A Winter Weekend at Waitarere

Ha ha ha - a corny title, I know! ;)

We spent last weekend up at Waitarere Beach, because Molly had a gymnastics competition in nearby Levin on the Sunday and we thought it would be easier to be based up there rather than drive two hours on the day. So we hired a bach that we'd been to before and took the opportunity to kick back and relax...

We've been up this way countless times before.... it's a beautiful, desolate, switch-off kind of place. And a beautiful, desolate, switch-off kind of place was so very much needed for all of us at the moment. Life's been busy!

So, switch off and recharge our batteries we did! Our time at Waitarere was lazy and included lots of reading and/or drawing time on couches under blankets and duvets....

And there was lots of time spent sitting on the deck playing games with plastic animals and bits of wood...



And lots of board games by the fire...

It wasn't all laziness though! Both Jake and I got out for a couple of runs each. I have to confess to being not only a fair-weather runner, but also a flat-terrain runner. This is the reason why I have barely run since we left Auckland in 2007: the Falkland Islands were too cold, Alice Springs was too hot, and Wellington is too hilly ;) 

But Waitarere Beach is just right! You can't beat a running route like this...

And during other moments of energy, we all played on the beach. At this time of year there's usually a lot of driftwood along this part of the coastline. Molly made good use of it to practise her beam routine in time for the competition on Sunday..

She also used it for climbing and exploring...

Meanwhile Alfie and Jake made good use of it for stick fighting competitions (?) 

And Alfie and I built a driftwood teepee. We had a lot of fun doing that!

This kind of stuff is what helps Jake and I feel normal again when life gets too crazy. It's really been too crazy lately! Just playing on the beach is the most amazing remedy for stress. We should all do this every week! 

Long jump competition...

Selfies

On looking through my camera roll, it appears that Molly and I took quite an extraordinary number of selfies on holiday. Here's just a small selection of the collection....

Australia Holiday, July 2015 - Part 3, Melbourne

Well, actually not strictly Melbourne. The final part of our trip was spent with our friends the Johnsons who we originally met in the Falkland Islands but they are an Australian family who at the time were doing the Expat thing like us. They now live in a place called Bacchus Marsh which is in rural Victoria, about 50kms away from Melbourne. 

We spent most of our time around Bacchus Marsh but we did get into Melbourne one day, and I spent plenty of time reminiscing about the time I spent living and working there. It's been TWENTY years!!! (Sweet memories of a wizard healing a broken leg, the friendly tramp on the jetty, all-night clubbing, afternoon beers at the Espy, taking the tram to work, roller blading everywhere and more....you guys who were with me will remember all of this). 

Anyway, back to the present moment. It was so great to catch up with these guys again - it's been 2 years since we were last all together (in Sydney).

Bacchus Marsh is an average-sized town, kind of crossed between an agricultural area but fast becoming a commuter area as well, as the city expands due to rising house prices. So it's a little bit built up, but is mostly still fairly rural. We took the dog (Bindi) for plenty of walks, and a lot of the surrounding area reminded us of where we used to live in Alice Springs.

 Bindi the dog became my good friend, and I taught him the art of selfies...



Other than that, we spent a lot of time sitting around drinking tea / wine (depending on what time it was), the kids built a den one night and slept in it, we visited the local cafe for Violet Crumble Cheesecake (twice!), we all went to watch Peter play rugby, and we had lots of walks including one quite adventurous river crossing where several of our party got quite wet (and yes there were tears).

A lovely ending to our holiday, and a big thank you to the Johnsons for everything!