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.