A coastal walk....

On clear sunny days it seems like you can see for miles from this lookout overlooking our town of Whangamata. These photos are taken on another walk I did a couple of weeks ago with my daughter Amelia and her boyfriend. I felt grateful to have had the afternoon off on such a stunningly beautiful day...

Clark island on the left can be accessed by foot at low tides..

A couple of paddle-boarders taking advantage of the waves coming in on the 'bar'. I tried paddle-boarding for the first time last summer and I am addicted and looking forward to doing more this summer...

A little known, secluded beach in between Onemana and Whangamata..

 Feeling blessed to have been able to spend some quality time with these two...

Untouched and peaceful....

For the past couple of weeks I have had my eldest daughter Amelia, home from university for the mid semester break along with her boyfriend, Bayley. Its been really lovely to have a full house again and to hear her and her sister Caitlin, have there normal sister banter going on and to also have a male voice added to the mix as well. Their visit home also coincided with Caitlin's 16th birthday and Caitlin's first school ball which was nice for them both. 

 Unfortunately I was working most of the time they were here but I did manage to get a couple of afternoons off to spend some time with them and show Bayley around our part of the country. These photos are taken at Opoutere beach, an untouched and often deserted beach north of Whangamata. Its easy to take the scenery around where you live for granted so when you show visitors around its like seeing those places with new eyes. Plus it's also a reminder of how fortunate we are to live in such a beautiful part of New Zealand. 

 The afternoon we did this beach walk was quite windy and it had showered intermittently all day hence the dark clouds in the photos which I think adds a little moodiness to them. 

A Perfect few days....

Nearly 2 weeks ago now I had the privilege of spending 3 days and nights out on a beautiful yacht with some special friends. We had talked about going sailing a few times but this time the weather was perfect and the time seemed right even though I only had a couple of hours to organise myself, my girls and pack what I thought I might need. I like doing things spontaneous or unplanned. It makes life more interesting don't you think :-)

We ate quite a few scallops and I even ate some raw,  finding them surprisingly sweet. We sailed as far north as the Mercury islands where Ngaire and I paddled around in kayaks on crystal clear blue waters while Lloyd dived for our dinner.

We stopped off at Slipper Island and walked to the lighthouse....

...My friend Ngaire and I......excuse my wind blown hair, I forgot to bring my hairbrush so had to be content with running my fingers through it each morning ;-)

We took in stunning views, like this one looking out to the Alderman islands......

....and to the other side looking back towards Tairua and Pauanui 

and further south to the beautiful long and often deserted beach of Opoutere.

And I'll finish with this beautiful sunset taken on the second night from where we were anchored just off Great Mercury island.

Early to rise....

Thought I'd share this beautiful sunrise that greeted me as I walked (stumbled) into our lounge at 5.30am this morning. Seeing this made it worth getting up so very early. My eldest has a baby sitting job at some nearby neighbours 3 mornings a week and as she does not have an alarm on her clock it is up to me to get her up, which truth be told I actually don't mind too much since I usually go for a run at 6am anyway. I feel super organised getting up that early though. It was a beautiful clear, sunny day here today making it very hard for me to stay indoors although I did manage to get a little sewing and cutting out done on a couple of projects I'm working on. 

Having a break to just be.....

 This past week I have been enjoying some unplanned time away from the computer, spending time with my two girls, playing new games received at Christmas, going on walks, sewing up a storm, eating way too much chocolate and just generally enjoying this past week without any demands on my time. It's been nice to just take a step back and enjoy what comes along each day.

Caitlin and I once again did our favourite coastal walk to take in the beautiful crimson flowers of the Pohutakawa trees which really does mean summer has arrived although as I write this it is pouring down outside for the second day in a row. 

For some reason that I have yet to figure out these trees don't all flower at the same time. It would be nice if they did but I guess it makes their flowering time that much longer which is a good thing too.

