Easter 2017

Once again, Easter was upon us and once again, it was time for our annual extended family holiday weekend. This year the location was Porangahau...or more precisely, Whangaehu Beach which is located about 20 mins from Porangahau. After a 4 1/4 hour drive we arrived at a tiny settlement on the East Coast. As usual, we were very spoilt...a gorgeous location, a great bach (holiday house) and weather which was much better than we had invisaged after Cyclone Cook had wreaked havoc a mere 24 hours earlier!

 

Our home for Easter Weekend 2017 - "Whangaehu Absolute"

This was a well set-out bach; it was "U-shaped" in design with kitchen and living area along one side, toilet/bathroom/laundry across the top and then 4 bedrooms along the other side...perfect for us all to be together but have our own space. The setting was spectacular; see the next photo for the view from the deck!

 

 

We got to wake up to this every day and it never got tiring! I walked up to the top of the first hill every morning to see the sunrise-great exercise to work off those Easter eggs!!There was a small river running out to the sea and it was a icy cold wake-up call crossing it each morning!

 

 

But the sunrises and the views from the top were worth it-an absolutely stunning way to start the day! It was Briar's birthday while we were there and we dragged her up the hill on her birthday to see her own special sunrise-I'm not so sure she really appreciated it but I thought it was a pretty cool thing to do on your birthday :)

 

 

One morning we had a special visitor! I'm not sure who was more surprised to see who...Olivia nearly ran into the seal who had snuggled in for a snooze just off the beach and gave her a warning 'bark' to remind her of personal space!! He was a gorgeous fellow, only moving off after a few hours and even returning the next day for another visit. We found out later there is a seal colony somewhere further down the coast so he was obviously on his way to or from there, I guess.

 

 

We did a bit of sight-seeing while we were here as Jeff's Dad had worked in the area in his youth and even had his 21st at the Porangahau pub! We drove past the station where he had worked and stopped at the pub but it was closed :(

We discovered a famous landmark on our travels-try saying the following place name in one go!! We all had fun trying!  :)

 

 

Yeah, it's a bit of a mouthful, huh??

 

 

And here is the explanation for all those letters! Imagine writing that as your address  :)

 
 

 

We spent a lot of time down at the beach-it is the perfect place for families and holidays. As I said, we were SO lucky with the weather as Cyclone Cook had blown through about 24 hours earlier and I really thought we would be in for a wet, windy weekend! But apart from rough surf when we first arrived, the only signs of it were soggy lawns! Honestly, the sun shone and the wind dropped away and we spent so much time on the beach, out on the deck or out and about geocaching, exploring the area and generally relaxing.

 

 

I love walking so couldn't resist heading off to explore the clifftop walk that local landowners had kindly marked and maintained for visitors to use. It provided stunning views from the top of the hills and certainly 'blew the cobwebs away' with the coastal winds keeping things fresh! I walked about 2k along the top before retracing my steps back home. Part of the track is shown below...

 

 

Another great Easter weekend...roll on 2018!