2025 December - Auckland to the Bay of Plenty

Monday 1st December brought another early Christmas present for Len - playing on the Te Arai South Course which was another great but unusual experience. It's a very good links course with beautiful views but so many differences from playing on other courses such as not being allowed to use carts, which we can understand, as the fairways were practically the same as the beautifully manicured greens.

No1 Tee

No 1 Caddie

They tell you before you start to play "that there are no bunkers" although there are bunkers everywhere you look - it's just that you play out of them the same as you'd play a shot on the fairway i.e. you can ground your club and there are no rakes. There are no sign boards to show you anything about the layout or distances of the holes, totally unlike Kauri Cliffs where our cart had it's own GPS monitor showing all the details about each hole and where you were on the course. Also a GPS service is not available so a lot of guesswork goes on! However it was very picturesque, Len loved playing it and I enjoyed walking it plus I think his score ended up as a "counter" so he can't really have missed any of the above things. Len took the opportunity of having a shower afterwards where everything, such as rolled up white towels on shelves outside the showers, was provided in their very nice facilities. However that didn't stop Len from thinking that the rolled up bath mat in the shower was a towel and that's what he had to dry himself on! And all those fluffy white towels sitting on the shelf beyond his shower door!

After leaving Te Arai we popped in to the Wellsford golf course to book a time for the next day but with the office being all closed up we continued on to the RSA in Wellsford where we could park for the night, as we did 12 years ago. We had a beer with the only 3 elderly members there whilst we learnt about things local before retiring to Heidi for dinner. We tried ringing the Wellsford club in the morning but, getting no reply ,we headed on out and were able to play after the Vets teed off using one of their many available carts. 

Two modes of transport in this shot

Play was a bit slow so we had plenty of time to admire the trees on the undulating course. It paid to stay on the fairways even though there was no run but the long grass bordering them grabbed the ball making it difficult to get any distance - that's what I found anyway! There were quite a few crossover holes, one of them being named "Tin Hat" and we could see why, being close to being hit ourselves with not being able to see men teeing off from the right. There were quite a few deep ponds with toads in them which we managed to avoid and we had to don jackets when the light, drizzly rain started but overall it was a good experience with at least Len playing well. 

T on Tee

Home for the night was a POP on the way to Leigh called Willow Park which is still being developed and really needs a bit of a tidy up but there were nice views across the valley and about 10 other vehicles there.

Willow Park POP

The owners were currently away but they still welcomed you to stay and use the facilities which included a shower, toilets and a small washing machine. We only made use of the toilet but enjoyed some peas growing nearby which desperately needed picking as most were getting past their use by date. There were ducks about which were leaving their signatures and a rather brown small pond behind us. During the night we were quite exposed to the strong wind.

We had booked in to Leigh Central Camp for the next 2 nights and what a great spot right in the middle of tiny Leigh just along from the General Store and even closer to the Cafe where on the second night we enjoyed delicious fish and chips, the batter on the snapper being quite different from any others we have had but it was very nice. and crispy. We had a good coffee and 'cakes' there as well. Our first day there was when there was bad rain and hail predicted for at least half the North Island. 

Pleased to be inside!

The wind was strong and the clouds were moving fast when we were about 1 minute from Heidi with the intention of doing the Leigh Coastal Walkway. We made the wise decision to turn back which was fortunate as the next minute heavy downpours of rain were lashing down along with huge hail, thunder and lightning. Instead, I made it a washing day needing to do 2 loads in the little machine and waiting a long time for the little drier to do it's job. It makes me appreciate the very efficient machines in the Liquid Laundromats. The neighbour in the Dethleffs opposite, who also does a blog, had a good chat to Len  whilst I was overseeing the washing. By evening it was sunny but the wind still strong.

After the storm

The next morning was sunny but still windy with some light showers about but we were able to do the Coastal Walkway which was stunning with Pohutukawa trees, tuis, song thrushes, gannets and many other birds with views out to Omaha, Great & Little Barrier Islands but it had lots and lots of steps. For this reason we opted to return via Lax Crescent through the streets having a nice chat to an 80 year old  Scottish lady who had moved here from Waiheke Island and was walking her son's dog. 

View from walkway

Walkway humour

We were a bit sad to leave the camp after our 2 nights but another golf course was calling, this time a private one which Len just happened to come across online. Called Gemini Golf it was developed by sheep-farmers, Kevin, an architect, and Janet, a golfer, who converted the farm into a golf course, transforming it over several years by planting lots of trees, olive groves and lily ponds many of which you have to negotiate your ball over. 

