Saturday, 14 January 2006

New Discoveries

Today was a fairly laid back sort of day. Helen had to spend a few hours writing to hit a deadline in the UK, so I got on with a bit of decorating. So far so average. Then we headed out for the afternoon to find some new places nearby.

First stop the Wanganui Botanical Gardens. A very pleasant place to spend an afternoon, must return with a picnic and a good book to read! Then we went to a nature reserve just around the corner for a quick bush walk and a stroll around the lake, finally we went in search of a new beach.

Now so far we've not found anywhere that quite matches the west coast beaches of Auckland, the beach in town is in an area called Castlecliff and is a bit manky. It's fairly industrial and is what the estate agent called "up and coming" i.e. It's a dump. So when we went to the beach there we weren't expecting much, and it lived up to expectations! However it's a very long beach, so today we took a drive a few kms further along and had a look there. Wow! What a spot! Much better, pretty much deserted except for a few fishermen on quad bikes, and absolutely stunning scenery. I couldn't believe all the locals crowd around the grotty end of the beach instead of heading a few kms further up. Their loss - we had the place pretty much to ourselves and it was a gloriously hot Saturday afternoon. Supposed to be a good spot for surfing, but I don't think the world is quite ready for "Iain the Surf Dude" just yet, so I resorted to my Englishman abroad stereotype, rolled my trousers up and went for a paddle instead!

Tonight we're having a barbie and then taking a stroll through the park into town to make sure the local beer doesn't get past it's sell by date. Sweet as, bro, sweet as! (As they say in Kiwi land)

No comments: