The day after we got home from our trip, Thursday 5th April, I drove into Auckland to pick up Danni and Jonny as well as Danni's friend Keri who was to stay 2 nights with us. It's a 70 km drive to their house the first part of which is through Matakana to Puhoi amd some beautiful scenery. Then through the Puhoi tunnel and onto the motorway direction Auckland. A connection then to another motorway to Waitakere which I left as we got close to their home. It's a relatively easy drive as long as one times it right and doesn't hit it at the rush hour.
Back home the girls were happy to be together so Jonny was somewhat left out but Rob came to pick him up later to take him back to his and Julie's until Saturday morning. I took the girls riding on Friday which they both enjoyed as did I. Rob came to pick up Keri early on Saturday morning to drop her back home and brought Jonny back. Danni wanted to go back with Keri for the day but as Rob wouldn't be able to pick her up later she had to stay here. Not a happy bunny! We wenr to a car boot sale in Point Wella and then on to the Matakana Country Park and Danni was soon back to normal again.
It was Easter weekend and Rob and Julie stayed over Saturday and Sunday nights. I organised an Easter Egg hunt for Danni and Jonny on Sunday morning, thankfully the weather was good as it turned out to be for all the school holidays. Danni seemed quiet and it seemed that she had texted her mum to say that she wanted to go back home. So it was arranged that her mum and step dad would pick her up in Matakana in the early afternoon. I said to her that I quite understood that she wanted to spend some of her holidays at home with her friends and we parted with a hug and arranged to see her again next week.
I had bought a nice piece of beef from our local butcher and Rob took charge of the roast potatoes and vegetables so we soon had our evening meal underway. I made Yorkshire puddings which went down well despite the lack of proper Yorkshire pudding tins.
For the next week, Monday to Monday, Jonny was here on his own and Rob called in most nights to see him. Rob had a day off on the Tuesday and Jonny and I went out fishing with him. Poor Nigel had to stay home as the boat isn't big enough for 4 people to fish, it will be his turn next time. The tide was at 11am so we were on the water for about 9.30 and stayed out until about mid day. I caught the first fish, a good size snapper but as it was the first fish it had to go back. A shame as although we caught a lot of snapper we only ended up with 7 that were big enough to keep. We also caught 7 Kowhai all good sized fish but we put 5 of them back as we didn't need them. Back at the boat ramp I tried to get off the boat to hold it whilst Rob went to get the car and trailer. Tried being the operative word as I ended up falling in! I am not as agile as I think I am! Thankfully it was shallow water and I landed gently, the only casualty being my camera which was in my pocket. I didn't have a change of clothes with me but I draped myself in a towel when we got back to Rob's and put my clothes in the dryer whilst Rob sorted out the fish.
I brought 1 Kowhai home, it's a fish that isn't very popular for eating and most people smoke it. I was keen to try it unsmoked so I stuffed it with herbs, onion and lemon juice and baked it in foil in the oven. I can't see why it's not a popular fish as we all, Jonny included,, thought that it was delicious. Next day we had snapper for lunch and kowhai again for dinner so we were pretty fished out!
It was good having Jonny here on his own for a while as he tends to be over shadowed by Danni when they are together. I got him into a bit of a routine, laptop game time whilst I was cooking dinner and then shower and bed with a dvd to watch after dinner. Important as by that time of day I was needing to have a bit of a rest!! We spent an hour or so most days down by the estuary where he was happy to spend a lot of time playing by the water and throwing stones into the water. Nigel took him down as well and, until he messed up his line, did some fishing with him. We went to the cinema in Matakana to see Dr Seuss' The Lorax and one day Nigel and Jonny went to Sheep World whilst I went for a ride. On Sunday Nigel and I took Jonny to the Mini Golf at Point Wells which he thoroughly enjoyed and then went for a walk on the beach at Omaha.
Jonny and I went to pick up Danni on Monday afternoon and Rob came in in the evening to see them both. On Tuesday I took them both to the mini golf and country park again.
Wednesday was a horsey day. Whilst I was here last year I had contacted Rachel the daughter of an old friend of my friend Titch. Maureen, Titch's friend, died some years ago and Titch had asked me if I could find Rachel for her as she had lost contact with her. I found her living only a few miles from Rob and Julie and we had visited her before we left. Coincidentally it turned out that Danni and Meg had been good friends, at primary school, when Danni lived up here. I had contacted Rachel to say that we were here again and she asked us over so that Danni and Meg could meet up again. Since last year Rachel, Meg and son Ben have moved to a new home 22 kms from Warkworth. We arrived about 11am and after a chat and a cup of tea had a look around the new property. Rachel has a beautiful house surrounded by 22 acres of land, a much nicer property than the previous one. They have several horses and Ben the son plays polocrosse for a team in Auckland, he was away though on a hunting trip to Rotorua hoping to shoot a stag! Meg isn't riding at the moment as she has had a nasty fall and lost her confidence so she looked after Jonny whilst Rachel, Danni and I went out for a ride. I rode Opera Rose a beautiful and well behaved ex TB racehorse which is Bens spare horse for the polocrosse. After lunch Danni tacked up Phoebe, the pony she had ridden earlier, and rode her for a while in the paddock. Even Jonny mounted Phoebe for a short time and although he said that he didn't enjoy it he had a big smile on his face! Rachel has invited me to go over when ever I want to help her exercise the horses so I shall be only too happy to do so!
Thursday morning we went to the cinema to see Hugo and Friday I took them back to Auckland.
A hectic and busy couple of weeks so I am now looking forward to some rest and relaxation to recharge my batteries!
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