Mid-Winter

Well, we've been away for 3 days having a bit of a mid-winter holiday (actually our 9th wedding anniversary). We headed directly across the country from our lovely coast on the West to the lovely coast on the East to a place we hadn't been before. The weather was wild and stormy but there were enough dry spells to get out and enjoy ourselves the same as if it has been sunny weather anyway! We stayed in a cosy little cottage on a large sheep station right next to the beach.

The afternoon that we arrived (it was about a 3hr drive) we went to investigate the rest of the homestead.

This little miss is totally happy anywhere where there are flowers...

The owner initially came over to us and said if the kids were bored there was a playground down in the village, but when I explained (asked) if they were ok rearranging old bits of wood from her garden for their imaginative play she laughed and said go for it! Fortunately she also didn't mind the kids racing around in the puddles on her front lawn.


Then back inside for a nice hot bath.

The next day we headed up the coast a bit to Castlepoint to check out the lighthouse. Unfortunately the weather was crazy and wild with the waves crashing over the rock wall so didn't venture across the estuary (also weren't sure which was the tide was going!) and instead headed into the forest.






On the way home we looped around past Stonehenge Aotearoa but didn't stop in but instead took a walk up to a spooky looking abandoned house up on the hill opposite. We weren't the only people checking it out.