For the next 3 weeks we were to be in New Zealand, staying again in Te Puru with Nic and Lin. Definitely time for relaxation...
.... for catching up with 'old' friends, and for revisiting places we remembered fondly from our last visit in 2011.
Steve Is 65!!:
Somehow we always manage to be somewhere exciting and different for Steve's birthday.
Celebrations began in Te Puru with a glass (or two) of bubbly....
.......then dinner in a NZ gastropub..........
where the green-lipped mussels were huge........
......... as was the knife for cutting the cake!
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| Yes, they did get the numbers back-to-front!
Cheers!!
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Kristian's Citizenship Ceremony:
The evening after arriving we were delighted to be able to attend Kristian's Citizenship Ceremony in Auckland. Kris, having stayed in Knowle to finish his 'A' levels, had arrived in New Zealand 6 months later than the rest of the family. We had missed Nic, Lin and Dan all officially becoming Kiwis last summer but were able to join in the celebrations this time.
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| Kris and Nicole |
Treasures and Pleasures Revisited:
Before we came we had decided not to try to recreate our last visit, condensed into 3 weeks, but to centre our stay on the Coromandel and to revisit those places that had remained fondly in our memory.
Waihi:
This place sums up for us much that is best about the Coromandel: peace, seclusion, natural beauty.
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| Bella, not Barclay this time. |
Black Jack Beach:
A place we have spoken about so many times in the last 5 years.
Taurua:
First time we had visited this coffee house near the beach but it sums up how much pleasure we have got from these coffee stops as we travelled around both in 2011 and this trip.
Cathedral Cove on the 'Hahei Express':
We had so much enjoyed this last time it had always been on our 'must-do' list if we ever came to New Zealand again, and Nic and Lin didn't take much persuading to join us.
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| The Blowhole |
Fishing:
Another must-do for Steve was fishing, whether off the shore just outside Nic and Lin's house ......
... or at sea.
All that hard work was worth it!
Family and Friends:
Five years ago we'd met up with Sue's cousin Matt and his wife Jenny not long after they'd moved to Auckland. Hearing we were coming to New Zealand again, they'd kindly invited us to spend a weekend with them......
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| Matt and Jenny |
in their new home on Auckland's North Shore...
Fabulous views, and no grass to cut!
In 2011 we had met Jenny's parents, Richard and Sue, in Auckland for the first time. Since then they have visited us twice in France and it was great to meet them again.
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| Sue, Richard, Jenny and Matt |
Matt had bought tickets for the production of Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' in the Pop Up Globe in Auckland'
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| Juxtaposition of modern (Skydeck) and old. |
A replica of the London Globe theatre had been erected in under a month, and the season was to continue till the end of April, to mark the 500th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth.
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| View from our seats |
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| It was a VERY hot afternoon to be standing in the auditorium |
Matt had done us proud as we had our own box....
complete with antique furniture.
No production of 'Romeo and Juliet' would be complete without a balcony.
What a Finale! Shakespeare meets River Dance / Slumdog Millionaire.
On leaving Matt and Jenny we drove to north to Warkworth and on to Snells Beach to have lunch with Richard and Aileen Swain. (Richard had worked for Steve at BT.)
