Holiday Update #3 - final update

Well I am now back home after having a fantastic week in the Nelson area. On Friday I drove to Kaiteriteri Beach and enjoyed a cup of peppermint tea in the sun enjoying the view. The sand at this beach is golden and coarse instead of the white sand that is more usual here in New Zealand. The following is a picture of part of the beach.


I also managed to tick something off my 101 things list as shown in the following picture.


Every day I spent time on the beach outside my cabin at Mapua. The following picture is taken from my sunbathing spot towards the Mapua wharf. The picture was taken at low tide. There are several restaurants based at the wharf including the Smokehouse where I had a delicious meal on Thursday night.

A lot of the area is very tidal with great expanses of estuary revealed at low tide. One morning when I was heading out on one of my driving trips I stopped and took the following picture. It was quite early and the light and colours were amazing - it's a shame I am not an accomplished photographer but here is a photo anyway.


Finally, on my last day I went to the Nelson market. It was yet another gorgeous sunny day and there were plenty of people at the market. There was a good mix of fresh produce, crafts, food stalls and all sorts of items of interest. The cutest thing I saw was a soap stall where some of the soaps were shaped like cupcakes.


My whole holiday was simply awesome and I have already booked my little cabin for next year. I plan to go for a little longer next year - 10 nights instead of 6. I imagine that I will do less driving around and more lazing next year - fantastic!

Holiday Update #2

My lazy summer holiday continues. :) Yesterday I had the most amazing spa experience at a lovely spot called Enriching in Nelson. I had 45 minutes in their outdoor (very private) spa followed by a half hour massage and then finished off with a facial - not sure how long the facial took as I think I was asleep for most of it. hahaha

Last night I ate out at the cafe just along from my cabin and finished my meal with a Cointreau (that's a stab in the dark when it comes to spelling). Here it is :


Today I went on a bit of a road trip. The idea was to have breakfast at Kaiteriteri then maybe look at some art galleries. I ended up having breakfast in Takaka (a bit further than Kaiteriteri) and then went to Wharariki Beach. The beach is pretty much on the West Coast of the South Island. My friend, Victoria, had suggested I go there so took her advice. The funny thing was that when I got there I realised I had been there before - about 35 years ago I reckon. (I could be wrong with my memory of this but Mum will put me right). The following photos are the track to the beach (it's about 20 minutes walking) and the beach itself.


After the beach I backtracked then drove along to Collingwood. We used to holiday here as kids and the following photo is, I think, the place we used to stay in - again I'm sure Mum will correct me if I am wrong.

Holiday update #1

I am having a fabulous time relaxing here in Nelson. I flew down on Sunday afternoon after having some time with family in the spa. Here's a picture of that.

I arrived in Nelson to even better weather than at home - less wind and more heat. Just what I was after. I picked up a car from the airport (thanks to my friend for Victoria for that!) and headed straight to Mapua where I am staying. I found my little cabin, dumped my bags, stripped off and was on the beach - all within about 2 minutes! For those that don't know, the park where I am staying is clothing optional in February and March every year (my kids are now thinking....... ewwwwwww!) so it's wonderful to not bother about what you're going to wear and fantastic swimming! Here's a photo of the inside of my little cabin - it's very basic but right on the beach and perfect for me.

And here is the view out of the door - pretty darn close to the beach! :)

Summertime....... and the livin' is easy.....

Oh yes! I am about to embark on a wee summer's holiday. Yay for me!

My experience of living here in Wellington is that summer can be a mythical beast. It has improved a bit recently but I hedged my bets and booked myself a week away in Nelson. To be totally honest this week was going to be my delayed honeymoon but as I am now without husband I decided it would be very cool to head off by myself and have some real "Me" time.

Nelson is a lovely little city in the South Island which boasts of being the sunshine capital of New Zealand. I am booked to stay in a little beachside cabin (looks quite rustic) at the Mapua Leisure Park. My plan is to spend some time lazing on the beach / by the pool but also to spend some time exploring the wider Nelson / Golden Bay area. Some of the places I intend to visit are listed below.

