Long time, no write....

Being a new blogger, I found it difficult to keep up with this while travelling. The iPad was great, but the lack of wireless was a downer. Despite all the visitors to our area who insist they get free wireless everywhere I certainly found things to be different. Aside from MacDonald's and the Wellington waterfront most of the places we visited made it hard to find wifi at all. Libraries in Turangi and Tauranga are also not part of APNK which is interesting.
Despite this my husband reckoned the iPad was well worth its price as it kept me amused for hours. There are many games on which I can waste time and I have downloaded several books to read including the Steig Larsson series beginning with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I have read all three, and seen the movies, but I find these books have so much content I'm happy to read them again.
During the trip I read two crime novels by Jonathan Kellerman , Gone and Self Defence, and started Sophie Kinsella's  The Wedding Girl (writing as Madeleine Wickham) for a change of pace. 'Proper' books still had a look  in as I read my first Lee Child book, The Killing Floor, while with my brother and sister-in-law who are big fans of his writing. The blood spatter and body count were quite high, but as a crime/thriller I enjoyed it and plan to read more of his books.

We had a great trip up to the 'other island' with Jean’s new Navman leading the way, despite it telling us to do u-turns if he decided to change his mind about his destination and stop to see something along the way. Figuring out how to set in waypoints along the route is yet to come, but in the awful Auckland traffic it was amazing.

Jean had fun fishing in Turangi and walking the Tongariro river. For myself I preferred to walk alongside it in the shade of the trees.

 From rivers and on to beaches, we visited sunny Mount Maunganui to celebrate my 60th birthday in style with lunch outdoors at Mill's Reef winery. They had what they called paddles which provide four wine glasses each containing half a glass. In this way you could try out four different wines. However, as there were four of us we ended up with 16 wine glasses on the table and everyone felt they would look good, once emptied, sitting in front of me!  Great food, great service, good company - highly recommended.

Holiday time at the Mount included swimming and boogie boarding at the beach, a cruise on the harbour, a walk up Mount Maunganui (over 500 steps, I counted!),  swimming in the saltwater hot pools, and visiting McLaren falls for a picnic lunch by a lake. An evening was spent seeing the movie The King’s Speech which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. 

We then moved on to stay in Auckland with my niece and her partner and two children aged 3 and 1. They were certainly demanding. I had forgotten those days!  We also stayed a couple of days with a cousin and her partner who live out in a peaceful bush area out of central Auckland in a cute and cottagey house I love. What's more it was only minutes from a quilt shop. The perfect location.

Naturally I found a few quilt shops along the way including The Dog Box in Picton, The Quilted Gumboot in Taihape, Clever Hands in Taupo, Krazy Cow at Levin, FibreFlair at Waikanae and The Quilters' Barn in Blenheim. Just a few and just a few fabric pieces to play with.

Now back on the 'Mainland' Jean has returned to work today to see what is waiting for him after two weeks away and for me it is one last day to catch up with home. Back to work tomorrow to see what has piled up on my desk.