blankets of blue
September 25, 2005Onemana, New Zealand
7:45am
I don’t have much to write about today. The smell of French Toast downstairs is overwhelming and pretty much dominating all my senses. I am going to have a grapefruit. Picked from our next-door neighbour’s tree. When I cut one in half, the smell of grapefruit is overwhelming. Hopefully the citrus and the eggy bread can have a little scent battle with the tang being the juicy victor.
Friday we went to Pauanui (Pa nu…..I have no clue) after a morning of writing for me (15,522 words in a week) and a morning of music class for Hud and Steph. They all wore their pajamas to music class this week. It’s held at a Baptist church. Those last two sentences have nothing to do with each other. Carol told us about Pauanui when she had us over for dinner. Said it was all hoity toity with cafes and stores. This immediately made Stephanie want to go, and on Friday she got her wish. We drove the 20km up the peninsula and parked near the water.
We took our blanket and walked down the path to the beach.
Spread out amongst burnt firewood and about 3km of beach, we all sat and soaked in a rare sunny day. Hud and Steph eventually went on their ritual walk, leaving me to fade in and out of afternoon nap. It was lovely. I eventually joined them down the beach and watched Hud play in and out of tidal pools of very cold water.
Kids just ignore cold water. My testes sunk into my chest just watching him. We went back to the blanket after a while and Hud played with wood and jumped all over my head as per the usual.
We went to the café and stores after, more like a little strip mall. Steph got a short white and I got a cappuccino and we watched Hud play on the little playground for a little bit, him running around showing off to the two little girls sipping sodas on the picnic table.
Later when we arrived home, I received a surprise phone call from one my friends. We had a nice chat, him talkative for 3 in the morning on Thursday, but then he just arrived home from a bar. At the end of the conversation he mentioned how crazy his week had been, meetings and running around, and he said it must be different for me. I told him three hours ago, I was lying on the beach on a big blue wool blanket, listening to Oyster Catchers caw around me and I fell asleep. I told him at that exact moment, and I told Steph this later as well, I told him I had not one worry in the world. I am talking that exact moment in time, not ten minutes or two weeks, or the dreaded six months from that moment, but that exact moment. There was not an anxious moment of worry in my mind. I was utterly relaxed and happy. It was a bit histrionic, but very true.
Later we watched a movie downstairs on the computer. The Station Agent. We both loved it.
Yesterday was adventure Saturday. We drove back to Karangahake Gorge, a place we visited in our first week here, but had no real time to explore. It’s a gorge that served as a battery back in the 1800’s.
We hiked along a river, along walkways, suspension bridges and then finally the tunnel.
It was truly the only reason I wanted to come back to this place. I had read about the old mining tunnels that were part of some of the tramps. It was about 300m of old mining tunnel directly into the mountain.
It was cold, dark and just on the edge of creepy as water dripped down the walls and collected in puddles on the bumpy concrete floor. Every 50 metres or so on one side of the rounded walls was a sealed up passageway to an old tunnel. It went in about eight feet before the solid wall. It was the perfect place for someone to hide to pop out and turn your hair white. It was pretty neat. Hud held the flashlight the whole way, randomly yelling to hear his echo. Ok, I yelled too.
We finished the walk and had a picnic by the river, laying on the same blue blanket that I feel will became a theme here in NZ. We ate cold basil and ricotta ravioli and peanut butter and jam sandwiches on really grainy bread.
We had raisins and dried apricots, triangles of oranges from the huge bag we bought from the orchard for only five buck, thin ginger cookies like the ones mom has at home, and lots and lots of cold water we bought before we left. It was delicious.
After lunch we waddled back to the car and drove further south to Paeoroa. This town is famous for producing a lemon drink called L&P (Lemon and Paeoroa) so we stopped at their little café for a splash of lemon goodness and a couple of designer coffees. Hud had a brownie. Ok. We all ate it. Ok, I ate it.
Last night we had burgers that I added chili and lime paste to and they were excellent. We watched movies again on the computer and drifted off to sleep just before midnight.
Today I am leaving Steph for some alone time. Hud and I will go to town and….well you can read about it all soon I guess.
Love to all,
J.
posted by Jason @ 1:46 PM
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