A picture of Big Bertha.

It's nearly August. How did that happen?

We had a quiet weekend. The weather was rather nice. I thought Friday morning felt quite spring like, but it changed by lunch time with cold wind and some rain.

There are 2 starlings on the fence every morning checking out the goose neck of the caravan where they have tried to nest for the last 2 springs. Last year, unknowingly, we took their chicks for ride when we went and got the certificate of fitness. Needless to say, they didn't survive. We will be wrapping it up in rubbish bags before too long. (The goose neck is the bit we hook on too when traveling)

On Saturday night, we thought we might go out for breakfast, then we thought, no let's do lunch instead. At dinner time we thought let's have fish and chips. In the end we ate at home all day. We lead such an exciting life don't we? Ha ha.

Here  is a picture of Big Bertha for your edification,  that I didn't put up last week. I forgot I had it on my phone. Sigh.

Simpson's Beach

We had a weekend away at Simpsons Beach. It is 5 minutes from Whitianga on Coromandel Peninsular.. My cousin was staying at the freedom camping ground there, so we went up to have a catch up. We weren't brave enough to take the caravan with it's damaged back wall, so we treated ourselves to a bach. The first one we chose was gone by the time we booked it through "bookabach" so we had to go for the more expensive one. It was nice to have a treat.

The weather wasn't too bad either with just a few showers.

Eddie took his Big Bertha bait launcher. It took a few goes to get it right. The first launch he lost the sinker as he had pumped it up with too much power. For the second launch the bait flew off, which a seagull caught. Third time lucky and it went where it was supposed to go with everything attached. Sadly there wasn't any fish. Russell had caught some the day before and yesterday after we had left. What's that all about!
Simpson's beach is a beautiful spot, as you can see from Eddie's photos. We think we will go there when we are back on the road again.

Eddie took this on Saturday morning

The front deck. A lovely place for lunch

The front of the house

Another Quiet Weekend in Matamata

We had a bit of rain over the weekend and didn't see a lot of sunshine. It's not too bad today. It wasn't that cold, so I guess that's a plus.

My cousin Adele and her husband Russell came to say with us in their caravan for the weekend. They are getting a new one today. So they have headed off to Taupo today to pick it up. It's a really nice German one.
We went to dinner on Saturday at the local Italian restaurant. Very yummy and no room for desert. I had scallops for my starter and cannelloni stuffed with pumpkin, ricotta and feta cheeses. I was very full when I had finished. I bought some home and had it for lunch today. 

Eddie is off to the South Island again today. He is only going as far as Blenheim, so he will be home on Wednesday.

We re watched the “Wild Hog” movie last night. Adele and Russell hadn't seen it and Eddie and I enjoyed it all again. It is a funny movie.

Mt Maungatautari and a trip south

Eddie had a good week last week when he went to the South Island for work. He took a digger down and brought a crusher home again.

 He had good crossings on the ferry. It wasn't so nice on Friday, so he was glad he got back before then. He got home on Thursday afternoon, really tired. He went to bed at 7 30 to read a bit, but after 2 pages he gave up and went to sleep. He didn't wake up until 6 the next morning. He only had to unload the digger the next day, so he had a bit of a long weekend. He was a bit gob smacked to see people walking around in Balcutha in shorts, t shirts and jandals and it was only 3 degrees. They told him it was a dryer cold there and not as bad as in the Waikato. He said (wearing a lot of clothes) what a load of nonsense. But not as politely as that of course ha ha.

I went for a tramp up Mt Maungatautri on Sunday. Lots of bush and birds there, as it is all fenced off to keep the predators out. We decided to do one of the other peaks on the mountain, called Pukeatua Peak. We walked up the main path, which is nice and easy to walk on as it is made for the 4 wheel drive vehicles that maintain the fence. We came to the track up to the peak. Up the track we went and we found ourselves using tree roots and tree trunks to pull ourselves up. We thought we were climbing Pukeatua Peak,(signage wasn't quite what it should be) but it was actually Rocky Outcrop. There would have been a great view, but the clouds had come down, as we had gone up. Most annoying. Across the valley, in the clouds, we could see Pukeatua Peak. Down we went. Mostly on our back sides as it was quite rocky and tricky to walk on. I was quite pleased to be at the bottom, where the track up Pukeatua started. We started to go up and met a couple coming down, who said the path was pretty rugged and and there wasn't much of a view because the trees have grown. (No possums to eat them). As it was lunch time and we were over rugged tracks, we went back down and sat on a bench that was there to eat out lunch.

The picture is the path down off  Rocky Outcrop.