A narrow corridor

A less narrow corridor

It's a challenging but interesting course with the hills, dips, water and reeds as well as the Pohutukawa and eucalyptus trees. They advise you to play with a cart which is very wise advice and also suggest you to take lots of balls. We lost about 3 between us but found 6 or 7 others whilst looking for ours. At present only 13 holes are ready to play but the others shouldn't be far away from being developed.

After golf we drove onto Scandrett Regional Park on the Mahurangi Peninsula having booked here for 3 nights. The overnight site is gravel and actually quite small, only fitting 4 vans but we have been the only ones here for the weekend so it is nice and quiet except for the beautiful birdsong - there are more birds here than anywhere we have been; making it a very special place. 

"Gated community" of 1

Welcome shade

As we sit under the flowering pohutakawas overlooking Kawau Bay from our high up park there are tuis calling right above us and Len's birdsong Ap has picked up goldfinch, silver-eye, Indian peafowl, greenfinch, chaffinch, songthrush and kingfisher plus others. On our walks we have seen ducks, geese, grey herons and gannets and we just love being able to enjoy nature in this way. Yesterday we walked the Scandrett's Bay loop, visiting the historic Scandrett family buildings on the waterfront before trotting on down the track to Martin's Bay on the other side of the peninsula. There is a popular camping ground there and the beach is lovely - the water flat and fairly shallow making it perfect for families with young children.

Down to Martin's Bay

Mullet Point walk "kissing gate"

Kawau Bay from Mullet Point walk

This morning we did an hour loop, before it got too hot with 29 degrees predicted, out to Mullet Point and back down the Kawau track to our Bay. This afternoon I managed to make some really good banana, bran and walnut muffins, not burning them this time, while I listened to Max and Flynn play their guitars with Flynn also playing the keyboard - something I enjoy doing each week to help keep in touch.

Monday 8th December saw us on the road again, this time to play golf at Omaha, a very popular course which you have to book well in advance, especially if you want to hire a cart, as I did. No luck there, even though we had been on the waiting list for one from the previous week. We arrived early so had time to walk down the road and an access way to the beach, a circular route, which took us past many vacant, lovely houses. Obviously all holiday homes, not yet occupied for the summer - it seems such a shame that they are sitting empty.

Once on the beautiful golf course we played with 2 young men who both work for Golf Warehouse - Blake on a 0 handicap and Jake on a 5 - both excellent players of course.

The three boys!

Luckily I was on form for me and did some quite good shots to compensate for my bad putting before I finished after 9 holes, Len continuing on to do the 18. The course was great - very picturesque with little lakes, water features, bush, and birds, initially playing alongside the road and then having quite a climb up once alongside the houses.

Interesting par 3

The only problem with playing 9 holes is that you end up about as far away from the clubhouse as you could possibly be so I just walked back with the guys towards the clubhouse as far as I could. Len said the last few holes alongside the bay were difficult with lots of hazards so it was good that I finished when I did. It was very hot at 27° so I was pleased to have a shower - just a sole unisex one provided in the clubhouse at the entry to the ladies toilets. Not a great experience as there was just a push button for the shower with no way to adjust the water temperature and it was boiling hot! I could only dash in and out of the spray very quickly! Not the greatest way to cool down.

That night we stayed at the Willow Park POP again so we were handy for our visit to the fantastic Sculptureum gardens and many quirky art works the next day. It was an amazing place with its beautiful gardens, sculptures and art works and we were surprised that we had never heard of it until a week or 2 ago.

 

A special place

Elephant emerging from drain outside restaurant

Quirky outdoors

Quirky indoors

Our favourite water feature

We totally recommend it as a "must see" with it being in the top 4 of NZ attractions on Trip Advisor. After enjoying coffee and muffins there and hearing about the history of the gardens and art from the lady working in reception we headed for the Orewa Beach Holiday Park where they had mixed up our on-line beachfront booking with the 2 different sites they sent us to already being occupied. After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing they gave us a site in the row behind which had lots of space and we were totally happy with. The big bonus was that they refunded all of our prepaid money which was so generous of them - unexpected but very appreciated.  The tide was right out at Orewa but we enjoyed a swim after finally settling in, did the washing and got it out on the line. To celebrate having free accommodation we splashed out on dinner at the Faridas restaurant, just along the road, where we both enjoyed delicious, oh-so-tender beef cheeks, which just fell apart, good veges and a Asahi beer.

Golf at Northridge Country Club was our activity for the following day but don't be in a rush to go there!

Crash helmet territory!

