As the restrictions to travel to NZ were relaxed, we took the opportunity to fly there for a few weeks. Sue had just given up work and my company granted me extended leave, so as it was my mum’s 80th birthday and we had not seen family and friends for many years we decided to pay the exorbitant cost to flay out. It was along and uncomfortable flight, but we were glad to see family again.
We visited the family plot in
Howick and had a look at the town where we grew up. On the Sunday we had a
family lunch at a lovely place in Pukekohe called the Monarch.
Sue spent a lot of time in the
kitchen putting together a buffet spread for mum’s 80th and many of
her friends came over to celebrate. It was a joyful day.
As mum was recovering from an Achilles
injury, she had not been able to keep on top of the garden, and so we lent a
hand and spent a good few days getting it back into shape.
When the sun shone, we took time
out to visit the Auckland Botanical Garden to see the early spring flowers.
We all took a trip out to Devonport
to catch up with some of mum’s friends that she had not seen for some time due
to the epidemic restrictions. It was a lovely day out.
On another occasion we travelled
around to the east and visited a fabulous farmers market at Clevedon and had fish
and chips at Kaiaua.
I took a few small card games
along with me and we played some with mum and her friends in the cul-de-sac.
The weather was not always kind to
us, and it was particularly dramatic when we went to visit our friends who
built a castle on a remote hilltop (Brent and Hannah). We luckily got away
before the trees came down and the roads flooded.
It was nicer weather when we went
out to Waiuku for the morning to stroll around the waterfront.
Sue and I took off into Auckland
city for a couple of days. On the first evening we went over to Gary and Mary’s
where we had a lovely dinner with them, their kids Rachel and Ben, and friends Fi
and Avette. During the days we walked many miles around the town and saw places
from the past like Unity Books, the Art Gallery, the Viaduct, Marbecks Records
and King of Cards game shop. We had a lovely meal at the Amano restaurant
(though the portions were so big we were stuffed after the starters). The main
reason for the trip was to see/listen to some music at the town hall – Reb
Fountain supported by Jazmine Mary. Jazmine was a bit odd and although Reb was
good the microphone set up was so poor that we could not catch all the lyrics. Outside
there was a weird little Winter Wonderland
Gary and I went off to look at
cars at the Coffee & Cars event at Mt Smart Stadium. The weather had put a
few people off, but there were still quite a few vehicles to drool over.
Afterwards we met up with the girls for lunch at a garden centre (they had been
around the Auckland Botanical Gardens). Later Sue and I took mum into town
visiting some sites before settling in for the evening at a venue at Mission
Bay to see a Trad Jazz band.
It was a nice bright day when we
all went down to the Hamilton gardens, and apart from Gary taking a tumble, we
had a lovely day out in the various themed garden rooms.
During our time here we caught up
with other friends of ours and mums and spent some quality time with family.
Our flight home was scheduled for
around midnight, so we took mum out for a last lunch before making our sad
farewells and heading off to the airport. It was another very long journey
before we eventually arrived home.
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