Wet wet wet.

 Our week has been one of sunshine and water. Nicky’s Canadian rellies, Bruce and Wendy, are “in residence” at their apartment in Mount Maunganui. They invited us to come and stay for a few days. We packed the car on Monday morning and headed north on a hot, tiring, 7 hour journey, encountering four sets of resurfacing roadworks, one of which took quite awhile to get through. We had not visited them at the Mount since before moving to Whanganui, so we were using roads largely unfamiliar to us. 

We discovered The Dukes Roadhouse in Mangaweka, a lovely cafe which serves very good tea and coffee, and plays Pink Floyd, amongst other quality music. We drove the Desert Road, which is on the eastern side of Ruapehu, in sunshine. This is a road which I hadn’t been on since 1998. On our arrival Wendy produced a lovely chicken dinner while watching the figure skating at the Winter Olympics. Having been a figure skater herself she was able to enlighten us to some of the finer points. With not having seen each other for three years there was much news to exchange. Bruce and Wendy also introduced us to a new game, Mexican Train, which is dominoes on steroids. As a result, we were late to bed.

Tuesday began slowly with breakfast on the balcony before a walk on the beach followed by riding the surf. After a leisurely swim in the pool at their apartment complex and a late lunch by the pool, much snoozing occurred. Later in the afternoon Bruce and I did the supermarket shopping, procuring lamb for the evening’s BBQ, which was excellent. More Mexican Train and talking saw us even later in bed than Monday.

Wednesday was another leisurely start with breakfast on the balcony (again) followed by a swim in Pilot Bay. This is part of the harbour area so is quite sheltered and much more suited to sedate swimming. Some take-out hot beverages were consumed while our togs dried enough to get back into the car, we then returned to the apartment to change prior to shopping. Wendy needed some new light fittings for one of the apartments that they are renovating, so we had a trip to Lighting Direct before going to Bobby’s on the waterfront for a lovely fish and chip lunch. Snoozing was again required in the afternoon. I had a walk by the beach while Nicky and Bruce played Quibbler and Wendy watched the figure skating. More games of Mexican Train were played in the evening but we were earlier to bed.

Thursday started bright and breezy so I had a pre-al fresco breakfast amble along the beach. We packed our bags and dropped Bruce and Wendy in town before saying goodbye and heading south to Taupo. We stopped at The Bakehouse Café in Reporoa for lunch, each choosing a pie which was served at just the right temperature - hot but not scalding. While we munched our way through our pies on one of the picnic benches we observed that the bakery did very steady business from lots of tradies. Even though it seemed to be in an isolated spot to me, it was obviously well known for the excellence of its offerings. We had decided to break the journey home with a couple of nights in Taupo as we had not stayed there before. After our long drive north on Monday we were very pleased to be doing this.

Our mid-afternoon arrival in Taupo gave us time to do some shopping for dinner (smoked salmon fillets and mixed salad) and discover that Taupo had a Bakers Delight. Their hot cross buns are our favourites so we bought a packet with pleasure. We also discovered a proper toy shop, something we don’t really see in Aotearoa, and were able to buy our own Mexican Train game. The French deli had unfortunately closed for the day. We had a quiet evening of telly watching.

The damp grey start on Friday was followed by rain, getting heavier as the day progressed. We went to the Huka Falls (last visit was 1998) which are still spectacular, and had an amble on the Aratiatia bush walk, which is laid out beside the mighty Waikato River.

The view of Lake Taupo while we had our English-style picnic lunch (in the car) was shrouded in mist and rain. The rain eased a little as we drove out of town to the Wairakei thermal pools. The $27 each entrance fee was reduced to $17 each with presentation of our a Gold Card, and the wallowing in the warm and hot pools was wonderful. The terraced design of the pools and surrounding planting creates a pleasing and relaxed atmosphere. The occasional rain showers were welcomed, as was the tea and coffee in the café afterwards.

For dinner we drove into Taupo (because of the rain) and went to the Vine Eatery, looking forward to their tapas offerings. They were very busy when we arrived and only had tables at the back of the restaurant. This we didn’t mind, but the condensation on the air conditioning ducting was dripping onto Nicky, so we switched to a different (non-drip) table. We ordered four dishes; Portobello mushrooms with sun dried tomatoes and cheese, lamb cutlets, pork belly, and chicken liver pâté with toasted shaved ciabatta. All were absolutely gorgeous, though I didn’t enjoy the blue cheese in the mushroom dish as much as Nicky. We had space for dessert, Nicky ordering a glass of Muscat dessert wine, and me Lemon Baked Alaska, which had pools of lemon curd round the soft delicate meringue, and Limoncello ice cream at it’s centre. Divine. We both sampled each other’s choices. The meal was special, and the tastes fantastic. A delicious way to end our Taupo stay.

Saturday morning dawned grey but with only light rain. We had been very  comfortable at the Quest motel, and after packing our bags stopped in town. We bought quiches, a baguette and cured ham from the French deli for lunch and tea, and more hot cross buns from Bakers Delight. The further south we drove, the lighter the rain became. We arrived home around 2.30pm. Nicky got started on the laundry, and I did some shopping to restock the fridge. We enjoyed our light tea and catching up with some telly. We are avidly following “Riot Women” and Nicky “The Forsytes”. It has been another lovely trip. Great to catch up with Bruce and Wendy, have time in the sea and the thermal pools. We’ve enjoyed some lovely food and new experiences.

Today started mild and grey. I had an amble and Nicky sorted out the laundry but didn’t feel like rushing to get to church. Instead she stayed home and streamed the service on her iPad while starting on the ironing. The weather has got windier and wetter as the day has progressed. Mark came round with our post while we were playing Mah Jong, and Nicky is now making omelettes for tea.

Take care, Rick and Nicky.