Hahei to Waihi (And another visit to the Dentist!)

Friday 13th to 20th Feb
After another week at Hahei of painting & gardening, it was time to leave for two weeks, while Sam & Paulines families all returned for Paulines daughter's wedding.
 We arrived back at my brother Graeme & partner Claire at Waihi Beach late Friday, in time to join in Movie Night at their place with friends. But the delightful surprise for the night was having nephew Luke (a chef on Super Yachts) & partner Debbie do canapes for our dinner while we watched the movie - delicious guys thank you. Movie was pretty good too (The Love Punch) even though Bill probably doesn't agree. It was more of a chick flick, and Bill kept asking when Bruce Willis was going to come on screen!

Out with the old!

The plan for the weekend was to head down to Tauranga to pick up Bill's new trailer, leaving the old one at G&C's till it sold on Trademe. But before we had even had breakfast, Bill had sold it and we were off to Tauranga via Rotorua to meet the buyer who was coming up from Palmerston North. Thanks again to G&C for the loan of their car.

the lovely new one for all Bill's gadgets!

We got to Rotorua, had a quick bite to eat (Kebabs) down at the Lake front, everything going well till Bill went crunch! There must have been a tiny bit of bone in the meat that broke his implanted tooth! $$$$$$$$$ preceded with lots of #@*%!^#@. So any profit from the trailer was now going to the dentist.
Back to Tauranga for the night to spend it at mum's back at Greenwood Park. First thing Sunday, Bill was off to pick up his new trailer - very flash! Full of compartments - god how will he ever find things!  Perfect for Bill to operate his business from. Then out for lunch with Mum over to a lovely little cafe at the Mount, another perfect day weather wise.
We got back to Waihi Beach in time to go cycling through the Karangahaki Gorge & a lovely cold beer at the Waikino Pub ( your typical Kiwi Country Pub - nothing yuppie about this one).

The week has just flown by, Tuesday was a trip back into Tauranga for Bill to get his tooth fixed after he dropped me off to have breakfast with Mum. We later walked up to the Garden Centre Cafe for a coffee before Bill & I returned to Waihi Beach. We had a lovely evening down on the beach after dinner with a small fire, absolutely no wind ( what fire ban!) and music. Claire in her lovely polka dot dress looked amazing. Such a relaxed evening, apart from the dismal return of the Contiki full of weed.

Lovely fire on Waihi Beach

Poor Benson - it was a big night.

Claire in her lovely party dress.

G & B on beach with the "eyes" of Benson watching 

Party time in Polka Dots & music.

Had lots of swims, which had been great, right on the doorstep. G&C have been babysitting a friends Labrador Benson - a very large and placid dog. I hadn't heard a sound out of him till the morning I told Graeme that Bill & I were off for a walk - well that set Benson off barking. The mention of the word "walk" really got him going. So after checking Graeme that Benson wasn't going to defecate while we were out ( Why have I not learned after all these years that my brother isn't always honest with me!!) we headed off. With a plastic bag just in case. Well, we only got 5 minutes up the road when Benson found some long grass outside a property where emptied his bowel. Completely!

Bill & his mate Benson having Breakfast

FYI in case this happens to any of you. It is very difficult to pick up warm Pooh in long grass.I thought I had the plastic bag on well and truly. What a mess. Thankfully we weren't far from a reserve where there was a tap.  Then we continued on our stop start walk with Benson peeing on every pole in sight. He did have a lovely time playing on the beach with Bill and a ball.
Friday we went into the big smoke of Waihi & had our passport photo's taken (May is not that far away now) and our Realme Identity confirmed, which is an initiative that NZ Post is doing with Internal Affairs that not only reduced the cost of the photo's to only $10 each, but also set up our Realme accounts which is designed to make it easier for sharing of documents in NZ & while we are away overseas. So will see how useful it is with applying for our actual passports!