New Plymouth

Now, I have learnt that I have to start with the latest news and work backwards so that the diary reads in the right order so here we go!
Sunday 7th October: It has been an amazing day - woke up to blue skies and minimal wind in the Fitzroy Golf Club car park - tiny parking area and I didn't know how we would fit in but they really like having us here and think that we help with their security. They don't know we couldn't fit the baseball bat in!
Played golf this morning and I was definitely a lot happier than yesterday. It was warmer, the wind was kinder and although there were still a couple of Really Bad holes the others were enjoyable.
In the afternoon we hopped on the bikes and rode down the amazing Coastal Path into town and then on to Pukekura Park which is really lovely and peaceful with the lake and water features. We forgot the camera, yet again, so just have to try and remember the colours of the rhododendrons, azaleas, cliveas, the fountain, water lilies and the view of Mt Taranaki.
We then continued on to do the rest of the Coastal Path and then the Te Henui Walkway, on our bikes.
It was a beautiful day and New Plymouth has to be one of the most, if not THE most pictureque cities in NZ. "Wow" to their amazing long walk/cycle way along the beach, their other town walkways and Pukekura Park. Tauranga and the Mount are beautiful but we do need a bit more foresightful inspiration!

Now I regress to yesterday when, after listening to a howling wind all night in the bus at Manukorihi Golf Club, we drove to the Waitara Golf Club where I had the most miserable game of golf in my whole life - no fault of the course itself  as it was a nice Links course by the sea but it was blowing a hurricane. This meant that it was difficult to keep standing to address the ball which would regularly be blown off the tee and then when you did eventually swing the golf club back the gale would stop you bringing the club forward again. Talk about a "Grumpy Old Woman"! Len was "Mr Cool" and I can only assume that he was so amused by my bad behaviour that it kept him really relaxed and he had quite a good game! I think the grumpy old woman ripped my golf card up and threw it in the trash!
We then drove onto the Fitzroy Golf Club, by the sea, where we still are. We even have a view of Mount Egmont - the only downside is that it was Freezing Cold last night and we have no heater if we are not connected to electricity ( none if we are either come to think of it, but we can fix that easily). Anyway I must have looked a sight with all my layers of clothes, the blanket and the duvet wrapped around me and then, once we got into bed, we needed "everything" on us. The bus was blowing about in the wind but we did sleep so that was good.
The one other downside about this park (golf club) is the womens showers. I think I am learning that one should never get undressed until the shower has beeen turned on and tested! Tonight, again, I stood naked, turned on the shower and waited ... and waited... for the shower to go warm. In the end I had the control turned right to the end of hot and I managed to get some hot plop, plop, plop drips! After checking that there wasn't a slot machine to put coins in for hot water I decided to stand under the drip and soap up. Then glory- be, the drip got hotter and I was able to turn it back a bit to get a better flow for 10 seconds - just in time to get a bit of soap off! then I tried for the hot  plop but it was a cold plop (I think Len must have turned his lovely shower on then). Suddenly the plop started to feel a little warm so I rushed to put some shampoo in my cold hand only for the plop to go cold again but by then I just had to go for it - quickly shampooed, turned the control round for more cold flow, rinsed out the shampoo and hopped out the shower with my teeth chattering. (No problem with Lens so next time I might use the mens!)