Happy New Year

 From our four days at Ohiwa Habour we came to a place called Tirohanga, which is just south of Opotiki  in the bay of Plenty. We really liked Tirohanga. It is an old style camping ground with a nice safe beach. The sea was nice and warm, so swimming was lovely.

There is a pool too, so we swam in that a couple of times when we didn't feel like walking all the way to the beach.

We biked into Opotiki one day on the bike track that goes past the camp ground. We came to a soft sand spot which I tried to bike  through and fell off. I hurt my left hip and shoulder. I was in quite a bit of pain at first but it is much better now. I still can't walk as fast as normal, which is very frustrating. My hip seems to catch somehow when I move my  leg forward. I am beginning to think a trip to the doctor might be the go before we move on again.  I knew I should have walked through it before I started to pedal through. Listen to your  inner voice Kay!!! 

I am not sure if I mentioned that there was no power at Ohope, so we were totally off grid. We were very pleased with how the solar panels and the batteries  worked, especially as it was a bit cloudy for one day . One of the hazards of living in the Land of the Long White Cloud I guess. 

After our week at Tirhanga we came back to Thornton, where we have been working over the last week. We are doing the cleaning of the ablution blocks. It takes us a couple of hours in the morning. In the afternoon we go down and check that there are toilet rolls and do any tidying up. We are not sure why people leave paper on the floors all the time. It's not hard to pick it up!!

Can you believe it is 2025 today. I can remember, when I was little, working out how old I would be in 2025. It seemed like an age away. But it isn’t is it? Time just goes on by. Our eldest grandson will be 30 next year! I am not sure how that happened either.

We found another nice beach just up from Tirhanga called Opape. We went and visited friends who were camping there the other day. It's pretty laid back camping ground with a nice safe beach too. We think we will go and spend a week there when we leave here on the 10th.

Brakes done at last.

We thought we were all set for the brakes last Monday night. Eddie took it in and brought it home again as the hubs were the wrong size. Barry, ( the mechanic) rang the supplier on Tuesday morning and told them exactly what he thought of them. The storeman said we sold them all to Jayco, so Barry rang Jayco. Surprise, surprise they had them. The supplier boss came to see Barry about 2 hours after he had had words with them. Barry told him if his employee had rung Jayco to see if they still had them, none of this would have happened. The brakes finally arrived last Saturday, so Barry did the work on Sunday.  

It was a gorgeous day and we spent most of it with friends who live in Ohope. We went and had lunch at a local cafe with David and Leone. When we got back to their place, I had a swim and the water was beautiful.Their house is right across the road from the beach. Very convenient.  Eddie thought it would have been too cold, but it wasn’t. I enjoyed my swim, as it’s the first sea swim I have had for a couple of years. Last summer we had river swims when we were at Featherston.

We left David and Leone's place at about 3: 30 as they were going out. We sat at the Whakatane heads for a while and read, then we bought burgers for our tea and ate them outside the garage while he finished off the last bits.
We were on the road at 6. We didn’t go too far, just to Ohope which is over the hill from Whakatane. We are camped up at a freedom camping place for a couple of nights. We thought it might have been full, but we managed to get a spot. It’s quite popular with campers. I guess because it’s free.

We had a lovely sunset yesterday. The estuary isn't so calm this evening.

We were going to move on to Opotiki today, but it has been very windy and Eddie wasn't keen to tow the van with a wind warning in place. It was supposed to calm down this afternoon, but it is still windy. With luck we will be on our way to Opotiki tomorrow. 

Summer is here.

 Summer has arrived. We have had some lovely days up to the high 20’s and the wind is warmer too. The pohutukawa flowers are starting to come out. The tuis and the bees are enjoying the flowers. I tried to get a bee in the photo, so it isn't the best picture I have taken. Unfortunately, the bee was shy and she didn't stay for the photo.

We are still waiting for the brake parts for the caravan, so we aren’t very happy. We just want to get going. Apparently they are in a container in Auckland. Not very helpful. Hub auto has told the supplier he isn’t impressed with the service. Neither are we.

Louise has started to decorate the camping ground with Christmas decorations. The little lit up reindeer amuses me, so I took his photo. He looks a little spooky in the dark. I am not sure why he looks so startled.