With it's narrow, confusing fairways adjacent to each other in some places - you couldn't really tell there were 2 fairways running together - the long grass, ditches, lost balls and s l o w play as a lot of people seem to have decided to play that day, it was a forgettable experience unfortunately and we were happy to move on to Fridgetech Marine in Rosedale Auckland where we were able to stay the night with having Heidi booked in for a fridge and stove service the next day. The fridge had been leaking a bit, the stove had an element that wasn't working and the gas oven seems to stay at the same hot temperature. It seems like they hadn't been serviced for quite some time and we were happy with the work done although he couldn't do anything about the oven. That's just how it is, but luckily I'm gradually getting used to it. The service was going to take 3/4 of the day so after a quiet night we were off early in the morning to walk to Westfield at Albany where we both did a little shopping - summer pyjamas and a couple of T shirts for me, shirt and socks & undies, to replace his holey ones, for Len. Heidi was ready to go by the time we returned so then it was off to Tui Glenn, the NZMCA Park, West Auckland where there were 5 other vans, two couples parked near us being from Tauranga.

After a phone appointment with my GP about my continuing lower leg and feet numbness and my prolific leg cramping at night we zipped off to Urbanaut, the brewery my nephew, Bruce, set up with 2 of his mates a few years ago. We, along with my niece, Jacki, and Tim, and Bruce's wife, Kirsten, were treated to excellent beers and burgers by Bruce. I especially loved the Little Rock, non-alcoholic IPA with Tim insisting on paying for our take-home beer as our Christmas present,

After lunch, as we were on our way back to the Mount and Whakatane, we stayed the night at a very special POP at Marphona Farms - Green Valley Dairies, not far out of Maramarua, down a long drive with wide open spaces, trees, picnic tables and beautiful lawns. They also had a toilet and shower attached to the big house and although we didn't use the shower it was handy to have a toilet and also water available to top up. A lovely place and only $15 to stay the night where we were on our own. We saw a worker on a farm bike going down the drive but there didn't seem to be anyone in the house. An excellent find.

On Saturday we had arranged to pop into Jan & Doug's on our way past Omokoroa for a late morning tea and a good catch-up with Jan producing lunch for us as well which was very good of her. Next stop was at Fiona and Graeme's to drop off some flowers following Graeme's Dad, Jock, dying a few days previously at the remarkable age of 99. The house was wide open but no-one about (Fiona had popped out to the supermarket) so we had time to visit our other friends, Margaret & Tony, before going to Colin's to pick up our mail and catch up with him and Amelia before going on to the NZMCA Park at Welcome Bay to stay the night.

Before travelling on down to Whakatane the next day we had time to catch up with Sue & Pete in the morning and then have lunch with Milly at Classic Flyers before dropping in on Madi and Sofia in Papamoa. Being back in this area means we have quite a few friends and rellies to catch up on which we love! In Whakatane we returned to Bill and Annette's POP, along the road from the golf club, to stay for a couple of nights. A blood test for me and chores in town the next day before popping in to see Jonah, who lives next door to the POP, to check if Vets golf was still on the next day. It was, so Len and I joined in, playing with Jane, and with getting quite a few extra shots with my handicap at Whakatane I was in the prizes winning $20 for my 39 Stableford points. Len  won a bottle of wine for his score and a box of chocolates for having the best Stableford score on the 3 Par 3s so it was a good day made all the better by being able to catch up with friends and fellow golfers.

That night we had dinner at our good friends, Dave & Anne's, being able to park outside their house, on the beach side of the road, for the night. A lot of news to share and great to hear the sea again. Wednesday morning we had a walk down the beach before doing a house inspection with Mel. The house is in good condition but the tenants still have things to move out when they come back from Jakarta before their lease is up on the 24th January. The oven still needs a good clean and most of the garden has nearly a years worth of overgrowth in it but luckily we like gardening and are able to do it while we live on the drive in Heidi as I think the tenants are only coming back for a couple of days and there's no way they would have any time to do all of this. We're disappointed that our Property Manager didn't make sure they kept on top of the garden as they had said they were happy to do it. However they are happy for us to use the bathroom and washing machine while we're here so it's all good.

Into the jungle

The garden has turned out to be a huge job. We started that afternoon doing 5 hours between us and 9 hours on each of the 2 next days, returning after our early family Christmas to complete over 50 hours altogether. We just have huge piles of green waste to be collected now although there will be more weeds to pull out before new tenants move in. We can see that we'll need to get a gardener to come in regularly over the next year so we are on the lookout!

