Last night at Omaha River Retreat

Brick Bay Sculpture Trail

It's our last night at the Omaha River Retreat. We have had a wonderful 6 weeks here and although I am looking forward to exploring pastures new I feel sad at leaving here. It is such a beautiful place and Jill has made us so welcome. Jill went off, earlier this afternoon, so we are here on our own. It is dusk and I have just been out to look at the estuary and watch the tide going out. Nothing goes as planned, being our last day I had hoped to go to the beach and have a swim but after a glorious day yesterday the weather has put paid to those plans. It is warm enough but the sky is grey and there is a brisk breeze blowing. I went into Matakana this morning, being Saturday the day of the farmers market, the place was packed jammed with visitors and parking was at a premium. My first stop was at Wiri the old butchers (that is what he describes himself as) where I have been a frequent visitor over the last 6 weeks. After the customary “Good day how are you” I bought a couple of good steaks for tonight before saying goodbye to him. I then managed to find a parking space up in the village and browsed around the market before going to the chemist to stock up on insect repellent and insect bite cream for our trip down south where sand flies can be quite a problem. There are quite a few mosquitoes around here but thankfully their bites are not as bad as the ones back home.

Yesterday didn't go as planned either. Jonny will be 7 on Monday and we had arranged that Rob would pick him up on Thursday and that he would have Friday off school to go to the zoo in Auckland. He is mad on giraffes  and his one request,when he knew that we were coming over, was to go to the zoo. Thwarted again!! Rob had to work and Jonny had stubbed his toe which had become infected so that he had a problem walking. Not surprising as he, like many children over here, goes without shoes most of the time. Rob dropped him off here on Thursday evening and he was soon in bed and fast asleep, in fact he slept for a full 12 hours! We went over to Rob and Julies and let ourselves into the house late morning and had some difficulty keeping Jonny entertained seeing that he was virtually immobile! Nigel and I took turns at playing board games with him for several hours until Rob and Julie got back from work. Several people, including Jill and her daughter Jess, came over in the evening for a BBQ and Jonny had a chocolate cake with 7 candles to end the evening.. Jonny stayed there and Rob took him back home next morning.

On Thursday we went to the cinema in Matakana, so novel for us to have a cinema so close. It was the first showing of the French film “Gainsbourg” a drama/documentary about Serge Gainsbourg. There were only 5 of us at the afternoon showing and we took reclining seats on the front row – so comfortable. We both thought the film amazing and well worth watching.

On Wednesday we had spent the afternoon at the Brick Bay winery and Sculpture Trail which is at Snells Beach. The owners bought the farm in 1986 and have since developed a vineyard as well as an area of natural bush and pasture where sculptures are displayed. They have landscaped the area to fit in with the natural contours of the land and have created lakes. The walk around the trail took a couple of hours and was well worth the visit. Certainly something that we shall remember as one of the highlights of our time here.

Tomorrow we have to pack up and work out what we need to take with us for our trip South. We are staying with Rob and Julie tomorrow night and Rob will take us to the airport on Monday for our flight to Christchurch at 12.30pm. We have 3 days in Christchurch before we pick up our camper van and start our exploration of South Island. Not sure yet where we shall go  -  wherever the wind takes us!!