Summer

Yes, we are having summer this year, the skies are blue, the gentle sea breeze lulls us into a false sense of it not being too hot, the sound of children out playing games or riding their bikes until dusk fill the air as happy adults chatter away the evenings. Kayaks, buckets, spades and boogie boards make their way to the beach and it’s great to see people out enjoying life away from the trappings of modern life. Many of the older regular campers have commented on how lovely it is to see kids running about and having fun in the outdoors and fresh air, making new friends and enjoying nature at its best.

We’ve played cards with friends who are camping, they told us they weren’t really into playing cards but after teaching them how to play 5 crowns, they were hooked.

Rosalind & Gary

We abandoned camp for a couple of days as Antony was due back from his London sojourn. As he was arriving in the early morning we headed down to stay at his place the night before as it would then just be a 30minute drive to the airport.

Waiting

We didn’t have to wait very long as he was thru in around 30minutes. He had a great time in London with Alex, Ian and Callum and it was lovely to hear all the news. We had presents to open and share, thank you to our UK family for our Christmas gifts. Now we can’t wait until we head off to visit in May.

Back to camp we went to settle in for more warm summery days. We keep busy what with sorting out campers and any issues, doing maintenance and chores – yes we still have chores to do.

Antony rang the following day to say he’d brought another present home with him….Covid-19!

Antony’s test

Hopeful we haven’t caught it, we did look up what the incubation period is but it’s hugely variable with the range from two to fourteen days so we shall just have to wait and see and not get too close to people.

Garry came to visit for a couple of days, it was lovely to have him here with us, I cooked dinner the first night for us all. I made Bao buns, slow roasted a pork belly with a sticky glaze and made a quick pickle type of salad with julienned carrots, cucumber, radish and red onion finished with chopped peanuts and coriander. It was delicious….and yes I forgot to take any photos.

The following day Garry cooked a leg of lamb with his new rotisserie attachment for his BBQ, it was cooked long and slow over the afternoon and evening and my goodness it was delicious.

Garry cooking up a storm

Slow rotisseried leg of lamb

Slicing up the spoils

My nephew Stuart came for a visit, along with Emma and their three children. Stuart lives in Dunedin so it’s been a couple of years since we last caught up and it was a lovely afternoon spent talking, laughing and oh, a little swimming too.

Maggie, Toby, Mack, Stuart and Emma

Enjoying the warm water

Meanwhile, we try to stay cool and can firmly attest to the fact that shade under a tree is far superior to any other shade device be it gazebo, awning or umbrella. And as it is so warm we are eating later and later in the evenings when it’s cooler and when it’s more comfortable to cook altho I must say that the bbq is being very well utilised. But we are not complaining at all, summer is here at last.

PS. 10 days on and no sign of Covid.

Christmas 2023

It was a bit of a grumpy start to Christmas Day, yes those damn errant campers had us (and the Ranger) up until the early hours during the night of Christmas Eve, some people just should not be allowed to drink and then annoy other campers!! Then we were woken early in the morning by more of those same campers. Grrrr. Bernice with just a couple of hours sleep is not a happy chappy.

But the antithesis of this was the rest of our day. We left camp in the morning and headed off to have an “orphan parents” Christmas with Peter & Wendy as they too have a daughter in London. What an amazing day of chat, relaxation and laughter…oh and great food as well, just what we needed to reset.

Platters of nibbles were consumed throughout the morning, then Pete cooked up a huge pile of scallops, followed by prawns to start off the festivities.

Chef at work

Another serve of scallops on the go

This was just a one person portion of prawns! the same size portion was had of scallops!

Then it was onto the main course, a wonderfully glazed Ham had been cooked on the smoker/BBQ,

Glazed ham

accompanied by lots of delicious salads, we ventured inside for the main event.

The table setting

“A glass of bubbly Roy?” Pete is asking, whilst Wendy takes her seat

A cracker circle!

Dessert was had much later in the day which was a lovely way to end the festivities. Thank you so, so much to Peter & Wendy for having us for the day and for making us feel so much at home, we had a fab day.

The day ended in the early evening when we ventured back to camp ready for our video call to watch Callum open his presents from us. He was one very excited young man, as you can imagine, Christmas as a 4 and a half year old is magical.

And the London family….do you think Callum is excited?

Hope you all had a great day with friends and/or family and enjoyed a stress free time together. All the best for 2024.

