Saturday 10 December 2016

Plans for today started rather well. We are up and on the beach, we run for about 6kms, then it’s warm enough, albeit overcast, to have a swim in the ocean. Before breakfast, we peel off a couple of layers and dive into the waves; what a nice way to end a hot run! Cooled off and drying ourselves with T-shirts, I have a sudden, horrible thought. The camper-van remote was in the zip pocket of the shorts I have just been swimming in!! My heart sinks. Water and a remote control, these two things really don’t mix all that well. Buggar, we’re now going to have to force entry into Cuzzie, not something at which I’m skilled unless I throw a brick through one of Cuzzie’s windows!

As we walk back to the campsite, I’m half hopeful that the remote might just work at least once to let us in. Today, for once, luck was on our side and the remote worked, thank goodness! We quickly opened up Cuzzie, then opened up the remote. Luckily, it’s water-proofed, so we just dried it and left it in with some of the many silica beads we carry in Cuzzie. We had planned to hit the local pools today, but when we check again, lane swimming is only from Monday to Friday, so this will have to be postponed until another day. By now, the rain has arrived, so I decide to bake a chocolate cake (made with avocados). This I had been threatening to do for a few weeks but, at last, I have an oven at this campsite.

Bianca worked a little more on the laptop keyboard with some success. But I’m needing to order a replacement as this piece of electrical equipment did not like me trying to drown it with a cup of tea. Then we had to do some boring general chores that we always leave until a wet day; washing and the use of a big clothes dryer. With this all done and the cake cooked, it’s time to head quickly to the shops to top up with food supplies. I’m also beginning to like the taste of homemade chai tea (an Ev creation) so we have decided to try to recreate this. With some help from Miss Google, we get a list of ingredients and hope that we’ve got it right. Quickly, the shopping is done. How I dislike supermarkets! Then we detour to Okahu, a local winery, for some tastings (way too many, so I was relieved that they had a large spittoon for me to use). We enjoyed the banter and the tastings with Monty, the wine-maker, but in the end we weren’t tempted to purchase anything.

At long last, the rain had stopped and about time, too! We get back to the beach, sit and brew a cuppa and have chocolate cake covered in lashings of chocolate soft icing, also made with a ripe avocado!! Trust me, it’s absolutely delicious! Bianca has asked me to hide the spare icing as, otherwise, she’ll eat spoonfuls of it!! We watch newbie surfers catch small baby waves, something even the boogie boarders are having trouble surfing as they are so small. Then I had to walk in the warm wind along the beach for a while. It was pretty awesome, not only walking with a warm wind but also taking time to sit on a bench seat just staring at the ocean. This helped to keep my mind happy as my mind is grumbling and, for whatever reason, all over the place at the moment. To prevent frustration and help me stay focused until the next paddle, I have even put my annoying no coverage cell phones in the lock box. I reckon they’ll stay there until I manage to get past Cape Reinga. Because they are so downright irritatingly unreliable at present, I only drag them out at the end of each day to write my blog. The only time they seem to work is if you sit perfectly still when you locate coverage, so it’s much easier to switch them off altogether and keep them locked up! Oops, that was beginning to sound like a rant, sorry!

Back to the beach before the rain returns and gets us both wet. We head back to our favourite little space at the local campsite. We would both much rather be parked up at the beach for the night, but signs everywhere state “No camping” and “No motor homes overnight”. This still makes me frown but I move on from the thought, it’s really not worth dwelling on. A night at the campsite, among the trees, listening to all the birds as they settle for the night. We have the doors flung wide open and a new creation (a mosquito net) over the back door. It’s a work in progress but Bianca’s first attempt is really rather good. The only problem is that now we can’t close the doors!! But, with girl power, doubtless we’ll get it sorted out. To be honest, I would rather have sand flies any day instead of horrible, buzzing mosquitos! On which note, it’s time to sign out from us both. We have hiking planned for tomorrow, new adventures and muddy trails.

My smiles today:
Running on the beach.
Waterproof remote!
Chocolate avocado cake with icing.
Our creation: the mosquito net!
Sitting and looking out at the evening ocean.
My growing irritation with cell phones!

My thoughts today:
Learning to ignore things is one of the great paths to inner peace. (Me and my cell phones!!)

Goodnight from Red and Bianca.

Ma Te Wa.

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