Ali, Stu, Spike and the Alpacas at Helena Bay

A roadside Maori farm shop with tasy purple spuds.

Spike munching on some spare mussels.

We pulled up at Helena Bay. The kids played for 4 hours, making a driftwood raft and playing Bear Grylls. It ended suddenly with Bear losing Raz’s prized Leatherman penknife in the lagoon, as it had been floating across on a pair of shorts. The shorts are still at the bottom of the lagoon as well. 

Meanwhile, Digs had met Stu and Spike, a black lab that has had a spinal operation about 4 weeks ago and has to take it easy, and been invited to park the camper on his lawn overlooking the lagoon.

The kids spent one afternoon getting to know the alpacas that live in the field next door and belong to a neighbour, Mercedes, Jackson etc. Having never been very close to one before they look like a cross between a camel, a deer and a goat. with huge dark brown eyes. Some of them happily fed from the kids hands. Ali told us about the 3 that had died recently, including a one year old, Olly that had died a few weeks ago, the same day that Spike got ill with his back problem.

Raz woke Stu at 7am and they went out fishing on the kayaks just after first light. They came back a few hours later with some snapper and some khaiwai – great for putting in the smoker. Later we went to a nearby bay to collect mussels and tuatuas (like pipis) for supper. Bear and Magi made an upside down pineapple cake for pud. Stu showed the kids a card trick and later taught it to Magi. Spike munched on mussels.

Thanks, Ally, Stu and Spike for a fabulous weekend.

An early morning fish with Stu and Raz caught this snapper.

Collecting Tuatuas.

Top: Elliot's Beach

Kahwai on the smoker.

The Wonderful World of The Waipu Pizza Barn

Magi with the owner, Ale

Since Auckland, whenever we have mentioned that we'd be heading up the east coast to Lang's Beach, the first thing people said was that we should visit the Waipu Pizza Barn. It turned out that the owners of the house where we were staying, had got their own wood fired pizza oven because of their next door neighbours, who own the Waipu Pizza Barn! We invited one of the owners, Ale and her son Tomo over for some of our second rate pizzas one night. The next day we headed to their incredible palace to pizzas.

Ale (short for Alejandra) used to work in film, as a make up artist, and lots of the furniture and props; battered leather suitcases, gramophones, photos of highland cattle and deer heads, have come from films over the years. Because Waipu still has a large Scottish population, they even have the highland games here every New Year's Day, Geoff and Ale have installed a whisky bar at the back of the place. The pizzas were on another level - heavily loaded, but still with an incredible crisp base. Bear also tried the Fejoya (a bit citrusy - a taste of its own) Smoothie. Ale gave the kids some black t shirts with a tartan cow on the back, a tour around the kitchen and some pudding pizzas with butterscotch sauce. Digs and I came away wishing they had one near us in Devon. 

Pudding Pizza to share: banana, caramel, choc sauce and ice cream.

The Highland Whisky Bar.

 

Lang's Beach is near Waipu and Uretiti

We want one of these!

We spent 10 days around Lang's Beach, looking out to the Hen and Chicken islands across Bream Bay (another one of Cap'n Cook's names that has stuck) and...

trying out the owner's wood fired pizza oven
testing the local chocolates at Bennett Chocolates
swinging on tree swings over Waipu Cove
playing pool and raz getting very good
Bear being taught how to do a handstand and the beginning of a cart wheel by Arle
getting into Twilight and watching the first 3 films with warm buttery popcorn
enjoying the owner's gorgeous veggie garden with fantastic tomatoes that you could pick a handful of every day, fresh lettuce and handfuls of basil, mint and chives. The tree tomatoes aren't quite ripe yet.,
enjoying our Sunday house roast of lamb with the trimmings
the kids climbing and monkeying around on the pohutukawa trees that hang over the edge of the beach
me being able to say pohutukawa trees at last

Sandy Bay

Zippy's Coffees and Ice Creams from the Flavourama machine at Lang's Beach. Boysenberry yoghurt fresh made in the van was the best.

Opahi Bay...mussels, kayaks, fishing contest

Green lipped mussels and pasta at Opahi Bay.

We drove out of Auckland up to Opahi Bay, where Roger has a beach bach and parked up in his garden. The last few miles all look like Hobbiton to us, but they must be plenty of places in NZ that have that green undulated hilly look. Where they filmed LOTR, in Matamata, just south of Auckland, must have been easier for those huge catering lorries, that are the first requirement of any filming project, to get to.

