Our jaunt north

It was brief, and it was fun.
It was picturesque, and there was sun.

Do I need to copyright that? For some reason I wanted to write some rhyming poetry, and that's the best I can do right now. Perhaps if I claim Kien said it then you wouldn't be sniggering. But wait, if a two year old is talking in prose then you definitely would not be hearing this news from a blog post.

Right, enough of the chit-chat. You may recall we've been wanting to go north during the holiday period, but with the weather being atrocious plus Kien being contagious with chicken pox we couldn't get away until Thursday last week. Once we were up in Whangarei it really did feel like we were on holiday.

Despite the metservice informing us of cloud with afternoon showers on Friday we headed to the beach anyway.

We ended up at Urquharts Bay just in time for a spot of lunch.

Jef's aunt Megan and uncle Alan also joined us.

Kien amused himself for a bit with his bucket and spade; dug a hole, covered his feet, admired his handiwork.

We also braved the cool wind for a dip in the sea. The tide was on its way in, and I could feel the captured warm bay water being invaded by the cold ocean.

It was a fabulous day, and a great spot for a picnic - nestled under old pohutukawa trees.

On our drive home we admired Mt Manaia from various angles and distances.

Jef has climbed it, I have yet to.

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Initially we had planned to go to a beach ocean side, but for various reasons we decided it wasn't right for us that day. When we were at Pataua South there was this awesome caravan parked on the side of the road.

It's an Airstream, and man is it cool looking. I want one!