Day 466-468: Ambury RP to Shakespear RP, New Zealand

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Friday, May 7th

We left Ambury Farm RP and drove into the city where Talita had a meeting set up for 11am. We'd driven past the location before, purely by accident, so we kinda knew where it was. Today, because we approached from the opposite direction, we completely missed it. We eventually found the place and Talita's meeting went well.

Cautiously uplifted we drove on to Browns Bay where we found a spot by the beach to have lunch. With full bellies we did some shopping; we got six small containers for coffee, tea, sugar and a few other things we'll need on the hike. We also, finally, got a small dustbin for the Boesman as well as some fruit and veg.

Then we drove to Team Smit's place. In the three weeks since we'd seen Keira she'd changed noticeably. It's amazing how fast they grow! It took all of our self control not to pinch her little cheeks and exclaim: "Oooooh! Look how big you've become!" We never liked it when people did that to us when we were small, but now we understand the compulsion.

After a cuppa we played with Keira until she was almost frothing at the mouth with excitement. In amongst all the playing Talita also managed to do some washing before we swapped our summer clothes for our winter clothes and also collected some more of our camping gear.

TeamSmit invited us to join them for take-away and we enjoyed delicious noodles, a glass of wine and a fat chat.

Today's highlights:
1. Good meeting for Talita.
2. Seeing TeamSmit again.
3. Noodle take-away.

Saturday, May 8th

We had a quick shower followed by a delicious breakfast. When TeamSmit left for a birthday party we drove to the Albany Mall to post the chainsaw safety pants. We'd sold our first item on Trademe. While we were there we decided to catch a movie and watched Iron Man 2. It was action packed and we really enjoyed it.

After the movie we drove to Torbay where we made lunch and spent the afternoon reading. Lately we've been reading books about Everest and this has awoken a deep desire to go climbing mountains again. We miss the hardship and the challenge and the comradery of conquering a mountain and can't wait to start planning our next expedition. For now we'll just do some over-night hikes too sooth our mountaineering desire.

While we were reading Paddy phoned. It was our first contact with him since his operation and we were very glad to hear that he was doing well. When dusk fell we drove the 40km to Shakespear Park. Here we made dinner and then Kerry (Paddy's friend) phoned. He had heard that we were selling our chainsaw and was keen to buy it. This was great news since it didn't sell on Trademe yet. We said we'd find out about courier prices and let him know. After a bit of reading we went to sleep early.

Today's highlights:
1. Watching Iron Man 2.
2. Hearing from Paddy.
3. Hearing from Kerry.

Sunday, May 9th

Happy Mothers day to our wonderful mothers back in SA! We wish you a wonderful day and hope you enjoyed the cards we made.

The day was overcast, rainy and cool. We spent most of it reading in the van, but during a break in the weather we went down to beach to for a photo shoot to make Mothers day cards. We made heart shapes with shells on the beach and shot a few different angles of each before returning to the van.

Because of the wind and the weather we didn't have cell reception where we were so we drove a bit away from camp to get a signal (we use our cell as a modem to connect to the internet). Here we spent a few hours making those Mothers day cards and when they'd all been emailed off we drove back to camp. After dinner we watched a movie and fell asleep to howling of the wind through the trees.

Today's highlights:
1. Making Mothers day cards for our moms.

Thought for the day:
Psalm 73:21-26
When my thoughts were bitter
and my feelings were hurt,
I was as stupid as an animal;
I did not understand You.
Yet I always stay close to You,
and You hold me by the hand.
You guide me with Your instruction
and at the end You will receive me
with honour.
What else have I in heaven but You?
Since I have You, what else could
I want on earth?
My mind and my body may grow
weak,
but God is my strength;
He is all I ever need.

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Photos

Happy Mothers Day
We are very fortunate kids to have such great moms.

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