Our trip to Napier...

Last week end Bryan and Peter had a 4 day weekend due to a holiday on Monday. So we left on Friday the 23rd for Napier which is on Hawke Bay on the south east coast of the north island. We went via Lake Taupo and the above picture is at Huka Falls which is on the Waikato River.

Above is a picture of McDonalds at Lake Taupo. Attached to the play area is a retired DC3 aircraft which the kids can play in as well. Our granddaughters would love it!

Here are the gardens at Napier which are right on the waterfront along the beach. The colours were amazing.

This fountain is in the city center square at Napier. It is adjacent to a very beautiful garden. It is very quiet and peaceful there even though it is in the city.

Napier is noted for it's Art Deco architecture. Every year they have an Art Deco festival for a week with everyone dressing up for the event. Here we are with one of the old cars that will be used for the event. We wanted to be there for the event but couldn't get accomodations which books out a year in advance. So next time when we visit again.

Napier is noted for wine making with many wineries in the area. Here we are at the Mission Winery which was started by the Catholic priests in the 1800's and is the oldest winery in New Zealand.

Here is a picture of Bryan and Peter at the Mission Winery. The garden around the winery was very nice and overlooks the valley below since the winery is on the side of a hill.

Here is a view of the vineyard looking down from the winery.

Here's a view of Napier from the look-out point - very pretty town.

Here's an example of some of the art deco buildings that were done in the 1930's and 40's.

Art deco fountain and statue along the waterfront.

Our dinner on the beach on Sunday evening - we had a lovely bottle of wine and Subway sandwiches!

This is our lovely motel - also art deco - complete with potted plant on the balcony. We enjoyed coffee and wine on the balcony, watching the ocean and the world going by below us.

Our motel was a family unit with two bedrooms, and a small kitchen, where you can see Lee cleaning up after breakfast.

The view from the kitchen, the living area, and our balcony.

This is the view from our balcony. It was a wonderful home away from home for the long weekend, and we'd definitely go back there again.

It's Thursday here. Peter has gone back to work after his Christmas holidays, so Lee and I are having coffee and a leisurely morning. Later today we'll go over to John's, and Lee will get his broadband hooked up. I think that I'll spend some time in town at the mall : )

Richard will be at John's at 1:00, and we'll have lunch, and then do something! It will be a nice day. Tomorrow we are going with Bryan to Matamata to visit with his Mum and Dad. Then in the afternoon, we'll head to Raglan, where B&P have their beach house. We're looking forward to some fresh fish and relaxing! I'm also planning on getting some beach combing in! : )

Then, next week, we're off to do some touring around the island, so we'll post along the way so that you know where we are.

Love and hugs from us.... xxxxx

Visiting Hamilton Gardens...

Monday the 19th we had rain showers off and on most of the day so we had a day of rest which was nice.

But Tuesday was bright and sunny so we went to Hamilton Gardens with Peter and John. The gardens are beautiful and we spent over 3 hours there. There are gardens designed for various parts of the world including Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Indian, English, and Marori gardens.

Also there was a wooden Russian bell tower which was very ornate.

After the gardens we went for lunch at the Hydro Café sitting at an outside table to enjoy the wonderful weather.

The pictures were taken at the bell tower, the Indian, Chinese, Italian, and rose gardens, and the picture of the dog parking spot was taken at the Café.

The Garden at Westerland...

Bryan and Peter live out in the country in a beautiful home on 3 acres. Bryan has turned the 3 acres into an incredible garden. There are 2 ponds with lots of trees and flowers. So it’s like being in a park.

Here is a picture of them and some pictures taken in the garden. The shooting star hydrangeas are amazing.

Our first day in New Zealand...

We arrived at the Auckland International Airport on Sunday January 18 at 4 am an hour early. But this was fine with us since it meant an hour less on the airplane. The flight crew even commented on the short flight and thought that it might be a record.

Even though we were early, Bryan and Peter met us at the airport. They had seen the night before that the flight was going to be early. So it meant that they had to get up even earlier to meet our very early arrival which we really appreciated.

We then went to Hamilton where they live which is about 1.5 hours drive from Auckland. It was a beautiful day so a nice drive.

After a rest and some lunch, we went for a walk around Hamilton Lake. It is in a very nice area and there are some lovely homes all around the lake. There were lots of water lilies as you can see in the picture that Bryan took of us. The black bird with the red head is a Pukeko and we saw some Australian coots as well.

Summer in January

The weather has been incredibly warm here now for almost two weeks. It's bright and sunny with the temperatures in the mid 70's. It's a bit windy during the night and in the mornings but fine during the day.

So we have been taking advantage of it and going for a long walk most days. So the question is "Where are we going to walk to today"?

We walked the enire lenght of Montara Beach starting at the south end walking both directions. We did some beach combing for sea glass and found quite a bit to add to our collection.

Last Friday we walked the paved trail from Princeton Harbot into Half Moon Bay and then back again to the harbor where we parked the car. We stopped in the evening at Sam's Chowder House and had a beer on their deck over looking the water to watch the sunset. It was the evening of the full moon so on one side of the sky we had the moon coming up and on the other the sun going down. Incredible!

It's been so warm we've had to water and I saw that our blue berry bush is blooming. The poor plants are all mixed up. However the weather is to change with some rain predicted which is good since everything is so dry.