Coming Up Close

While out and about today around Mangawhai I decided to snap some photos of the wonderful colour in people gardens. Because Mangawhai is a coastal town the plants/trees etc are especially for sand & difficult conditions. I think they look awesome!

Today the teens and I got stuck into the outdoors and ventured out to a nearby walking track called The Tanekaha Trek right here in Mangawhai Heads. My brother in law, my sister and I were the ones taking photos. There are two tracks you can take - we took the difficult one which all up was about 80 mins and leads to a large waterfall. There were lots of ups and downs - plenty of exercise to be had. Along the way there were lots of little waterfalls, native trees & plants plus a stream which ran beside the trail. We were all very tired by the end of it but it certainly was a perfect day for it.

My daughter and I drove out to Kaiwaka this morning to check out a few of the shops. One of them was closed strangely enough on this Saturday morning Labour weekend and the other was Buy The Way which sells exquisite clothing - daughter tried on a few dresses that suited her because of her age that she was happy with. Do check it out, it's rather a surprise :-)

I drove past the Mangawhai Beach Primary School yesterday morning and noticed these colourful scarecrows on the school fence. Think the pupils made them for their Ag Day which is coming up.

View from the hills of Leigh over Pakiri

Photo taken tonight from my driveway...

Found this one on of of my camera's memory cards from last Spring. It's the Omaha coastline. Quite amazing when I look at it cos I can see Rangitoto Island in the background and the Mahurangi Coastline behind it. Love!

Served with my prawn cocktail yesterday - think there was Cayenne Pepper sprinkled on it - probably gave it a kick.

Nothing like a prawn cocktail for lunch today - major nom!

Down by the Mangawhai Tavern...

A while ago the teens and I ate dinner at Lyall's Cafe in Omaha - they make lovely pub/cafe style food. Fish n chips, hotdogs, burgers, desserts etc made in a lovely atmosphere with a lovely view of Omaha beach.

The teens went for our weekly cafe visit this morning, this time we tried a local place called "harvest cafe" here in Mangawhai Heads. They renovated the place a while back, it's taken us until now to go and check it out. Last time we went was quite some time ago for dinner. They seem to have fixed it up in a retro type of way with ornaments, chairs, tables, signs etc. Coffee and hot chips were just as good and were a welcome treat on this rainy Spring day!

This is my brother in law Tom. The teens and I plus my parents were invited to his & my sister's house for dinner. What a treat. Matzo ball soup for an entree, Squid & King Prawns with Orzo & steamed Watercress for dinner - yum!

If you want something fattening for lunch welcome to these takeaways in Wellsford where you can buy all sorts of fried food including Bacon n Egg Burgers (as the sign says). Not my type of food thankfully...

Youngster's throwing pebbles in the water at Mangawhai Estuary tonight. It's been a cracker Spring day here - very warm.

Tide's out at Point Wells - Rodney District - Spring.