Whirlwind few days

We were all set and ready for the off early on Saturday morning with our first stop at Simon’s to pick up a car seat. On the way to see Simon we travelled through the streets of Epsom, the streets were lined with furniture, carpets, furniture and other detritus the aftermath of the floods. Peoples homes were waterlogged, I cannot imagine having to deal with the physical damage never mind the emotional, financial and mental anguish that comes with this type of disaster. It was a very sobering sight to see.

We had morning tea with Simon and Maria, and caught up on all their news. Fortunately they escaped major flood damage, with just a couple of small leaks from overwhelmed guttering is they had the misfortune to suffer. But we were on a mission, we were meeting up with Antony at the airport, ready to greet Alex, Ian and Callum along with Ian’s parents Chris, Barry and brother Matt from their long journey from London.

Callum running to meet Grandma & Grandad, closely followed by Mum, Dad and grandad. Chris & Matt had already come through.

They flew straight through from London with just a change of planes in Kuala Lumpur, and they were remarkably fresh. Callum was apparently a little trouper, he slept 9hours on the first leg, and another 3 hrs on the second leg so he was raring to go. They had a shuttle organised to take them to the car rental place not too far away, although the van that they had booked was not available so they had two cars in the interim to be returned on Monday to then exchange for a van. By the time we were finished at the car rental place, we were on our way in convoy to their AirBnB rental in Manly, Roy and I led the way with their two cars following and Antony coming along later.

Their rental property was right on the waterfront at Manly, they were quickly settled in, showered and changed and ready to relax. I had organised a quick, light easy dinner for them all, we ate, caught up on their trip and left them to get an early night.

Sunday and everyone was coming to us at Shakespear for a family BBQ lunch which I had sorted. Everyone seemed to arrive at around the same time, first Alex and crew, then Jacky & Chris arrived closely followed by Simon, Anita and Maria. Antony soon joined as well.

The crew

Playing and talking

Competitive petanque…sibling rivalry never stops it seems!

The diggers and trucks donated by Wade & Lindsay were well used too

After a lovely lunch, Alex & Ian announced that earlier that morning on Manly Beach, Ian had proposed! Yes, he even got down on one knee! What exciting news, we are so happy for them, they are a great couple. Bubbles were drunk in celebration and it topped off a fabulous day. We also so lucky with the weather, the sun shone all day as the sunburnt bodies later attested even though sunscreen was liberally applied and we sat in the shade of the gazebo.

The happy couple!

Monday and the exchange of vehicles had to be completed as well as a trip to MOTAT (Museum of Transport and Technology) for the day, Antony met them there and they all had a great day out. I had organised dinner for them for when they returned and Alex’s friend Claire & Matt came to join us for the evening.

Dinner on the deck

Tuesday and it was Grandma and Grandads turn to have Callum for the day whilst everyone else went off to see the sights of Auckland City.

First stop, toilets, then playground followed by an icecream at Gulf Harbour watching all the boats in the Marina.

Putting together Lego-style sets we had collected, this was a huge hit and kept Callum amused for a good couple of hours. He was very good at putting it all together, very patient – grandad wasn’t too bad at it either !!

Lunch time and Callum wanted to help grandma, he took on the job of grating the cheese, and a great/grate job he did too!!

Grating the cheese

However, the highlight of the day was getting to ride in the tractor with Ranger Bruce, and drive the tractor. Bruce was brilliant at showing him what to do and let him control the levers to lift the forks. They were moving my garden to our new parking spot and it was done with great accuracy.

Tractor driving.

The end of the day and we were meeting everyone at the house for dinner together. By this time Callum was tuckered out, we had to keep him awake for the 5 minute journey home. After dinner Callum had perked up a bit so it was then jigsaw puzzle time, he just loves jigsaw puzzles and he is soooo good at them, he quickly polished off a 100 piece Wasjig puzzle with very little help from us.

Jigsaw ninja!

Now they are off on their next NZ odyssey, whereas we prepare for the next cyclone 😬.

Busy bank holiday weekend

We had no sooner arrived back from our few days away when we were off out again, this time to see a show at the Orchard Theatre. The show was BIG, based on the Tom Hanks movie and put on by the Orchard Theatre youth group.

Ready for the show to begin

Alex, Chris, Bernice & Roy ready for the show to start

Roy and I went along with Alex and Ian’s mum Christine for a very enjoyable night out. Earlier in the day Roy and I had been round at Chris’ to help her with a jigsaw she had been struggling with. I must say it was a very hard puzzle but we managed to move it along a little but we promised to return in a day or two to hopefully complete it for her.

