Whitianga

Excitement was high on January 9 because this was the date of our rendezvous with Donald, Mary, Ollie and Gabe in Whitianga or more precisely just over the hill from Whitianga at Simpson's Beach where Mary's family has a beach house right on the beach. We planned a 3-night stay before finally heading for Auckland. For those uninitiated readers, Donald Armstrong and I have been close colleagues and friends since our teen years, both ending up in Boston with the same circle of friends and then sitting next to each other on the front stand of the NZSO for 9 years. We shared our first experience of baby-induced sleepless nights and chaos when Jessye and Ollie were born within 3 weeks of each other in March 1993. Then along came Rosie, Gabe and Sophie and through it all Donald, Mary, Peter and I shared many a Sunday morning pancake session to discuss the state of affairs. In November 2005 The Armstrong-Scotts came to Melbourne to watch Ollie compete in the Pacific School Games - he is an expert diver and left with a bronze medal. It was during that stay with us that we cooked up the January 9 appointment. On the way to Whitianga we stopped a couple of times for refreshments. While in Christchurch we had found the traditional Kiwi doughnut rather hard to come by so we were thrilled to find these fine specimens in Waihi. Drinks and wedges were in Tairua.

Finally we arrived and the kids wasted no time getting into the water and building sand castles. The black sand close to the shore was what they found particularly attractive and they spent most of each day covered in it.

After a barbie Donald and Ollie took Rosie, Sophie and me (numbers were restricted) to Whitianga to put their boat in the water and go fishing. Sophie caught her first fish ever in the first 5 minutes with a little help on the reeling in from Donald. It was a schnapper just big enough to take home. Rosie caught her first one too but it was only a baby so we put it back in. There were lots of little bites but no other decent sized fish so Sophie arrived back home in solitary triumph.

It was nearly dark when we got back but still light enough to find a few shells for tomorrow's beach art.

The next morning Donald had another boating adventure lined up, this time doughnuting of a different kind. While we waited for Donald and Jessye to bring the boat in Rosie looked after the doughnut while Sophie made sure her presence on the planet would not go unnoticed by trying to cover the beach with squares containing the letter S.

Now it was time for some water thrills. Everybody (12 and under) got a turn on the doughnut and then swam in to shore. (By the way, this was the day I was concerned enough about Rosie's limp to start making contact with our doctors in Melbourne. In a nutshell, unless there was a rapid deterioration, it seemed we would proceed with our holiday and see them on our return for an MRI. That's what happened.)

Later we wandered along the beach to D and M's friend Ross's place to help ourselves to his fruit trees and jump on the trampoline.









Ross brought his daughter over for a play during cocktail hour then it was time for another barbie. We decided to turn Sophie's fish into sashimi for a first course. Sophie ate the last bit with a flourish.

After dinner there were lots of leftover fireworks to dispose of.

The next day was yet another perfect day in paradise.

In the afternoon we made an excursion over a hill to the next little town which boasted some tennis courts and a reasonable icecream shop. After making use of both of those we set up on the beautiful beach. The kids wandered off to play in the
river and D and M's friend Morris obligingly showed up on the beach with some cold beers. It's a hard life.

Finally it was back home for our last barbie and final walk/run along the beach, admiring some of Sophie's beach art on the way. The kids were mostly running including Rosie despite her floppy right leg. She determinedly went right to the end of the beach and back even though she was naturally handicapped.


The kids had made their minds up during the day that they would spend their last night together sleeping in the same room so after much negotiating and agonising over who would sleep next to who on what, a decision was at last made and peace
descended. (Gabe, who is also a talented diver, had an accident just before Whitianga so had to sleep in her neck brace.)