Summer road trip: homeward bound

Summer road trip: part three

Summer road trip: part two

Summer road trip: part one

In the far, far north

We've been on holiday, to a little paradise called Coopers Beach. Think long sweeping bay with centuries old pohutukawa trees reaching their limbs out into the sand. Think clear sunny blue skies. Think hot sticky roads and well deserved icecreams on the way back to the house.

Harper spent a night in Whangarei with his pals Monique and Myles while his dad and I scarpered up to the beach, then they all came up to the beach for fish and chips at the Mangonui Fish Shop the next day.

There are other highlights:
- driving up the Karikari peninsula to Matai Bay
- Harper catching his first fish - a baby snapper which we promptly threw back to its mum and dad
- eating freshly gathered tuatua with white wine and garlic
- walking the beach at high tide as a full moon came out
- clambering over the rocks with my grown up boy as the sun set - it's very rare for both of us to be out playing at night time
- seeing whanau in Auckland, meeting two-week-old Bonnie Mila, and catching up with my journo girlz Amy and Maggie and their pregnant pukus.

Feet, meet grass and sand

Hi blogworld, it's been a while. I've been taking a break from the screen in my non-work hours and having a little holiday, playing around in my garden, and catching up on some knitting. Don't I sound 148 years old?

Here's what I've been up to:

Harper turned two

My wee boy is now two years old. I can report he has embraced the 'terrible' in terrible twos somewhat, but as his vocab and mimicry of grown ups increases, so does his charm. Il est tres charmant. We celebrated his transition from infancy, where we now have to pay for him to fly on a plane, with a party. It was awesome. Our lounge was full of people, toys and food, and though the day started off a bit cruddy, it fined up and the little ones could do a bit of freeranging out in the yard. We were so chuffed so many people made the journey to K-town to see us, and H was chuffed with his swag of presents, so thanks everybody! Shame the kids didn't like my cupcakes as much as the icing I plastered on it - I was still finding cupcakes with the icing scraped off them the next day.

We went on holiday

Being on holiday means forgetting about; the work shoes, what day it is, the news, being on time, washing nappies, making lunches the night before.

And means embracing: barefeet, bare bums (if you are two), snoozing on the couch, grass, hot dogs on a stick with sauce, laying yourself out to dry.

We did all this in spades as we drifted north to Auckland, Whangarei and the Bay of Islands for two weeks off.
And wore my ear drums out.

I went and saw Pavement play their first gig in ten years with The Bram at the Auckland Town Hall which was awesome and nostaglic and fun. They sing one of my top five favourite songs of all time.

Two weeks later I was back in Auckland for the Pixies gig at Vector, which was really fun too, especially as I was there with some really great pals; MatnNat, The Bram, and Ange. Thanks dudes.

Where I am

Right now I see:

sun streaming outside on the paddock where cows gently graze

Monique chomping furtively on some home grown corn

wide open windows

curtains ruffled by a slight breeze

my own barefeet

I hear:

Monique furtively chomping on corn, talking to herself about not having any ripe avocados

the ever-present blistering of cicadas

some native bird I'm not familiar with

the space where the sound of the newsroom, the toddler and the cars should be

And I smell:

toast

sunblock

homegrown tomatoes roasting

Bliss.

Where I've been

Holidaying. In Northland. At a house not 100m from the most perfect pohutukawa-lined beach ever. I love holidays. Can you see why?
P proved himself the ultimate provider for his whanau by catching a trevally, which we ate with gusto and roast veges.
We even did the unthinkable and had Harper stay with his grandparents in Auckland for two whole nights while we were up norf. Postie and I celebrated being responsibility-free by going to bed early and sleeping late. Ragers, huh?
When H came up he enjoyed splashing about on the beach, moo-ing at the cows and doing the dishes with Monique. Yep, he's into wiping benches and mopping floors too. Gets it from his dad.

Vegas

Blogging these days comes a poor 23rd to work, baby wrangling, gardening etc, and I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post (and that one was pretty lame). My computer is going at grindingly slow speeds, so who knows if I will finish this one in the time I have to a suitable Pulitzer Prize winning standard or not? I am also sleep deprived today from listening to our downstairs neighbour flush his toilet, move his furniture, have a shower at 2.15am (which makes our pipes rattle) and 'be' with his girlfriend. Oh - I had to break up a fight between Charlie and his nemesis, the ginger ninja from across the cul-de-sac by clambering into my neighbours backyard at 3.30am. There are no earplugs good enough to block any of that out, so I'm shattered today.

So what I wanted to talk about was Vegas (to non-New Zealanders, I mean Rotorua; hot, stinky city of thermality) where we went on holiday last week. The Postie competed in an off-road half-marathon and did so well, he crossed the finish line before we even got there to see him (only two minutes, but I feel stink nonetheless). Postie's parents and sister came down to see us, and wee Jessica too who is growing up so fast.

One of the highlights of the trip was spending the night at Lake Tarawera with Postie's pal Christine. She's setting up a wellness retreat at her place, where the view of Mt Tarawera and the lake are Amazing. She has families of wild quail visit her pad, and a spa pool in the bush above the house. We soaked in it under an almost-full moon on a night with no wind; the only rustling was from birds in the undergrowth. Harper was treated to lots of attention from hungry swans on the lake the next morning, he loves animals and tried to walk off the edge of the jetty we were on to get to a curious swan.

Speaking of walking, Harper took his first unassisted steps while we were in Rotorua. He loves me holding his hands and walking him around, but I sneakily untangled my hands from his and he stood for a while not knowing what to do. I scooted around in front of him so he could see me and he took six steps before collapsing into my arms. We both squealed and laughed like hyenas. His record so far is eight steps, taken at a playground in Levin on the way home.