Day 14 and 15 – North Island – Friday 19th & Saturday 20th March 2010

 

Fri 19^th - Celia and Val returned from Shopping about 5:00pm having had a nice “girlie” day out. Hugh had cooked a lovely pork joint on the BBQ so we tucked into yet another fabulous meal around 6:30pm. Altogether it was a nice lazy day after our previous travelling.

Sat 20^th – a most important day. Celia’s 61^st Birthday. We started the day going for a walk around the local nature reserve and down to the beach and round to the local marina and back home. The scenery is great. So much so that a majestic frame has been installed at one point to capture the scenery and set it inside this frame. The trouble is, no-one mentioned this to the trees so when you look through the frame now all you see is trees! So we decided to use it to frame us, instead. As you can see, below. At one point we had to make a small payment in order to continue our journey. This took the form of grabbing a few small branches from the trees and feeding them to three goats who guard the path!

Hugh and I then drove over to Botany to pick up Celia’s birthday cake. This was a surprise for Celia so we had to be somewhat cunning and returned with some very tasty Turkish flat bread. This went down very well at lunchtime, outside on the deck, in the sunshine. Val then helped Celia prepare the food for a party that was planned using us as an excuse but was always going to be Celia’s birthday party. Friends started to gather at 4:30pm and pretty soon the party was in full swing. The time flew by as everyone enjoyed the great food and drink.

Amongst the highlights were the bacon wrapped mussels and bacon wrapped apricots that Hugh cooked on the Barbie. (Celia and Val did the wrapping – a most fiddly exercise that was beyond anything I could manage). There were 22 folk there, including us, and they were great company. Part way through Hugh came in with the surprise birthday cake and Celia did the business with a sharp knife. No injuries were sustained throughout the proceedings.

Everyone left by 8:30pm and the four of us sat outside and had a welcome cup of tea to relax. Then came the big clear up, after which we retired to the lounge and watched Diamonds are Forever! A perfect day!