A Moveable Extendable Feast

She waved down at us from her spot at the top of the falls. Bikini clad and very pink the well covered lady had been swimming in one of the swimming holes gauged out by the rushing water that tumbled over Piroa Falls in the Waipu Gorge. The sun was just overhead faceting the various greens of the leaves with silver light and enabling the viewer to look deep into the pale green cloudy pools. It was an exquisitely beautiful area enhanced by the good luck of our arrival coinciding with the sun.

A few miles away, on Langs beach, where we later learned our friend Jeannie had grown up, Rob found a dead gannet, sorry no photo as he told me the next day. I watched a seagull struggling with an invisible infestation of some kind. It strutted up a little creek, dipping its head frequently and scratching and when it tried to fly it just splashed headlong back into the water.

Then a treat, walking hand in hand back along the beach we saw a small number of New Zealand Dunnets, elegant little white beach birds with pale orange chests strutting like Gucci models on a sandy catwalk.

Hunger and curiosity drew us into the Cove bar at Waipu Cove for beer and pizza before going home.

That evening a thunder storm moved towards the Basin with flashes of white light searing through the windows. Suddenly an almighty bang and I looked across at the control panel hoping to see the tiny red lights still showing and that my next email to Clare at our insurers would not be a report of our electrics being blown by a lightning strike. Rob was more pragmatic, “The mast of the aluminium boat next to us is taller and a much better conductor than us hun.”

But it reminded me that on the night I was born England suffered a massive storm which caused the river at Lynton on the north Devon coast to be filled with water from a burst dam and finding its original course and taking out to sea with it all that was in its path including cars and houses.

Monday was my Birthday and we idled through some shops in town after opening my lovely presents and calling home. A quick pint and pot of chips in Dickens and then back home to see ‘Our Kind of Traitor’ and another episode of Fargo over a bottle of Prosecco to round off the evening.

Tuesday included a hospital visit for the district nurse to change Rob’s PICC dressing and a trip to the cinema to see Hampstead with some girlfriends. After the film we had a snack meal in a Turkish Restaurant that has become an enjoyable haunt for us. Their falafel salad, Turkish coffee and baklava makes a pretty good meal I can tell you. I want to ask them about the situation in Turkey now but they are always so busy.

Yesterday was the last day of my mini festival and as the forecast was so favourable we took a gentle four hour return trip up to Whangarei Falls and back. It brought back memories of the children finding their Golden Kiwis when they were here at Easter. Half way back we met an Australian couple over for two weeks and in their hired Maui campervan supping coffee. They asked us to join them and that’s partly why the walk took so long.

Merv and Jeannie came aboard in the evening bringing with them some crayfish their son had caught and we relished the delicate flavour before my curry and decadent birthday cake. It was one of those evenings we knew we’d enjoy and sharing anecdotes of our past lives was just pure fun.

Next week we have a busy one with visits to the hospital every day, the most telling being Thursday when Rob checks in a 7.30am for his TOE and again at 1.00pm for a chat with the Infectious Diseases Doctor. We should have more news for you then and let’s hope it is positive.