Our walk this particular day wasn't the best of experiences as it rained about halfway along, thankfully it was a quick and light shower and we were able to shelter in the bush. Then Caitlin got an allergic reaction to we think some grass seed that she rubbed into her eye which swelled up just a tad along with itchy hives on her legs. To top it off my jandal broke just as we were starting back so I had to walk barefoot the rest of the way. 

A couple of days before Christmas I took some time out from my gift making to make this handmade decoration with Caitlin out of old Christmas cards. This little heart house is a great way to re-use and preserve those lovely cards that are received over this holiday season that always seem too nice and special to just throw away. You can find the very easy tutorial over here on Michele's blog. The only thing I did differently was to stick all the hearts together (cut out from middle of the houses) and string them to the bottom of the house. The beads on the top and bottom are from a bracelet of one of the girls that broke some time ago and I had never quite gotten around to fixing it so I guess they were just waiting for that perfect project or 2 :-)

So if your  in the midst of packing up your Christmas decor save those cards to make this ornament for next year.

Now I did say at the beginning of this post I had been sewing up a storm so now that the gifts have been given and received I shall be back here soon to show what I have been busy creating these past few weeks.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy New Years eve!

Feeling Christmasy

Yes it's starting to feel that Christmas is just around the corner now. I have been madly sewing up some handmade goodness for most of my family. I have 3 gifts left to make and this morning I just added to 2 more gifts to make to the list that is in my head but should really be written down even if to make me feel good when I cross things off as they are done. 

Caitlin and I put our tree up yesterday and it certainly felt like Christmas as we opened up the boxes of decorations and fondly remembered all our favourite ones, from the vintage to the precious handmade ones. I do have plans to make more decorations but that will have to wait to next week when the gift making will hopefully be finished.

After the tree decorating was finished we went for a wee coastal walk in the hope that the New Zealand Christmas tree aka 'the Pohutakawa' was in full bloom but we were still a week or so too early. I did manage to zoom in on this early bloom though to whet your appetite.

How are your preparations going?

Oh and a giveaway is coming soon!

Weekending...

 We had almost perfect weather this past weekend except for the strong winds that are hanging around at the moment. On Saturday afternoon Caitlin and I went for a coastal walk to see if the Pohutakawa's were flowering. This walk takes in the coast line between Onemana and Whangamata. We did this same walk last year but this time we walked 20 - 30 mins further to another beach. The above photo is looking north and out to Slipper island.  

 Looking southwards down to Whangamata

The water was a beautiful colour and amazingly clear.

 Our first glimpse of the beach...not a sole in sight. 

To have this beautiful beach all to ourselves and so close to home reminded us of why we are lucky to live on the Coromandel.

 A little starfish enjoying the quiet waters amongst the rock pools...

...along with these sea snails that Caitlin had fun re-arranging.

Some sweet and tiny wild forget-me-not flowers growing along the pathway.

Sunday was spent weeding in my garden and picking these roses for inside.

This coming week I have numerous sewing projects to get on with, some just for me, many that are Christmas gifts, one for a giveaway and something for my shop. Best I get on with it!

On our doorstep.....

On Sunday last week the girls and I plus a friend of theirs went out for a picnic lunch and walk along a local beach a little north of our town of Whangamata. This is one of my very favourite beaches that is just 10-15 minutes drive away and I thought it would be nice to share with you some photos. This beach is a favourite because of it's undeveloped natural setting and for most of the year it can almost be deserted and it's kinda of nice to have a beach to yourself don't you think. The drive out is picturesque as well  and one which I have posted before about here. Above is the little bridge that marks the start of a 2-3 minutes walk through some forestry of pines towards the beach. On various school trips out here the older kids are allowed to jump off this bridge when the tide is in.

A rather old dilapidated sign marking the start of the reserve but don't let that put you off what is ahead.

A pleasant walk through mostly pine forest and often to the accompaniment of 'Tui's' and other native NZ birds.

 Keep walking we're nearly there...

