Pohutukawa Festival

This is a Pohutukawa tree. AKA the New Zealand Christmas tree. It blooms, rather spectacularly, around about mid December and in order to celebrate the fact, the good people (hippies) of Whitianga hold a festival.

Carin & Jim won a weekend away, complete with tickets to the Pohutukawa festival, and invited us along. Pretty cool eh? We stayed in a beachside bach just outside the village and had a jolly time at the event, which was a combined food & wine show and a folk concert with the kiwi band Goldenhorse headlining. It was boiling hot, suitable amounts of food and alcohol were consumed and a generally relaxing time was had by all. The Coromandel is a beautiful spot, lots of golden beaches and stunning bush covered hills as a backdrop.

Goldenhorse on stage

Back to work today however - 1 week to go and we've started the packing. We're hoping to move all our stuff to the new house at the weekend, then I'll head back to AKL on my own for the last 3 days of work.