Weekend Away
Claire wasn't feeling so good when she came home last Sunday night, so she rang the doctors first thing on Monday morning and got an appointment straight away, so I zipped her up to Avondale in the car. She was prescribed some anti-biotics and some additional asthma medication (reliever). The upshot of this has been that as the week has progressed her health has improved, which is good, as she has been as busy as ever with Uny and Whitcoulls.
Nicky has had another full week at work, but a quiet week socially. I was out at camera club on Monday, but other than that I have had a very domestic week. The weather has been holding at pretty good, in spite of dire warnings on the forecasts, as the worst of it hasn't made it this far north.
I realised on Friday morning that we had a completely free weekend. Non of our regular activities were coming up, and now that Ryan has taken over taking Claire to and from work, we had no taxi or feeding responsibilities either. A quick scan through the diary also revealed that this set of circumstances probably wouldn't happen again for awhile either, and the weather forecast wasn't looking too bad. So I thought, perhaps we could have a night away as we haven't actually been away since November 2008, and that was our first trip away since getting here. Nicky has also been saying that she is feeling guilty about not showing me more of NZ. A quick bit of Googling and I found what looked like a good B&B in Thames, which is at the south-western corner of the Coromandel Peninsular. A quick phone call established that the Ocean View suite was available for Saturday night, so after brief consultation with Senior Management I booked it.
We set out late Saturday morning armed with fresh fruit, dried fruit, nuts and water heading down SH1 with a detour to Pak'n'Save in Pukekohe as our first stop. The baker there makes award winning pies, so we though we would sample some. They turned out to be very popular, selling even faster than hot cakes. We bought four to provide us with lunch for two days, and then continued on our way. They were very good pies, both hot and cold.
We arrived in Thames just after 2pm and found the Ocean View B&B. Our suite was great, comprising of a bedroom, bathroom and small lounge with balcony views over the Firth of Thames. Our hosts, Julie and Steve, provided us with some afternoon tea and we chatted for quite awhile before heading out of Thames to have a look at some Lockwood show homes which we had seen on our way in. We were very impressed with the quality of the build, finish and design of all three houses. We then drove up the coast a little to the old part of town to watch the sunset.
We walked into town to a pub recommended by our hosts and had a wonderful dinner. We both decided to go for light meals in the hope this would leave space for dessert, but after Nicky's steak sandwich, my scallops wrapped in bacon, and a shared small portion of spicy wedges, we had to have a bit of a break before squeezing in a chocolate brownie and a creme brulee. I also had a couple of very enjoyable pints of Guiness, but the upshot of all our consumption was that we didn't sleep to well. We were very comfortable, but awake for long periods.
After an excellent full English breakfast this morning, Nicky walked into town to go to church while I finished off the packing and loaded the car. I drove into town to meet her and took some photos while I was waiting. Thames is a nice wee town, very Kiwi, but with a bit of a Wild West feel due to its gold mining heritage.
We headed up the coast road on the western side of the peninsula towards Coromandel Township. The distance is only about 55kms, but it took us a couple of hours because we kept stopping to admire the ever changing view. Nicky was fancying a warm drink after getting cold in church so we stopped at a small café which turned out to be a real find. The two ladies staffing the Waiomu Beach Café were great - friendly and fun and chatty, and obviously well liked by all the locals who dropped in while we were there. We had hot drinks, savory scroll and bought two pieces of white chocolate, butterscotch and brandy cheesecake, which we had with lunch and were absolutely fantastic.
By the time we got to Coromandel even though the weather was still largly fine, the wind was strong and cold, so we didn't linger after a quick walk round town. There are a number of things that we would like to see in the area, but decided we would enjoy them more in warmer weather. So, we drove down the eastern coast past Whitianga and across country back towards Thames, stopping for a welcome pot of tea before doing the final leg home, mainly in the dark.
It has been really good to have some time away, even though we spent more time in the car than we had anticipated. We are looking forward to going back again.
That's all for this week,
Take care, Rick
Some pictures from the weekend:
Nicky has had another full week at work, but a quiet week socially. I was out at camera club on Monday, but other than that I have had a very domestic week. The weather has been holding at pretty good, in spite of dire warnings on the forecasts, as the worst of it hasn't made it this far north.
I realised on Friday morning that we had a completely free weekend. Non of our regular activities were coming up, and now that Ryan has taken over taking Claire to and from work, we had no taxi or feeding responsibilities either. A quick scan through the diary also revealed that this set of circumstances probably wouldn't happen again for awhile either, and the weather forecast wasn't looking too bad. So I thought, perhaps we could have a night away as we haven't actually been away since November 2008, and that was our first trip away since getting here. Nicky has also been saying that she is feeling guilty about not showing me more of NZ. A quick bit of Googling and I found what looked like a good B&B in Thames, which is at the south-western corner of the Coromandel Peninsular. A quick phone call established that the Ocean View suite was available for Saturday night, so after brief consultation with Senior Management I booked it.
We set out late Saturday morning armed with fresh fruit, dried fruit, nuts and water heading down SH1 with a detour to Pak'n'Save in Pukekohe as our first stop. The baker there makes award winning pies, so we though we would sample some. They turned out to be very popular, selling even faster than hot cakes. We bought four to provide us with lunch for two days, and then continued on our way. They were very good pies, both hot and cold.
We arrived in Thames just after 2pm and found the Ocean View B&B. Our suite was great, comprising of a bedroom, bathroom and small lounge with balcony views over the Firth of Thames. Our hosts, Julie and Steve, provided us with some afternoon tea and we chatted for quite awhile before heading out of Thames to have a look at some Lockwood show homes which we had seen on our way in. We were very impressed with the quality of the build, finish and design of all three houses. We then drove up the coast a little to the old part of town to watch the sunset.
We walked into town to a pub recommended by our hosts and had a wonderful dinner. We both decided to go for light meals in the hope this would leave space for dessert, but after Nicky's steak sandwich, my scallops wrapped in bacon, and a shared small portion of spicy wedges, we had to have a bit of a break before squeezing in a chocolate brownie and a creme brulee. I also had a couple of very enjoyable pints of Guiness, but the upshot of all our consumption was that we didn't sleep to well. We were very comfortable, but awake for long periods.
After an excellent full English breakfast this morning, Nicky walked into town to go to church while I finished off the packing and loaded the car. I drove into town to meet her and took some photos while I was waiting. Thames is a nice wee town, very Kiwi, but with a bit of a Wild West feel due to its gold mining heritage.
We headed up the coast road on the western side of the peninsula towards Coromandel Township. The distance is only about 55kms, but it took us a couple of hours because we kept stopping to admire the ever changing view. Nicky was fancying a warm drink after getting cold in church so we stopped at a small café which turned out to be a real find. The two ladies staffing the Waiomu Beach Café were great - friendly and fun and chatty, and obviously well liked by all the locals who dropped in while we were there. We had hot drinks, savory scroll and bought two pieces of white chocolate, butterscotch and brandy cheesecake, which we had with lunch and were absolutely fantastic.
By the time we got to Coromandel even though the weather was still largly fine, the wind was strong and cold, so we didn't linger after a quick walk round town. There are a number of things that we would like to see in the area, but decided we would enjoy them more in warmer weather. So, we drove down the eastern coast past Whitianga and across country back towards Thames, stopping for a welcome pot of tea before doing the final leg home, mainly in the dark.
It has been really good to have some time away, even though we spent more time in the car than we had anticipated. We are looking forward to going back again.
That's all for this week,
Take care, Rick
Some pictures from the weekend:
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