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.

Buds of spring hope.....

I noticed this week that my garden is starting to show signs of spring. I picked this bunch of snowdrops, winter cheer and the first 2 daffodils to bloom to go on our dinning table yesterday. After noticing all the buds emerging here and there I had to take a few shots to share with you here.

 This has to be my favourite to emerge so far. I love the delicate pale pink of these petals. 

Can you see the bee hiding in one of these flowers?? I didn't notice it until I uploaded the photo on to my computer. I think the best thing about flowers at this time of the year is their beautiful fragrance.

We've just had two weeks of school holidays here and during the last week we did a girls road trip down to Wellington to catch up with friends that we hadn't seen for 3 years. Fortuitously for us they were house/dog sitting for family who just happened to have a lovely home in Paraparaumu right on the beach with the above view from the lounge of Kapiti island. 

I finished up these colourful zippered pouches before we went away. They were a custom order for a lady from church who wanted them for a stall to raise funds for Parkinsons disease. As you can see they are all made from scraps and embellished with a variety of machine embroidery stitches...so much fun to make and I love each one equally. 

 

I have some more sewing to show you and lots more planned in the coming months plus I'm looking forward to learning how to upholster furniture. I have plans to eventually do something like this, this and this!! 

A favourite beach.....

Last week I took the girls away on a 4 night camping holiday at my favourite beach. Yes we do live on the beautiful Coromandel with many beautiful beaches nearby not to mention our beach here in Whangamata but  this particular beach is where we holidayed as a family when I was a child in a family bach so it holds special memories for me. It is on the wild west coast just outside Auckland and is quite famous for it's wild surf and because of that it has a reality TV programme filmed there. So all of you local readers will have guessed already that it is Piha I am talking about. West coast beaches differ from the East coast beaches with their black iron sand. We stayed in the Piha domain camping ground and scored a nice quiet spot with our own little Pohutakawa tree for shade which also held up our makeshift clothesline. I tried to take the above photo without the girls noticing but as you can see Amelia spotted me and tried to make out she was camera shy by hiding behind her shirt.

This is Piha beach viewed from the southern end looking north past the iconic Lion Rock which separates North Piha from South Piha. Lion Rock is actually an eroded neck of a volcano that erupted 16 million years ago. I never knew that as a kid, all I knew was that you could climb to the top and that I was never allowed to because I was too young. Seemed so unfair at the time.

This photo was taken from halfway up Lion rock looking south across the main Piha beach and out towards 'The Gap' another well known landmark in Piha. The large rock formation on the right is known as 'Camel rock' and 'Nun rock' is the end rock formation on the seaward side of Camel rock.

This passage through Camel rock is known as 'The keyhole' and is used by keen fishermen to walk through at low tide to access the rocks on the seaward side. Caitlin and I waded through the surprisingly warm water looking at the little crabs and starfish living in the shallows.

So top on my list of must things to do was to take the girls up Lion rock since I had never been allowed to when staying here as a kid. You used to be able to climb all the way to the top of the lion's head but some rock erosion has made the last 1/4 up and around the head too dangerous. I was quite happy to be able to climb 3 quarters of it anyway as the views are stunning in all directions.

My girls taking in the view halfway up looking northwards.

Another reason I like Piha is because there are numerous bush walks in the surrounding bush clad hills. The most well known and used walk is up to the Kitekite waterfalls at the end of Glen Esk road. Every year we stayed there in my childhood summer holidays we did this walk. The falls cascade over 6 stages and end in a  large pool at the bottom. It is a 1/2 hour up-hill walk so Caitlin and I (Amelia was not so brave) cooled off in this very cold but refreshing pool.......

 .......swimming under the cascading sheet of water as it hits the pool. 

 This is an ancient kauri stump situated at the beginning of the falls walk which you can walk under and through to its hollow centre.

An large old rata tree with some cool knarly roots.

