Tauranga

I had an opportunity to travel to Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty area recently. I needed some R & R and decided to make a weekend out of it.  

Tauranga is quite different to Wellington and it really grew on me as I spent more time up there. :







I really enjoyed exploring Mount Manganui.





 
Some fellow Grovers very graciously hosted me, on very short notice, which I am immensely grateful for.  

The family I stayed with were amazing.  I also really loved the little details of home about their house from sewing supplies to kitchen timers.  They even had Cutco knives which are symbolic of my parents home town to me.
 
But one of my favourite memory blasters was this cookie cutter. I used the very same kind as a play dough implement when I was young.  

There were other interesting things to see including this animal loading area in the middle of a suburban development. 

And the random sights of travel including cranes working overhead

walking school buses

and police stations with unique architure

Last but not least here is an example of the fence buildling technology that we see everywhere, including the garden that Traveler (with occasional help from me) is building.

Forgotten post

I started a brief post and forgot to post it 2 weeks ago.. it goes something like this.

Not much happened today.  But I did pass through a town that shares my name. I used the toliet.  It was blue.  I really liked that for some strange reason.  

Odd that it took 2 weeks to finally finish it.

First race

This weekend was my first rowing race. It was suppose to be yesterday but wind, rain, and stormy seas got in the way. Today was a much nicer day for it:

It was held downtown at the Wellington rowing club. Not that long ago I was photographing it to to share with Laura. I never guessed I would be playing here myself!

I am completely in love with this sport and am enjoying the challenge of learning a new set of motor skills. I also really like the calm of putting the boats together. I always liked the rituals around getting dressed for basketball - the ankle braces, uniforms, braided hair etc. Rowing takes that to another level. You have to take all the metal riggers off the sides, some of the boat bows off, load boats on to a trailer, count and tie down oars... It feels like packing for a camping trip. After the race, you do it all in reverse and wash down the equipment which adds a car wash element to it.

It also reveals abit about who on the team are volunteering go getters and who am more apt to just chill and watch others work. I was blown away by these kiwi kids in flip flops scrambling around the trailler bars loading and tieing down boats!

As for the race, our club did pretty well, however the one race I was in we came in dead last.. not that I knew at the time.

It was all I could do to watch the stroke rower and try despearately to keep up. This was only my 5th time on the water and 5 hours of rowing practice only gives you so much knowledge and confidence. I am in seat 4, counted from the front of the boat, for those of you who care:)

Other happenings

Traveler got a new window in the corner of his office. It completely changes the energy of the space for me.

We also went to Windy Lindy a few weeks ago for some swing dancing. My left ankle has been pretty touch and go the past 6 months. I wore a long dress so I could hide the ankle braces that allowed me a chance to dance a few dances.