Off Again

There has been lots of “going off”, to somewhere, this week. The first departure was Nicky and I taking Stella and Tim to the airport on Tuesday afternoon for a short holiday in Rarotonga. I was booked to collect them from the airport at 4.50am this morning, but due to a change in flight plans didn’t need to, and enjoyed my unexpected lie-in.

Our second departure was another trip to Wanganui, our fifth if you are counting. In order to satisfy one of the clauses of our Sales and Purchase Agreement for the section we are hoping to buy, we need building costs from Bert, so arranged to meet him at the section on Thursday afternoon. We drove down on Wednesday after Nicky had made us some lovely platted orange and sultana brioche rolls. The journey was uneventful and not as wet as we expected. We enjoyed listening to “A Presumption of Death” by Jill Paton Walsh and Dorothy L. Sayers, and arrived in Wanganui around 5.30pm. After checking into the motel and getting organised, we bought some fish and chips from a local vendor and had an early night in bed. Nicky had arranged for us to visit one of Bert’s other customers on Thursday morning. The home was 5 or 6 times bigger than what we hope to build, but we really liked the build quality, the floor-coverings used, and the feedback from the owner who was very impressed with the service provided and the resulting home.

We had a bit of spare time mid-day so enjoyed the NZ Glass Gallery and hot lunchtime drinks in the Mud Ducks café. We had a walk round the area where the section is located before meeting Agent Felicity and Bert the Builder. It was a very positive meeting with a good exchange of complementary ideas and Bert being confident that he can build what we want within our budget. As a result, we are starting to feel tentatively quite hopeful that it might actually happen. We said our goodbye’s and hit the road home, having booked an overnight stay in Taumarunui. The process of packing, travelling and settling into a motel is starting to develop a routine and familiarity.

We had a damp night but reasonable start in Taumarunui and were back on the road again by 9am, and had finished the audio book a couple of hours later. The break in the journey home was in order to get us to the airport by 1.50pm in order to meet my nephew John off his flight from Queenstown. This we achieved after having an English picnic lunch in the car park at the Airport Shopping Centre.

John was staying with us for just one night before flying back to the UK. After dinner he and I went up to The Block for beer’s and chats with the locals. The weather on Saturday proved to be much better than we hoped - dry and sunny and a breeze which wasn’t too cold. Following Friday afternoon discussions of what to do, we drove up to Long Bay Regional Park for a walk along the beach. As we got to the northerly end Nicky suggested we do some of the coast path, which it turned out had been re-routed quite a lot since our last visit. We walked as far as Granny’s Bay and really enjoyed the views and the sun. Nicky took some lovely photos:

John wanted to buy us lunch, so we had planned to go to Armadillo (a café we have been to once before and enjoyed) in Rothesay Bay, but when we got there discovered it was closed for building repairs. We carried on down the coast to Mairangi Bay, and chose to eat street food at the Montrose Café. This was a very good decission, as we really enjoyed the beef satay skewers, salmon hash, and bread selection with dips. A lovely range of tastes and textures and a sensible amount of food. On the drive home we stopped in town to take John for a walk along the Magenta Walkway, and enjoyed the different view and the contrast of the urban walk with the beach walk. 

We had a light tea when we got home, and then for our last departure of the week took John to the airport (which was busier than I have ever seen it) for his 9.45pm flight to Los Angeles. We returned home to continue grazing on cheese, crackers, fruit and nuts while watching Silent Witness.

Today has been sunshine and showers so I have just done some small loads of washing. In between the showers I was able to give Luna a wash (she was really in need) while Nicky was at church and before she went off to prison. Scrabblers arrived just after Nicky returned, and soup for tea was followed by Inside the Red Arrows and Endeavour on the telly.

Take care, Rick