Last night we came to Papamoa beach to catch up with some old friends. I worked with Kelly at St James School about five years ago and since then she has been pretty busy, she and Paul have since gotten married and had themselves two little boys. It was great to catch up with Kelly and Paul again and very exciting to meet Josh (4) and Will (2). Those of you who have met Kelly and Paul can guess just how gorgeous these two little boys are. And those of you who have kids can guess just how hectic life is for the Savages now, especially since Kelly is now working full-time.
We started our Saturday morning (early!) with a swim at the local hot salt water pools, is there a better way to start your weekend? It was just the right combination of relaxing with a bit of exercise (one of the pools is a slightly cooler 34 degree for swimming) and a bit of fun. Not sure if it was Si or Will having the most fun as they raced on-the-back-of-a-turtle style with Paul and Josh.
After we dragged ourselves away from the pools Kelly took the boys home for a sleep whilst Paul, Si and I went off to climb The Mount. Probably not as impressive as it sounds since Mount Maunganui probably doesn’t really qualify as a mount as such. Nevertheless it’s an impressive mount / hill on the edge of the sea…. New Zealand may be on the brink of Winter but the East coast has that special sunshine ingredient which we love. So it felt like the middle of Summer to us (from Scotland…) There were lots of local fitties jogging past us (I’m sure one woman passed us twice!) whereas just walking to the top was exhilarating enough for us. The 360 degree views at the top were pretty awesome and worth the climb, especially since we had a local with us to explain the points of interest. Our family fun day in the sun was rounded off perfectly with a yummy kiwi barbie. Ah, it’s good to be home (well, obviously I mean we won’t get too settled here….)