Doris rides again

Happiness is: a comfortable lap and an Easter egg.  Tilly basks in post-chocolate consumption blissfullness

Belated happy Easter all.  Was the Easter bunny kind to you this year?
We were all geared up for battening down the hatches and spending Easter under cover as a tropical low pressure system was supposed to sit on the North Island for the whole weekend.  However, we're now discovering that the NZ met service forecast is exceedingly predictable, but only in that it is without fail wrong.  So instead of torrential rain and storm force winds, we had a beautiful sunny weekend (bar a brief shower or two) and therefore headed off in our venerable Doris to Martin's Bay on the Mahurangi peninsula.  We got the last pitch on the campsite, which was heaving, because Kiwis do like their camping and they do not pack light - palatial tents, awnings, 4 burner gas BBQs, mosquito-proof gazebos, set of fishing rods, collapsible whirligig washing line, bunk beds (yes, really, spotted inside one of the said awnings) etc etc.  Probably why they all seem to drive trucks so that they can fit in the clobber for a weekend away.

But if the campsite was crowded, the beach was huge and there was space enough for the world and his dog.  The weather on the Saturday varied from this in the morning:

to this in the afternoon:

Hmm, says Tilly - this could be a bank holiday weekend in the UK.  Not what I signed up for!

On the Sunday the weather had got over its strop so we did more beachy things:

Pétanque

Beach cricket.  Note stylish driftwood wicket.  No batting collapse here!

But after a while it was all too much for Tilly who retired for a nap:

Before bed, Reuben asked Dave to continue retelling The Lord of the Rings.  This occurred under the sleeping bag (for atmospheric effect) as the story picked up at a tense moment in the mines of Moria.  Tilly slurped her milk in the background.  Or maybe it was the orcs snacking on something unmentionable?  Can't remember. 

The next morning we packed up and headed round the corner to Snells Beach.  Yep, the sky was blue, the beach was fringed with pohutukawa trees and the sand was soft, but if it makes you feel better, the water was freezing!  We had a picnic on the beach (and we know Tilly's diction is improving because she no longer calls it a 'picpic') and then headed back to Auckland.