Thornton Beach

 

A lovely day here today. We have had cloudy days with cool winds last week, so it is nice to see the sunshine today, although we still have some wind, which not too conducive with drone flying.

We have settled in well here at Thornton. We start work officially on the 27^th. Tuesday and Wednesday's are our days off, so we are starting after them. We chose those days so we can do our shopping and what ever else is to be done in town.

We went to the Awakaponga evening market on Sunday afternoon. It's the first time they have held it since covid. I think they have it 3 or 4 times over the summer. There were lots of interesting things to buy, including Christmas decorations. We just bought some honey and fish and chips on the way home.

A couple called, Mike and Linda  were there serving devonshire teas. They were our first farm job bosses way back in the late 70's. We went to catch up with them properly on Monday afternoon. They live across the river from us now. I think one of their sons runs the farm at Matata. They haven't changed a bit. We had sore cheeks when we left their place after laughing pretty much non stop from 2 30 until 6 pm.

EstThere are about 8 permanent houses here in the park, which are privately owned. They own the house and pay a lease for the section. One of the owners, (also called Mike, so a bit confusing. We will have to be sure which Mike we mean) has a garden here and he said I can use a bit of it. He's only going to grow tomatoes this year. He planted them out yesterday morning. I bought a  few plants this morning. Quite exciting, as I didn't think I would be able to have a garden this year.

Rangitaiki river mouth

Looking up the river

Thornton is by the river mouth of the Rangitaiki River.  The island off the coast is Whale Island. It is a marine reserve. 

Further out are the Raurimu Islands. They are surrounded by a reef and sometimes we can see the breakers from the beach when the sea is really pounding.