Another bush walk we did was the Maungaroa Lookout track that gave us some beautiful views out over the coastline and beyond. This was one of the longest walks we did (almost 2 hours) and the girls were getting a little tired and grumpy towards the end but thankfully Cailtin started spotting some native lizards (skinks)  in the leaf mulch on the paths and a couple of  kereru (native wood pigeon) which kept their minds occupied. 

These last 3 photos were some of the views we took in on the Mercer bay loop walk we did on our last day. I have never done this walk before but it is a short drive from Piha. It is a loop walk along some 700 metre tall cliff tops with various lookout points along the way taking in some spectacular views up and down the coast.

 This photo and the next few are taken on a walk we did one evening that takes you over the hill to look out over 'the gap' Both the girls were uncharacteristically keen to pose for photos by themselves and with each other and I let them click away on my camera.

 They will kill me for putting this one up on my blog but I love seeing them having so much fun together.

 And yes this is one of 'me' and Amelia. I have decided to put more of 'me' into and onto my blog this year so no more hiding behind the camera :-) Notice the bandage on my left leg? Yes I unfortunately badly pulled my calf muscle a few days beforehand and was worried I wouldn't be able to do any walking while away but it has thankfully healed quite quickly although I have not been able to run again yet. I had been looking forward to doing some early morning runs with Amelia around Piha but it was just not to be :-(

 And 'me' and Cailtin. To get an idea of how high we actually are, see the specks in the water to the left of me? They are surfers waiting for the perfect wave in the evening light.

Sun setting taken from the northern side of Lion rock.

Sunsets taken at The Gap lookout.

I hope you have enjoyed this rather long post dedicated to 'Piha'. I so enjoyed showing my girls around and re-living some fond childhood memories. It was perfect weather the whole time we were away and we came back more tanned than when we left along with feeling a little more refreshed, rested and ready to enjoy what 2013 has to offer us.

As from tomorrow they are both back at school so I am looking forward to getting back into some serious sewing and some more regular blogging of course. 

Back to reality......

 My time away last week ended up being a lovely break from reality with no cellphone coverage, no TV or radio, no newspapers and of course no internet. I love being completely away from what's going on in the world and just enjoying the moment. The Blue Mountain Adventure Centre is located in the tiny settlement of Raurimu with no shops, just a few houses and an abandoned and sadly desolate primary school. (Seeing empty abandoned schools always makes me feel sad)

We stayed in their new lodge seen on the left-hand side of the above photo. Their 3 acre property is nestled in a lovely tree lined setting and backs onto a normally tranquil river. It rained quite a bit of the time we were there so the tranquil river was changed to a brown raging torrent of water that would have been dangerous to do any activities like rafting on. Because I had been before to this camp with our eldest daughter Amelia 3 years ago I opted out of the activities this time around which meant I was able to take photos of Caitlin and her classmates pushing themsleves out of their comfort zones.

 I think Caitlin's biggest fear (like myself) was heights but she did really well and enjoyed the abseiling and the high-ropes where they get flung into the air on a harness. This activity was aptly named "The Flying Kiwi".

 Another Mother and I did a couple of nearby bush walks while the kids were off doing caving and canoeing. It was lightly raining on both of these walks which made everything seem clean and fresh and the bush lush with lots of ferns and moss growing everywhere.

 Mosses and lichens covered the trees....

 Being so close to the mountains the alpine plants are quite different to what we are used to on the Coromandel. The waters in the streams are beautifully crystal clear coming straight off the snow topped mountains of Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu.

 The walk to this waterfall starts just up from the Chateau Toingariro in the Whakapapa Village and was an  easy undulating walk through beautiful bush and alpine plants. We were told by one of the guides at the camp that they often abseil just to one side of this waterfall.

 Near the end of the walk the low clouds cleared a little giving us this hazy view of Mt Ngauruhoe to our right. We were walking along for some time chatting away before we realised it was there for us to see. There are numerous walks and tramps in this area which I would love to come back someday and do. The Blue Mountain Adventure Centre also does 'Women's only' weekends that the 3 other Mothers and I are plotting to do someday :-)