Sunday 27 November 2016

A wet and windy Sunday lends itself to sitting at the breakfast bar this morning, looking out over the ocean. The storms come and go; rain, wind, then a patch of sunshine and, as we watch, the ocean gets more intense with every hour.

What do you do when the rain stops? Well, we decided to head to the inner roads of the beach and walk. You’ve got it, we went and located some more Geocaches. Bianca was lucky on the first and, typically, Jason located the second. We then sat in a sunny location and met up with a friend to say “Hi!” and wander under the many trees while he continued his hike and walk with his gorgeous greyhound. Our planned quick thirty-minute walk ended up being more like an hour or two, after which I needed lunch. With Jason’s help we created a lovely cauliflower savoury risotto that was incredibly tasty.

As we ate lunch, friends started arriving throughout the rest of the afternoon. It seems like only yesterday since I last saw them. It was so great to spend the rest of the day chatting and hearing stories. Vaughn, Natalie, Lance, Mel and the kids; I feel pretty special to have you all as friends and especially for the Sunday visit. We baked gingernut biscuits, laughed lots and enjoyed a relaxed afternoon. In fact, at one stage, I seemed to take over the entire house and can once again only say “thank you” to Craig as he gets the Sunday lamb roast underway. What a lovely day, a lovely bunch of great people and wonderful friends, old and new, all mixing together!

Roast dinner, then time to say “goodbye” as people head home to get ready for another Monday and another week of work, while Bianca and I get ready to plan a reconnaissance a little way up the coast until this crazy weather sorts itself out. With my head spinning a little from seeing so many faces and doing so much talking, I now sit alone quietly in the lounge trying to keep my focus on the task still ahead of me. It’s going to be hard to step off this amazing ride when it eventually comes to an end, hard in so many different ways, but I only think about this momentarily as I still have many more kilometres to go.

My smiles today:
30 minute walks. Yeah, right!
A stream of friends this afternoon.
My new level of patience.
Nat and her gift of coconut ice-cream
A wonderful bunch of friends.
The wind, rain and stormy oceans. But that’s okay.
Sunday roast dinners.

My thoughts today:
Good times and crazy friends make the best memories.

Until tomorrow, goodnight from Red and the crew.

Ma Te Wa.

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