Tauranga

The blog stopped while we were back in Tauranga for over 3 weeks as it was more back to reality life than life-on-the-road. It was great to catch up with all the children, grandchildren (who have all grown a little while we have been away) and friends (who fortunately haven't grown!) David and Christine came over from Sydney for Easter and it was great to have all the family together.
Somehow I didn't seem to have to cook much, enjoying lovely meals with Tony and Margaret, Gladys and Earle, Sandra & Matts, Colin & Carlene and a pot luck at Trish & Chris's with the rest of the 'mostly Physio Gang' - Jenny & Derek, Sue & Pete and Margo.
I had a nice catchup with Jos, and Sandra took me out for an early Mother's Day lunch to Side Track, at the Mount, which we always enjoy.
Len and I celebrated our 7th Wedding Anniversary at the Kwang Chow restaurant with Norrie and all his Dunedin flatmates from 1968 who were also my flatmates for a few months when I returned to Dunedin from Palmerston North to sit my Finals, Norrie and I being engaged at the time - John & Tom from Auckland with their lovely wives, Ruth (who I also knew in Dunedin) and Petro, Crunch (Paul) from Christchurch and Clem from Port Chalmers. They had their first flat reunion in Dunedin 5 years ago and plan to keep meeting up every 5 years and even though it was an odd way for Len & I to celebrate our anniversary we both thoroughly enjoyed the night and it was easy to recognise everybody! Somehow it was very reminiscent of being around the table at 138 St David Street with all the banter going on!

The flatmates reunion

We spent a weekend parked on our section at Whakatane and appreciate, yet again, what a lovely spot it is in - so easy to walk into town, to the river for whitebaiting, to the Heads for fishing and yet very quiet and peaceful. We have dug our house building plans out of the shed and are thinking that instead of selling the section we might yet build on it!
We played golf at Te Puke (twice) on our way past even though it wasn't in a good condition, having just been cored and went to one movie with Margaret & Tony - 'Hudson on Hyde Park' which is not a must-see but enjoyable providing an interesting insight into Roosevelt's social life.

Relaxing at Tony & Margarets

Overnight parking sites were various, the most popular one being the wide roadside lawn in front of Colin and Carlenes but we also enjoyed our parking spot at M&Ts (excellent!), Pilot Bay, Fergusson Park, the wide grassed area by the port, a block over from the Mount movie theatre and the roadside outside Gladys's and then Trish's which was the Friday night the rain just bucketed down all night and the next 2 nights creating major flooding throughout Tauranga, the Mount and Waihi.
Our poor neighbour at Bain St, whose house sits lower than ours, had the water rush through her whole downstairs, halfway up to window level and she has only just completed major renovations. Sandra and Matt had some flooding in their basement and Colin narrowly missed flooding, in Amelia's bedroom particularly, only by vigorous drain creation and brisk water-sweeping. It had been so hot and dry for 4 months the ground just couldn't cope - I think it was the heaviest prolonged rain I have ever heard.
I have done a week of locum work, Len has helped Tony with some painting, our medical checks are completed and the time has come to move on!