Another visit to Himatangi Beach

This post is dedicated to a certain member of the family back in England who, on hearing that we had spent the last few days relaxing up at Himatangi Beach, declared that it sounded exceedingly boring.

Here I will prove him wrong!

Himatangi is a very small village of about 450 houses (about 60% are permanent homes and 40% are baches, or holiday homes). It's about 2 hours drive north from Wellington, up the west coast - just a bit further north from where we got married.

Going there is like a proper blast from the past – there’s no flashy houses, boutique clothes stores and sophisticated coffee bars. Instead most of the properties are basic 1970’s baches and there’s no shops except a dairy*.

In fact, in general, there’s not much of the modern world at all and it’s really quite refreshing. There are no distractions and you make your own entertainment.

So, what do people do at Himatangi Beach? Well, I can't speak for everyone, but this is what we did:

- The beach is very long and at this time of year it’s wild and covered in masses of driftwood. So on the first day we built a teepee out of driftwood. This became our daytime base for the rest of our holiday, and we kept returning to it and adding bits, like a path and a pretend campfire outside.

- The beach was also the perfect spot for lots games of tag and stuck in the mud, long walks and runs. (Other people ride quad bikes or horses on it, or go fishing),

- The dairy sells great thickshakes, coffee and freshly baked scones - perfect for when you need something to pick you up after too many games of tag!

- The kids' playpark is BRILLIANT, especially considering the small size of the village. As well as all the usual stuff, there's a skateboard park (Alfie was lethal on his scooter!), plenty of trees to climb and a BMX track that had Jake pining for his younger days.

- Then there's the Cossie Club (Cosmopolitan Fishing & Boating Club), which is open for dinner 3 evenings a week and is a great place to take the family when you want a break from the cooking and cleaning up. The beef stroganoff was yum - and cheaper than I could have made it myself - and the sofa area with Kids' TV means the adults get to enjoy a couple of beers in peace & quiet.

- Victa the Reindeer. We were delighted to find him still living in his garden on Himatangi Street. He just loves to be fed your food scraps and he gave us endless hours of entertainment after every meal!

- Finally, because it's winter, we also just hung out a lot at the cosy bach we'd rented, sometimes reading books in front of the wood burning stove, sometimes playing rugby or cricket in the huge garden, and sometimes drinking wine in front of a DVD.

So, all in all, a classic Kiwi winter bach holiday (and definitely not boring!).

*In New Zealand, the "dairy" is a small corner store, a little bit like the convenience store in the UK or an American milk bar. It stocks basics like milk and bread, as well as newspapers, ice creams & milkshakes.