And just up and over the white sand dunes is the bright blue of the Pacific Ocean although it could be a little cold at this time of the year.

Looking left or to the north end of this 5km long beach towards 'Ohui' where there are rock pools to explore and you can see 'Slipper island' , a privately owned island on the left hand side of this photo. 

And looking to the right or southern end of the beach.

I think a few days beforehand there must have been some quite high tides which had created this sand dune 'cliff' which was perfect for jumping off!

We walked towards the southern end of the beach and back over the sand dunes where there is a sand-spit that is fenced off as it is home to nesting/breeding colonies of several endangered species of native sea birds including the New Zealand Dotterel and the Variable Oyster catcher. 

Heading back to the car park we walk along the estuary side of the beach up the Wharekawa Harbour. The sand is a little squishy on this side but the view up the harbour back towards the surrounding hills makes up for it.

I hope you enjoyed this little photo tour of one of the little known gems on the Coromandel Peninsula and thankfully just on our doorstep. You can see a few more photos here.

Camping scenes......

Thought I'd share some photos from the school camp I went on last week with Caitlin's class. It's taken me a couple of days to catch up on the lack of sleep that you get when camping with a class of  10 to 12 year olds and its also taken that long to catch up on the washing and ironing but I'm getting there. 

The above photo is taken at a track junction 10 minutes away from the Pinnacles hut that we stayed in on the first night. I had opted to go with the faster group but ended up with 2 slower boys at the back of this group who's fitness wasn't really up to the faster groups level. They were moaning and groaning for the last 3rd of the tramp so were very pleased to see this sign which confirmed that they were nearly there. It was a good 2 1/2 hour tramp up hill most of the way zig-zaging across streams, some of them bridged and some not, with beautiful views if you remembered to look behind you. Just after we arrived at the hut which was initially empty 2 older ladies arrived. After introductions we learnt that they were 'teachers' on holiday from the Netherlands. We felt so sorry for them having to stay in the hut with a class of noisy kids when they were probably hoping for a quiet night in the bush. There were also 4 young men from New York that arrived later on who after seeing the hut full of kids wisely decided to camp in tents a wee way from the hut.

This photo shows the track up to the actual 'Pinnacles' peak which we did after a rest at the hut first. It was a pleasure to walk without our backpacks weighing us down.

Taken from halfway up and looking down towards the hut which is just to the right of this photo. It is a steady climb up with lots of stairs then a bit of rock climbing at the very top.

The climb is worth the effort though with these spectacular vistas to take in. This photo is looking out to sea beyond the small coastal town of Tairua.

This photo is taken at the very top looking out towards our town of Whangamata. You can literally see for miles in all directions especially in the beautiful clear sunny weather that we experienced all week. 

I took this photo a wee way down the rock face and it shows just how rugged and remote the bush covered hills are that we were tramping in. 

This lovely creature was the 2nd one we encountered on our tramp. It is a bush Weta and is a native insect of New Zealand. We had stopped for a rest on our decent down the following day and Caitlin's teacher and I had been laughing at the kids squealing  at something when one of Caitlin's friends came over with this Weta in her hand to show me which made me squeal with fright. It was about the size of her palm but thankfully didn't look too alive. I have bad memories of these creepy insects from my childhood. I remember climbing a tree in our backyard once and looking down to see one of these climbing up my foot. I squealed so loudly and so much that I think my Mother thought I'd fallen out of the tree. 

The last 2 days were spent down at a DOC camp site in the valley below with this lovely tranquil stream nearby. DOC camp sites are looked after by the Department of Conservation and are a real back to nature camping experience with what we call 'long drop' toilets, no running water and basic barbecue/fire places. This stream was beautiful but very very cold which I found out when I had to wash my hair and myself although afterwards I felt very refreshed and clean. 

This camp definitely challenged some of the kids and took them out their comfort zones but was so good for their self confidence. I feel grateful to be able to live and bring up our girls in such a beautiful part of our country with these experiences being right on our doorstep.