The following day was the annual summer BBQ that Julie & Brian put on for the family. I had offered to make dessert so Callum and I made a pavlova, a plain vanilla pav and we topped it with lemon curd, cream, mango slices and passionfruit. It was delicious too….and I forgot to take any pictures of making, decorating or the completed article so you will have to take my word for it that it was probably one of the best I’ve ever made!! Must have been the 3yo assistant who gave it its specialness.

Everyone relaxing in the shade

Dennini (Denny/Vannini) family

Callum with grandma and grandad

Roy and Alex

The Dennys showing us how it’s done

Fun and games for all

Group photo

It was a great afternoon and evening, wonderfully hosted by Brian & Julie, thanx for the great afternoon and evening, we had a blast.

And as promised, the following day Roy & I went to finish off Christine’s jigsaw puzzle, a few hours later and it was done!

The finished jigsaw puzzle

A busy old weekend but much fun was had by all.

Tauranga…the final part!

With borders around Auckland coming down we can finally get back into Auckland and our usual summer location at Shakespear Park. However, this year, our role will be slightly different due to Covid restrictions with less interaction with campers.

But before we left Tauranga we had a few final things to do, sort or achieve, nothing major but just those silly little things that you keep putting off until you can’t put it off any longer.

Whilst we were at Keith’s one day, we noticed he had a rose bush that was starting to spill over the deck and patio area and causing a bit of a hazard especially when his grandchildren are around. We set to with wires and eyelets and espaliered the rose in a fan shape along the fence and now it’s looking so much better.

The rose before on the left and on the right after it was espaliered along the fence line.

I’ve been keeping my hand busy too, making sure Ian doesn’t miss out on a Xmas stocking, I set to to embroider one for him as well.

On the left is the main embroidery done, then highlighted and outlined on the right

The finished article…and why owls you ask? Maybe because Ian is a bit of a hoot!!

I also decided to design and make a couple of smaller stockings,

The main embroidery done on one of the smaller stockings

And the pattern for the other one. First of all I had to find some graph paper, Mr Google helped and I downloaded and printed off some sheets, before setting to to draw up the pattern.

I just have the finishing touches to do then make up the stockings and they are already for us to deliver to the UK next year!

Our last weekend at Pyes Pa and a farewell potluck dinner was held for us and Mike & Jean. We had a great meal with our new friends at Pyes Pa, it was a lovely way to end our stay.

Farewell dinner at Pyes Pa.

The following day we had a farewell lunch at Keith’s with his daughters and grandies as well as mutual friends Carol & Glen. I forgot to take any pictures of the fun afternoon but between a yummy BBQ lunch and laughing ourselves silly with the antics of the little ones and the not so little particularly with a water fight, I did capture the final moment of another funny event.

Amy holding onto Keith’s legs as he lifts Isla out, who managed to get the “alligator” aka elevator, stuck on the ground floor. Answering the plaintiff cries of “I’m stuck, help me!”, Isla was quickly lifted out. I think the poor alligator was very tired after being sent up and down numerous times by small persons!!!

With the weather forecast not looking particularly bright, we bade fond farewells to all the lovely people at the park over property we have come to get to know over the past numerous weeks! We thank Rona the owner, Rosie & Baz the caretakers and all the lovely campers we got to know so well – Thank you for your wonderful hospitality, entertainment, and friendship, we shall return.

Te Puke

The day dawned bright and clear although a little breezy we decided to head off from Matatā to Tauranga for a week. However, along the way as a matter of courtesy I had messaged the owner of the Park over Property (PoP) we were heading to to let them know we would like to come and stay and to make sure it was OK. It is just as well I did as they messaged back that they were full for the weekend and could not take us. Hmmm, pull over to a rest area and formulate plan B.

A few phone calls later and we were soon sorted and on our way to stay on a farm just 5minutes out of Te Puke township. It’s usually reserved for kiwi fruit workers who work at the plant across the road to park up but we’ve stayed here before and thanks to Keith for sorting out our permission to stay again we were soon on our way to park up.

The view through the front windscreen….and yes, that is a glimpse of the sea on the horizon

We are due to get a COF on Tuesday in Te Puke so it’s fortuitous that we can stay here, as well, we arranged to be able to go to the PoP in Tauranga on the following Tuesday afternoon after the COF so plan C is now in place!!

Once we were parked up on the farm and settled in we headed into Mount Maunganui that evening, Friday, to have dinner with Keith and his daughters and granddaughters.

