Visitors Leave and Around the Mount

Saturday 25 April
Today was the day for the kids to fly back home to Dunedin. Their flight was at the civilised time of 10.30am. But we still set the alarm for 7am. The kids were keen to get up and get under way – they were looking forward to getting back home. They’d packed their bags the night before. Wyn and I had time for a last dip in the hot pools, and the kids had a last game of pool. We were away by 8.45am, and left Suzi down by the wharf in Omokoroa – Wyn and I planned to stay there when we got back. We headed off in the car. Traffic was very light – it was Anzac Day – so the run to the airport went according to plan. Thanks to getting a bigger suitcase in a second hand place in Katikati, the kids were down to just one piece of excess luggage – the guitar comes at a bit of a cost. It was a murky sort of morning, but the rain held off mostly for their plane to arrive and leave. We were both sad to see them go – it’d been fun having them staying with us. The airport was empty, it started to rain in earnest, Anzac Day stuff was on the TV, the kids were gone, it was all a bit sombre. We had a sit in the airport with a coffee and the paper. The paper revealed the extent of the sales on over the weekend, so we decided to stay until the shops opened. Bunnings was just down the road from the airport, but they weren’t opening until 1pm or so. We went for a drive to the Mount, and decided a walk around would be good for us. We seemed to get luckily between rain showers. The sea was stormy and dramatic with waves crashing on the rocks. We had lunch at a nice little cafe place off the main beachfront street, almost out of the wind.
Then it was back to Bunnings to check out their cheap dehumidifiers – we figured we will need something for winter. Their cheapest one was fairly small, so we bought one, along with a pruning saw pole thing for threatening overhanging vegetation. We headed back over the harbour bridge to Briscoes for a shaver, and saw that their smaller and dearer dehumidifier was a lot less expensive than we thought with their weekend discount. Dang! So, back to Bunnings we went and they were happy enough to take back the one we’d just bought there. Then, finally back to Briscoes and their smaller and cuter dehumidifier. The rain was more persistent by then. We headed back to Omokoroa via the supermarket in Bethlehem – it is such an interesting name for a suburb/town. Where we left Suzi is an official Council place to overnight in motorhomes – good on the Western Bay of Plenty District Council. We got set up in Suzi, only to find the TV dish couldn’t find the TV satellite, so we had to move a few metres. It was the repeat of the final of Dancing With the Stars. I was worried about having enough power so ended up running the generator for a while. And turned it off just before the climax, forgetting that that turned the TV off as well until the inverter was switched on. Luckily power was restored just in time.

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