The kids met other kids! Darcy, Grace, Lily, Wilson and dad, Andrew and mum, Anna from Auckland. Andrew' took them out fishing and biscuiting. Poor little Wilson caught a great Kingfish but it was 4cm undersize so had to go back.

Raz and Bear kayaking in the bay.

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A lovely boat for you, Olive.

Men versus women tug of war.



Fish as big as small children.

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Opahi Bay fishing competition.

Raz and Darcy being towed around at high speed on body boards. Cheers Andrew.

100% NZ

Long live Banana Man, a superhero much missed from the 80s.

The lift - the scarey view down to oblivion.

Our first day in NZ and we took the ferry from Devonport (only similar in name – this one has painted weatherboard homes, boutiques, coffee shops, actually looks more English -no hoodies) to downtown Auckland (sounds like oak-land when the locals say it). By the wharf people were handing out seared tuna canapés with wasabi mayo and moist bbqed mackerel as a draw for the weekend’s seafood festival. After this, there was a man handing out lollipops. Cheers, lunch done. We headed towards the skytower and saw someone fling themself off all 192m of it. Digs started to get keen.


Just as we arrived at the bottom of the tower, a chap called Julian, who turned out to be one of the team, flew down the outside of the tower, because he was “bored”. 10 minutes later Digs and a chap called James from Liverpool, got dressed up in a fake superhero outfit, with it's crude lighting flash across the chest and bananary yellow splashes of colour. We went outside at waited at the X that marked the spot – a big crash mat with a red bullseye on it. I lay on my back of the steel mesh with my camera poised on the jump deck at the top of the building watching the people who had chosen to walk around the outide of the tower on a 1m walkway with no handrail, dressed in orange boiler suits, that can only be described as Guantanomo-chic. Apparently, this activity is all the nerves and non of the thrill. OK, let's see the thrill then.

Julian gave us a 4minute, and then a 30 second countdown, and then said he didn’t cactually catch the name of the jumper! I filmed someone plunging off the steel gangplank, hang around outside the restaurant window for 5 seconds and then freefall, while Bear shouted out, “Dad, do your superman move”. It was Digs,  and I did manage to film it (will upload when I have a high speed connection). They both did it for a second time -  backwards. 

As we waited for the photos and dvd etc, Magi spotted a T shirt with a large chicken on it that read “Nearly jumped off the sky tower”.  We all went up to the viewing platform in the lift, that digs had twice gone up, but never come down, and from the restaurant on the observation deck we saw some of the team and some punters fling themselves off the tower and dangle for our pleasure nearly 200m above the road below.

First night in the new camper opposite Rangitoto.

Last few days in Sydney with some old friends from Bar Contessa

With Con and Sarina, my bosses from Bar Contessa. Lovely to see you and look through the album at us girls as we were then! Thanks for being so generous to the kids. x

Renee, great to see you and meet your Richard, Brandon and Lilly. Thanks for an unforgetable roast - pork with all the trimmings and blissful gravy - and full on Sunday brunch. The world is waiting for "A Year without Beer" Richard. I'm expecting a few more highs and lows than "A Year in Provence" or "The Woman who went to bed for a Year" and have some bearing on why people live so long in "A Year in the Village of Eternity"! Look forward to seeing you in Devon soon-ish. x

Got all the kids up, the boys out of the top bunk and Magi out of her wombat hole, packed away the beds in the van for the last time and drove to the airport. Randy and Vicky flew in, having left their farm south of Adelaide early in the morning, to take our Bruce away. They paid us the balance on the van as a $5k wodge of notes and had a quick look around. They said that they rarely leave their rural area, so negotiating the roads out of Sydney was going to be Randy’s worst nightmare. 

We had a great flight from Sydney to Auck/Orc-land. Watched "Contagion" - probably not the most relaxing in-flight viewing and a couple of episodes of “Come fly with me”. Saw the one where Walliams and Lucas seize some drugs and proceed in their office to try them out, progressively getting more and more smashed.

Stunning views as you fly into Auckland – fields and undulating hills of middle earth and a glimpse of 90 mile beach. 

This is the first time we've been through biological customs, here they examined the soles of our shoes, like we were a family of shire horses – for any specs of dirt or clots of aussie soil.

R.I.P. Croos...you were so nearly Crocs.

Raz and Bear both had a pair of these knock off Crocs from Pokhara in Nepal (RRP very much dependent on individual bartering technique - for us about £2.50 equiv) before we set off up to Annapurna Base Camp. Raz left one of his outside the van in Sawtell at Christmas and Bear's have now decided to call it a day. R.I.P. Croos.