Top Left: Amelia with her Aunty Jenna, Top right: Keith and a Roy being entertained by Isla and Ashlyn, Bottom: Amy, Rebekka and Chris

A delicious roast dinner was had by all, expertly tended to by Amy. It was a very entertaining evening with my great nieces providing lots of laughs and fun. But with young children needing to go to bed and some adults having early starts the next day, the evening came to an earlyish, aka sensible, close and we headed back to the van.

Now I have to do a little backtracking here before continuing on with this particular tale, 10 years ago when we first bought the van, we came to Tauranga to sort out a few things which included shopping for essentials like a BBQ. Jenna and Rebekka ferried Roy & I around town on numerous shopping excursions, as at that stage we didn’t have a car with us. You can read about the trip from 10 years ago here.

In honour of that trip down memory lane including the shopping expeditions, we spent one Sunday trying to recreate it a little. Because you see our trusty BBQ was finally given the heave ho and we need a new one to replace it. Who better to help us than Jenna, Amy and Rebekka.

Jenna with the new BBQ

And why that particular BBQ rather than a name-branded one I hear you ask? Well, it’s exactly the same as our last one, we know it fits in the locker for storage, plus it has a vent hole that fits our cold smoker precisely, therefore it serves us for more than one purpose. Of course after all that hard work of shopping we needed to go out for lunch.

Lunchtime!

Back to the van and Tuesday rolled around and it was time to go and get a COF. The van quickly went through all its checks and out the other side with a big tick. We can highly recommend COF4U in Te Puke, with on-time appointments (actually we got there early and they took us in ahead of time), friendly helpful staff and excellent service. Now we are set for another 6 months.

Time to move on again, but not too far to get to our next destination with just a couple of stops along the way for fuel and other essentials.

On the bright side

They say that good things come along if we wait around long enough and with the New Year it seems we have mostly nice people back in camp. People are friendly, cheery and generally looking out for each other which is so nice to see and be a part of. It’s the little things that tend to make us smile;

-the little kid who learns to ride a bike without training wheels and is so proud of their efforts, or

-the other child who finally gets their turn to bat and hits the ball for 6 with everyone cheering them on, or

-the extended family group playing games together, or

-the dad teaching his youngster how to dive for “treasure” in the shallows.

It all brings a smile to our faces.

Then there are the campers who surprise you with gifts.

Crayfish for dinner…split and cooked on the bbq with a chilli, lime and coriander butter

Scallops anyone?

Scallops ready to be cooked.

I’m not a fan of scallops, I know weird right? but I blame it on the fact that I ate my fair share of them as a kid when on holidays in the Bay of Islands they were in plentiful supply and Mum would fry them in butter for us for breakfast. I just find them too rich besides, some shellfish and Crustacea I react to and can end up in an itchy blotchy mess so I’m happy to leave them for Roy to enjoy. Just so you know, I don’t react to crayfish 😉.

Over the past three years we have watched with great interest a mum who walks into the park with her daughter, I wave to her but she always seems shy and self contained so we don’t interfere. Mum walks in wearing a large backpack that initially the wee one was carried in, but now mum seems to carry an array of books and games for her daughter. Before Christmas I finally approached mum to say hello and to say how much we enjoyed watching her with her daughter. It turns out she is Russian and is very quiet and reserved but she loves Shakespear and they love walking around the park, watching the birds on the beach and enjoying the bush walks. It seems she carries books on NZ birds, flora and fauna and is teaching her 3yo daughter all about the outdoors. We always wave and say hi, but just before Christmas Ksenia brought us a gift, she has been doing some sort of baking course and she brought us some of her Russian Honey cake and chocolate cake. OMG, they were the most amazingly light, not too sweet, delicious cakes I have eaten. On the 6th January, Ksenia arrived bearing a gift for us, a beautiful honey cake stunningly decorated. She explained the significance of the date for her, the Russian orthodox Christmas equivalent.

Russian honey cake

The filling and icing is very light and mousse-like with a cream cheese/sour cream tang to it whilst the cake itself is very light with it being surprisingly not sweet as you would expect with honey. Luckily we had friends visiting for dinner and the cake appeared in time for dessert. Wade & Lindsay and Eti & Rona also enjoyed the beautiful cake as did some of the rangers the following day.

We’ve had good other good friends come to visit. Pat & Sue whom we used to travel with quite a bit were visiting from Christchurch. It was absolutely fabulous to meet up with them again and it was like time dissolved and we just picked up where we left off. Of course the conversation went on for some time and I forgot to take any pictures as were were too busy catching up on 2 and half years since we last saw each other in person. Of course we have regularly kept in touch but it’s so nice to be face to face.

