Was allowed a lie in this morning. However I woke up early anyway! Munched on some of that lovely fruit whilst tinkering with Liz's W95 machine (33k modem!), chatting to a bad little monkey, checking my e-mails etc.. We went outside where one of Liz's sheep had a fly tick or something. It's a fly that gets deep into a damp patch of the fleece, causing the sheep initially to itch, but eventually maggots would eat the sheep alive. So Liz and Stephen had to sheer away the infested fleece, leaving an odd looking sheep. Sophie sat on the sheep to help keep him down. They then had to give each of the lambs some form of medication via a syringe into the mouth - Sophie went around chasing the lambs. I helped, mostly by asking questions and taking pictures, but also by opening and closing the gates for the lambs to get out. Then I held Sophie's lamb to have a picture taken. Heavy things!
The weather was stinking hot today. Later it turned into a very opressive heat. So after a nice cheesboard lunch we headed into to town to briefly take advantage of the sales, then off to Gisborne beach. We got there and it was a bit overcast, went for a paddle and the water was very cool. We sat on the beach for a while, waiting for that hot sun to come out again to make the water feel refreshing. We watched some kids doing their life guard training. They had to run into the water with surf board type things (they had fins and rubber tops for feet/knee grip), paddle out to a bouy and back again, then run up the beach. They did that about six times in total. Quite an effort and impressive to watch. One of the trainers Liz said was one of Gisborne's champion iron men.
I took nana out for a paddle again with the aim of having a swim. The sand was ok, bit of sea weed not really an issue. The first problem we encountered was that the sandy sea bed kept dipping up and down. Bit surprising for me, let alone a lady into her eighties! Still, nana held on to me and we made it. The next problem we had was some quite big waves roaring in on us. By this time I was walking in front of nana on dip alert. So then I was the wave break for nana too. Which was a refreshing job! We got out quite a way but the waves were coming quite hard by then and a few of them nearly toppled nana. So we decided a chest deep paddle was enough and headed back. Now I was behind nana and the wave break for these quite ferocious waves coming in. "Brace yourself nana!" I would say, glancing behind, feeling the wave hit me, holding nana tight and feeling her waver. Then we'd head off again, hopefully missing the dips this time. I handed nana over to Liz, then headed back out myself for a swim. Actually, once past the big waves it was much easier as it was just more gradual waves that you floated with. It was quite cool, but there were some warm spots I hit. It was lovely swimming out with a view of Nick's Head and the far off coast. After about ten or 15 minutes I would guess, I started to swim and eventually paddle back in, then we headed home.
Gareth was back around and between him and Sophie (and a bit of me and Steven) ate Liz out of house and home (well, meat, cheese and crisps anyhow). I experienced my first real earthquake! It was only little, and Liz had to point out the first one to me. Just a bit of a tremble you felt, as if a few washing machines were going a bit bonkers.
After booking my flight tomorrow from Gisborne to Auckland and showing Liz how to buy stuff online, I then had to find somewhere to stay up near Matauri bay to go and see Dave and Sue, had dinner and about to go and shove my ever expanding collection of items into my not expanding backpack! And I must find something to do with myself New Year aswell. Any ideas (or offers!) for the Auckland/Northlands area?