The "Readers"

I enjoyed having an end of year dinner with my book club group, 6 out of 7 of us, at Fisherman's Wharf, Ohope, on Wednesday 17th with Andree kindly picking me up from home. Even though I can't go to the monthly get togethers I can still access most of the books somewhere and email my written review to them each month. What a nerd! But they say they like reading it and it does make me think more deeply about the book!

It was so good to finally be able to keep my appointment with Scott, my dentist, the next day for the tooth that broke soon after I saw him 11 months ago. A big repair so I'll have to keep my fingers crossed that it lasts. We had our early family Christmas at Sandra's, at the Mount, on Saturday 20th with me doing a different salmon dish from my usual (and it wasn't as good!), kumera and orange salad, new potatoes and boysenberry cheesecake, Christine her beautiful glazed ham plus waffles and berries for dessert, Colin his delicious ham and cheese croissants and broccoli salad. Busy Sandra was on drinks. It's always so good to all be together - just missing Madi and Sofia this year, as they are having Christmas in Invercargill, and Jack who is in London. Sandra's newly renovated house is looking great with the new decks nearly being finished.

The whole group + peacock

The annual height check

After staying that night at the Welcome Bay NZNCA Park again we went to Milly's for a relaxing lunchtime barbecue before going to 99 year old Jock's (Graeme's Dad) funeral at Holy Trinity with Colin joining us. It was good to catch up with some of the Mackenzie side of the family and you always learn things you didn't know before when going to a funeral. He certainly had a good innings.

We decided to head straight back to Whakatane so we get in a few more hours of gardening, do the washing (I love being able to hang it outside instead of using a drier which usually happens when you on the road), and have lunch at the Fishing Club with good friends, Clive and Wendy. Don't have the garlic scallops there - they were mushy, very overcooked and just not nice with the runny mixture they were in. I had to put them aside and just eat the rice and salad. However the others enjoyed their choices.

Shark!!

Christmas Day arrived and what a different Christmas than usual! I thought we had promised each other that we would't garden that day but Len was soon out there again so I joined him briefly before having lunch and then driving over to Ohope Beach for a swim - between the flags again as there are lots of rips about everywhere this summer with more rescues than normal and some people sadly drowning. Luckily there weren't many people in the water so they didn't get in the way of our body surfing efforts in the petite waves. Midway, Len saw a fish that he thought was a kahawai but soon  after we got out the lifeguards were telling everyone to get out the water and putting the shark signs up. Who knows????

Trish relaxes, while.......

......the chef prepares

Too many bubbles?

On Boxing Day we basically finished the gardening in the morning so I persuaded Len to come and see The Housemaid movie, having read the book lent to me by Madi which she and I both enjoyed. Again, for me, the film was disappointing compared with the book but it did nothing at all for Len who felt like walking out after 20 minutes even though he stuck it out! I can see he'll have to choose the next movie!

Old friends

Highlights of the next 5 days, before the end of the year, were having lunch at Cafe Awa, just a few minutes walk away, a lovely last minute visit from Jan & Doug and Margaret & Tony who came over from Tauranga to have lunch with us at the Fishing Club (no scallops for me this time!); a delicious roast lamb dinner that same night with Clive and Wendy, with Clive kindly picking us up so we didn't have to drive up the big hill although we enjoyed walking down it on the way home; lovely dinner again plus 5 Crowns at Anne & Daves ('leftovers', Anne said, but they didn't look like leftovers to us!) where we stayed the night, after a rainy rainy day, on their drive; the next day having coffee with friends, David and Jenny (Jenny's birthday) at Moxi and lunch for me with friends Sue, Diane, Marie & Susan at Spice Junction after getting a new COF.

What a social few days!

That afternoon, on the 30th, we headed back to Welcome Bay, our second home, for 3 nights, picking up our mail from Colin's and having a delicious lunch with Madi and Sofia at Bay Sushi, Papamoa before returning to the NZMCA Park, which was very full with about 130 vans, for New Years Eve and sort of gate-crashing a wedding, unbeknown to us at first! We thought everyone was gathering for a New Year's Eve Happy Hour at the Big Shed on site so, like a lot of other people, we carried over our drinks and chairs and joined in on the outskirts as we didn't know anyone and they all seemed to know each other. After about half an hour of chatting with a couple of men we found out that they were all members of the Western BOP branch of the NZMCA and they were having a rally there with 2 of their members renewing their wedding vows, the celebrant at their "real" wedding a few months previously having had a breakdown, turning the whole event into a disaster. Then, next thing, before finishing our drink and departing the event was all happening and we couldn't really walk off. Anyway it was a lovely moment and their vows brought tears to my eyes. Fortunately we were able to sneak off soon after that before any of the contributed barbecue took place. So that was our New Years Eve!