The Smokehouse at Mapua

Jesterhouse

Enriching Wellness Day Spa

Farewell Spit and Wharariki Beach

Nelson market

There are also plenty of wineries and arts and craft galleries, etc in the area so I am going to get along to as many of those as I can - all the while trying to get my relaxing time on the beach. I'm not sure if I will be posting while I am away - my trusty laptop will be with me but I will need to find some wireless internet to hook into. If that doesn't work out I will post a holiday update when I get back (hopefully with photos).

Pecking order, vege garden and 101 things list

I am concerned about my chooks. Their coop has heaps of feathers in it currently and I am worried that one of my lovely ladies has decided she is queen of the coop and is pecking the others.

After feeding them the other day I hung around and watched for a while. Miss Broody (the supposed Queen of the coop) had been turfed out of her nesting box by me (as happens twice a day!). She stalked over to where the other three were munching away and started attacking them. I have three different breeds (not sure what breeds though) so maybe that is something to do with it? Hmmmmm! I have no idea what do you do about hen-pecking? Off to Google that one now but any suggestions are welcome.

My garden is reaching its peak currently which is sort of great but always a bit sad to know that my fresh produce supply will start to wind down over the next month or so. I would love to be able to keep my garden going year round but we suffer from hard frosts over winter which kill most things off. I will manage to keep silverbeet going (much to the delight of the chooks) and am going to research what else might survive in our winter.

I am loving having my 101 things list to motivate me. I review it every few days and it's a great reminder to me to get off my butt and achieve something. I love doing my sudoku although I don't always do one daily. I am almost on target with blogging once a week and I would really like to increase this to at least twice a week. I've had a massage, a bubble bath and am eating a lot more fish than I have in the past (salmon on Sunday night was divine!) I have a few things booked which will allow me to tick a few things off over the next couple of months. Next month I will blog about progress against each of the 101 things and needing to do that will certainly motivate me to get a few things completed before then.

Harvest time!

I had a craving tonight for fresh vegetables so went out hunting in the garden to see what I could find. This is what I found.

Two eggs from my chooks today so I have at least two laying at the moment. It's quite strange - when I go check on them there is only one who is obviously broody so maybe there are three laying for they are taking turns?

Dinner tonight was grilled chicken with steamed zucchini and silverbeet and with fresh sweetcorn. I have to tell you, the corn was simply amazing - so sweet and tender. The monster zucchini at the rear of the photo is sitting in the fridge while I figure out what to do with it. It may well end up in a pie or cake.

I went and had my massage on Friday. I tried a new place out and opted for a fairly deep massage to sort out my aches and pains. The massage itself was wonderful - a lovely Thai woman used her magic hands and ironed out a lot of the kinks I had in my back. Sadly I won't be returning to this place - the front-desk service was pretty shoddy (to the point of being rude) and the cleanliness etc of the towels was very questionable - plus the towels themselves looked almost threadbare and ancient.

Procrastination!

I am not generally a procrastinator but there is one thing that I have been procrastinating about for the past two weeks. And it has been driving me a little crazy!

Item 12 on my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days is to have a massage once a month. This seems pretty easy to achieve on the surface. I mean, who wouldn't want to have a massage. But I have been the world's biggest procrastinator on this one. Those who know me well know that I am pretty full-on when it comes to exercise and also being super busy day to day. So my issue has been that my body tends to have aches and pains from my gym work. Therefore it makes sense to have a sports massage or deep tissue massage. Some would say it was a no-brainer. Something that would be physically therapeutic. But (there had to be a but) my mind is telling me that I should have a nice relaxing massage (with tinkly music and nice smells). Obviously this would be a good thing for my mental state although it would probably not do a lot for the nasty knotty bits in my back. Do you see my dilemma?

I made a decision yesterday that I should simply make an appointment and get a massage. That I could choose to have a deeper massage to sort my back problem out now and perhaps have the nice relaxing massage next month. So I have booked myself in tomorrow to get that sorted. I can bet, pretty confidently, that tomorrow at about 12:30 I will be wondering what was wrong with a nice relaxing massage with tinkly music as I grimace with pain. hahahaha