Oh, I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside...

I know we're not strictly on holiday over here this time around but you can't help but feel like it when the sun is shining, it's lovely and warm outside and your surrogate mum phones you up to ask if you fancy going to the beach for the day. God bless Liz, she knows how to look after us!

After a busy week trying to get all the bits and pieces together that we need for the apartment like saucepans, food and furniture (first 2 are now sorted; still don't have anything much to sit on!) and beginning the weary task of job hunting, a trip to the coast was just what we needed. Liz and Allard arrived to pick us up at 10.30 bearing the mighty handy loaned gifts of a giant TV and a toaster! What better way to start off the day?

We drove across the Harbour Bridge and headed towards Whangaparoa, an isthmus of land leading to a fabulous reserve called Shakespeare Park about 40 minutes away. The scenery along the way was lovely with views of hundreds of little beachy coves and expensive looking housing developments aplenty. It seems the North Shore is currently THE place to be, darling!

When we arrived at the park, we picked out a shady spot under the trees and went to dip our toes in the water. It was heavenly! Within 5 minutes, Glynn and I had changed into our swimwear and jumped excitedly into the clear blue sea. The beach there streched out about a kilometre and was littered with the most fascinating array of shells all along the high tide line. Swimming in the sea was divine as the beach shelved away gently and was as calm as can be.

After a short while, Liz's daughter, Nicola, and her boyfriend, Mike, joined us and we tucked in to yet another of Liz's amazing picnics. As the sun beat down, we all veered back to the water, while Nicola and Mike headed off along the beach to go snorkelling. After drying off and baking ourselves in the sun for a while, we took a stroll along the beach with Liz and Allard to check out some rocky coastline a bit further down. Picking our way across the layers of eroded rocks and boulders, we saw hermit crabs and minute shrimp darting about in the rockpools and hundreds of scallop and oyster shells scattered about. I've never seen anything like it in my life! Glynn spied something fossilised poking out of a fallen boulder and I think they might be trilobites. Check out the photos and see what you think.

As we relaxed back under our shady tree and sampled some of Liz's homemade banana cake (I can't begin to describe how utterly mouthwateringly delicious it was), we got chatting to a huge Maori family camped out under the tress next to our spot. It was their once-a-year family gathering where 4 generations of the family come together to stay connected. They played and sang traditional music that was so soft a sweet and all around there was a wonderful sense of happiness. I don't think we could have wished for a better location.

We packed up and took a drive around some of the exclusive developments to see what all the fuss was about but personaly, you couldn't have paid me to take a house in Gulf Harbour, one of the newest complexes. We wandered around and watched the boats come sailing in to the marina at the end of the day but aside from that, it didn't seem to offer anything you couldn't find anywhere else in Auckland at a fraction of the price. But hey, that's just my opinion!

All in all, I don't think we could have wished for a more perfect day. WE arrived back at our apartment a little 'sunkissed' as Liz calls it. That's where you've caught the sun a bit and feel all sleepy from your 'exertions' down on the beach. It's a hard life, eh?

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