Not Working at the Packhouse (Quilts and Maketu)

Quilt

Monday 2nd April was the start of a period of no-work. We’d just started to get into the swing of things when it all came to a stop. The start of the kiwifruit season is always start-stop and this year is no exception. In some ways this wasn’t a bad thing as Wyn was coming down with a head cold that turned into a sinus infection. She wouldn’t have been keen to be working anyway so it was a chance to rest up. Monday we took the opportunity to do some messages in Papamoa. I got my hair cut and we finally got the last of our booster injections for our travel immunisations. It’ll be worth it if we ever can afford to travel anywhere again. We’d recorded ‘Death in Brunswick’ from Maori TV the night before and took the chance to watch it that evening. Earlier in the day I’d finally got my emails running again after months of mucking around. So it was a productive relaxing day.

Tueday Wyn had a meeting at work and I had a long discussion with Telecom about the charging basis for our mobile broadband t-stick modem thingie.  Wednesday we laid low and Thursday we visited friends in Papamoa. This was the day after the worst of a big storm at sea and we called over to the beach to be impressed by the big surf.

Friday Wyn spent in bed. I did some catching up on this blog. This was the star of Easter which was supposed to be wet and stormy but looked far from it. It turned into a lovely long weekend, mostly sunny and warm. Saturday we had to go to work – for a full night. This started to put paid to hopes of seeing some of the Tauranga Jazz Festival. Work on Sunday night extinguished any remaining thoughts of that.

On Sunday we did manage to get ourselves over to Mt Maunganui to the open day of the NZMCA Motorhome Easter Rally. About 800 motorhomes were parked up and about 1500 motorhomers were doing whatever we do when we get together.

Motorhomes at 2010 Easter Rally

Some of the Motorhomes at the 2012 Easter NZMCA Rally

There were a bunch of trade displays where we managed to avoid buying anything at all. The highlight was the quilt exhibition. Quilts. The things people spend years stitching together to put on their beds. Or these days they might end up displayed on walls as many are indeed art works and treasures.  It was an Easter in the 1980s in Dunedin when I saw an exhibition of quilts that was part of a national quilt thing. The boundaries between craft and art were well blurred and crossed. It was a nice co-incidence that it was another Easter when I saw my next quilt exhibition, no less impressive and artful.

Quilt

Quilt Exhibition at the NZMCA 2012 Easter Rally at Mt Maunganui

Quilt

Quilt Exhibition at the NZMCA 2012 Easter Rally at Mt Maunganui

Quilt

Quilt Exhibition at the NZMCA 2012 Easter Rally at Mt Maunganui

Quilt

Quilt Exhibition at the NZMCA 2012 Easter Rally at Mt Maunganui

Quilt

Quilt Exhibition at the NZMCA 2012 Easter Rally at Mt Maunganui

Quilt

Quilt Exhibition at the NZMCA 2012 Easter Rally at Mt Maunganui

Easter Monday was another gorgeous fine and sunny day. Wyn was feeling better and was keen for an outing to the beach. Any beach. There is a beach we had walked around to from Little Waihi that is accessible by a ‘road’ which incurs a fee. The beach is called Newdicks. I’d be interested to know the origins of the name. We’d resisted paying for a road to a beach but relented and paid our $3. It’d be nice to think that the fee was for road maintenance but it seems not. The $2.20 for the Auckland motorway extension gets swoopy viaducts and tunnels. The $3 toll at Newdicks Beach gets a goat track to a nice beach.

Newdicks Beach - Maketu

Newdicks Beach – Maketu

Newdicks Beach - Maketu

Newdicks Beach – Maketu – Towards Little Waihi and Pukehina

Newdicks Beach - Maketu

Newdicks Beach – Maketu

Newdicks Beach - Maketu

Newdicks Beach – Maketu

Newdicks Beach - Maketu

Newdicks Beach – Maketu

Newdicks Beach - Maketu

Newdicks Beach – Maketu

Newdicks Beach - Maketu

Newdicks Beach – Maketu

Newdicks Beach - Maketu

Newdicks Beach – Maketu

We were lucky to get a park under shade and enjoyed sitting watching all the activity on the beach and in the surf. We managed a short walk before getting the BBQ out for some lunch and we enjoyed sitting around until the sun left at 4pm. We came back to the packhouse camp to enjoy the last of the sun for another hour or so. For an Easter that was supposed to be stormy, it sure was nice.

Today – yep today! – is another lovely day here in the Bay of Plenty Sun. Summer may have been missing in action but autumn is going well so far. We have work tonight and who knows beyond that.

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