crowd of Jim and Lisa but no Mike and Krystal who were actually down in Christchurch visiting his brother and sister-in-law, Matt and Amber – yep I know I just listed like a dozen people in that paragraph; that’s definitely enough name-dropping for one post.
Thursday we had a nice lazy start, then headed over to the Tauranga Yacht Club (or MOSC) for some late lunch (good pub fare) then back home where I borrowed a car and met up with Glen down at Omanu for a (refreshing) surf. The swell had definitely dropped off but still very rideable. We stayed out for about 90 mins until it started getting dark and despite the water temp being around 20C, boardies and a rashy were not quite enough to stave off the early signs of hypothermia so headed back home. The trip home took 10 mins unlike the trip over there a nightmarish 25 mins of snarled traffic over the bridge – if I ever lived here it would have to be somewhere close to everything so I didn’t have to drive all that much!
Friday started with coffee and a lovely cooked breakfast (a specialty of Robs) then over the bridge again for a relaxed stroll around the Mount. But as you know I can’t always do relaxed so felt compelled to do a straight run up the mount to the top. I’m not that great sticking to the trail either so went straight up the side, bush bashing my way up what must’ve been the steepest side through gorse, cutty grass and loose brush. While dragging myself up I just made sure that when I went to grab something it didn’t have spikes or sharp edges, but I still got a few sweet scratches to show for my efforts. The view from the top was worth it and I’ve got the photos to prove it. Ran back down and met up with the others at Starbucks, then it was a long drive home as we cruised down the coast through Papamoa (I could live there if I worked from home and was right next to a good beach break!).
Heading out to a jazz concert tonight at Baycourt which is all part of the Tauranga Jazz Fest – the 47th instalment of what is the longest running jazz festival in the southern hemisphere. Time to bust out the jazz hands!
Hey, Jeremy here. Had to check out the site,its awesome mate,good reads in there.
Bit jealous of the surfing in boardies bit but watayado.Heres my email [email protected] ,bit easier than trying to explain it to you.catch up with you soon.