Mount Maunganui Part 2

Another 2 weeks have whizzed by since the last blog - it has been good to catch up with family and friends again, enjoy the walks such as around and up the Mount, fish and pull some of the weeds out at Bain St (Len), watch Amelia (missed Madi as I was working) perform very well in the piano competitions and do a couple of weeks of locum work (me) as well as spend a couple of nights on our section in Whakatane and play some golf at Ohope.

The Royal family!?

Dusk @ Kulim Park Tauranga

Prime real estate!

We have spent most of our nights camped in the Beachside Holiday Park at the base of the Mount - a beautiful spot and quite busy now the school holidays have started. Once the holidays are over and all the children have returned to school we will visit the Hot Pools next door as it's quite a long time since we last enjoyed a soak there.
Mostly the weather has been sunny and we were playing golf just in our T shirts yesterday but it was after a very cold bleak day and night when we camped at Memorial Park that we decided that from now on, while it is winter, we will stay somewhere where we can connect to electricity and use our fan heater!

Dawn @ Memorial Park Tauranga

I have another weeks work to do at a different Practice and then it is only a couple of weeks before we fly to England to catch up with all Len's family. I have no doubt that the heat wave will end just before we get there!

Mount Maunganui

We're now back in Tauranga for 3- 4 weeks to catch up with family, a little change of tenant in our house with one of the doctors returning to the UK, 3 weeks of locum work for me and sadly Earle's funeral which was on Thursday. It really seems that we should have a pause in the blog while here with life returning to theoretically a more normal one although a little more hectic than what we have been used to with all the catching up with family and friends which is course is lovely. It was great to see my niece Debra and her youngest, Tim, who came over briefly from Sydney and stayed with Sandra and Matt and also Debra's parents-in-law, Kay and Ian, who came up from Gisborne. And so good to see the "children" and grandchildren. We have managed to climb the Mount a couple of times as well as walk around it and down the beach - such a beautiful spot and today the weather is really turning it on again - sunny and about 19 degrees and it is the middle of winter!

L, Kay, Ian,Debra & Tim

Our first night back we stayed at Colin and Carlenes and since then have been enjoying our beach site at the Mount Camp ground. Tonight we will enjoy dinner at our friends, Margaret and Tonys, and won't have to drive home seeing we will have our "shell on our backs"!
It's really just a shame that I agreed to work for 3 weeks as there is less time to enjoy the surroundings - silly me!!

Debussy from DeMount

Sofia & Amelia on Mount main beach

Morning over Matakana

Waihi Golf club & Waihi Beach

From Paeroa where the car park in town had been full to capacity with 7 motorhomes - you would have to get there early in winter! - we drove to Waihi Golf Course, where Len has played before with the Vets, and the sun was shining. This was great as for once we could play a round without any puddles, the course having a few small hills and being in very good condition for this time of the year. No hidden lakes or streams on this one and we both played better accordingly.
We stayed in the carpark overnight and they cater especially for motorhomes with having a few power points available. We were so pleased to be able to use our heater as there was a huge frost overnight and we woke to a temperature of 2 degrees INside the bus. There was frost on BOTH sides of all the windows partly caused by the steam arising when I cooked dinner the previous evening. However we have good bedding and had been cosy through the night.
The ground outside was covered in frost and the Saturday morning golfers had to wait for an hour or so before they were allowed to tee off.

Frosty first tee from our window

We headed off to Waihi Beach and then down to the scenic harbour heads at Bowentown where we did a little walking and a spot of fishing on the beautiful sunny beach. It was lovely to be able to sit on our deckchairs in our Tshirts in the middle of winter, read and watch the rod as well as the other people enjoying the beach while we soaked up the sun. Len even managed to catch a little kahawai which the bigger fish enjoyed nibbling but were too wise to take a big mouthful and find the hook!

I must get a bell for the tip!

We intended to stay at the Bowentown camp for the night but I had a huge load of washing to do and the camp laundry was closed for renovations so instead we headed back to the village at Waihi Beach where I did the washing at the laundrette before parking in the large fairly new RSA carpark on top of the hill from where there are lovely views over the township and sea.
It's great to be able to park in such places for just a small donation and enjoy the very reasonably priced meals and drinks. The Waihi Beach RSA is open every day for lunch and dinner and we enjoyed the roast lamb and beef bistro as well as a nice dessert for a treat! No power to plug into here but luckily the night wasn't as cold as the previous one and there was no sign of any frost in the morning. After a good walk down the beach and through the village it was time to head back to Tauranga having had the sad news that our friend Earle had finally lost his battle with cancer.