holidays - part two

For us to go away twice over a two week period is almost unheard of. After our three nights away on the West Coast, and we've just had three nights in Golden Bay.  Golden Bay is surprisingly close to home, from our house to the bach (kiwi for holiday home) we rent at Patons Rock takes less than 1 1/2 hours. Over half of that journey is over the Takaka Hill which is quite an epic journey up and down, and around numerous corners, which makes us think it's further than it is. The last time we went was here at the end of the summer holidays in February. Each time we return to the same beach and the same bach.

Right I'm going to keep this brief, and let the photos do the talking......

Close to home, about 10 minutes into the journey. I often pass this old apple packing shed, and love the reflections when the tide is in. For once I wasn't driving, so could snap this out of the car window!

At the beach, there are not many people but the local horse trainer brings his horses down when the tide is out.

The hubby and my friend's hubby watching the kids kayak, and chewing the fat!

Miss L wondering why her friend is going for a swim in October!

The beach has lovely shells to collect.

Fishing at Tarakohe Wharf.

Cute wee boat at Tarakohe Wharf.

Bush walk.

Labyrinth Rocks.

Badminton on the front lawn.

The house we stay in is almost retro, in an 1980s sort of a way! It used to be a permanent home before it became a bach (holiday home). The owners have done some modernising, but mostly it's original. It one of the reasons we like coming here, because it isn't pretentious, and feels homely and relaxed. But if I owned it I'd go all out on the retro - as in 1960-70s, I can remember the 80s to well to want to relive that era!

A peach exterior with new deck and doors out of the bedrooms.

The pink and grey bathroom is straight from 1984!

A kina (sea anemone) hanging in the lounge.

A map of Golden Bay in the dining area.

But the piece de resistance has to be the carpet, in all it's amazing technicoloured-ness.

Yes that is a wet deck there. We were lucky with three beautiful sunny and warm days, but on Tuesday as we packed up to go home the rain came. When we got home we had to light the fire, something I don't think we'd done for over two weeks. This morning the snow was quite low on the mountains again. Ah, the fickleness of spring.

One of last week's sunrises from our front lawn.

While I enjoyed our time away, three days was enough for me. I've finally realised I don't find it easy to relax and do nothing when on holiday. I didn't pack any crafty stuff, and found that I was itching to be creative. Next time I need to be better prepared. I'm also a bit of a homebody, and miss all the animals. Especially as we were expecting new arrivals in the chook house.Thankfully my sister stayed at our house for two nights and looked after all the animals and reported on developments, which I'll report on in another post.