Antony has been to stay a few times, the last time he brought with him a new board game for us to play called Ticket to Ride. It’s a great game, doesn’t go on for too long and makes a nice change to cards.

The other good news is that the parcel I sent to Alex, Ian and Callum arrived safely…unlike the previous parcel which has mysteriously disappeared. The parcel contained amongst other things lots of knitting for Callum including a jumper that his Nana asked me to knit. I ended up reknitting that as well as other bits and pieces to replace all that was lost in the other parcel. Alex sent through this picture of Callum wearing the jumper, she told me it was the only time he stays still for any length of time.

Sleeping, dinosaur wearing Callum

Family BBQ

Our last weekend in England and we were having a family BBQ at Brian & Julie’s (Ian’s Dad’s cousin), along with the rest of Ian’s family. This was a bank holiday weekend in the UK, a long weekend with Monday being a public holiday, and the BBQ was planned for Sunday afternoon, with the weather playing a large part in the planning. We needn’t have worried though with the hottest August Bank holiday weekend on record being recorded and the days temperature set to reach at least 32C.

We arrived at Julie & Brian’s and made our way out to their lovely garden where the gazebos were set up providing much welcome shade.

Brian was manning the charcoal BBQs with Roy giving a hand. Charcoal BBQs are a rarity for us these days as most people in NZ use gas fired BBQs mainly because of fire restrictions for NZ’ers over the summer months.

Brian and Roy manning the BBQs

Comparing notes behind a smoke screen

All sorts of fun and games were had by all generations.

Grandad Barry and Callum

I forgot to take any pictures of the table set out for the main event but needless to say it was all delicious and there was plenty to eat, it was some time later in the day before we got around to having dessert and cheese.

Panoramic shot

I had said I would make a dessert and thought I should make a pavlova as my homage to all things kiwi, but decided an ordinary pav would be a bit boring so instead made a brown sugar version with dates, almonds and chocolate. Topped with fresh whipped cream and raspberries it was rather delicious. Roy put together a cheese board and even made radish mice with the radishes grown in Alex & Ian’s garden, and it too also went down a treat.

Cheese board

Dessert and cheese….yes, I forgot to take pics of the main event!

Group photo

It was a wonderful afternoon and evening with lots of fun and laughter.

Thank you to the Denny family for making us feel so welcome and part of your family. We shall miss you all, until next time x.

D Day

Today is the 6th June, 75 years since the D Day landings on the Normandy beaches and both here in the UK and in France, commemorations are taking place with people from all over the Commonwealth and USA (including the orange blimp) are attending.

Here in Erith, it’s D Day plus 5.

What will be, will be.

Meanwhile, we are still keeping ourselves busy in the garden. We have put in trellis on top of the back fence. One; for a bit more privacy and two; for the climbing plants to clamber along.

Regular readers will know that when we were here 18 months ago, Alex and Ian had the back garden landscaped which included removing a stand of very large conifers and having two terraces built.

Before and after the landscaping

Now with plants planted and the trellis work up plus a small wooden fence around the top level hiding the raised vegetable beds, it’s all coming together.

Two trellis panels in place

The completed work

it’s all looking rather good, so much so we had a BBQ the other day.

Alex and Ian inspecting the BBQ

We have planted up the veggie raised planter boxes but then realised we needed to protect the seeds and plants from birds having a nice time eating all the seeds and the foxes digging up our hard work. So at the moment we do have bird netting in place but I am about to make cloches to cover the planters. However I am just awaiting for some supplies to be delivered so I can make a good job of them, otherwise I may get fired!!

Planters

Art, wine & food

César Manrique is a well known Lanzarote artist and architect who had a great influence on his home island and its buildings. He advocated successfully for low rise buildings across the island as well a traditional paint colours. We visited his home not too far from where we were staying, the home has now been turned into a museum and art gallery.

The house is built low in amongst the lava tubes and bubbles with rooms cut into the rock, art decorates the walls which is not only his own but other artist friends as well such as Joan Miró and Picasso. I have to admit that I was not particularly enamoured to his art work but I did enjoy his sculptural works.

The pool area looked inviting too.

It would not be a holiday with the Vannini’s without a post about wine & food. We went out of our way to try local food rather than stick to the usual tourist haunts, and we did find a few gems as well as eating at the villa

BBQ at the villa

Paella

All in all a fun holiday for us all, with great company, good food and wine, and some great sightseeing.