Plenty fun

Hi there! Today we ended up with a lot of the day off due to heavy rain in the morning. I did a little bit of weeding round our cottage when it cleared and Paul and Luka worked on sanding some chairs for painting and then we were off, just as the sun came out fully, and we went to our pre arranged meeting with another Helpx couple at their property the O'Hara Game Estate just outside Te Puke. They were lovely, the work, learning opportunities and accommodation are fantastic and we will stay with them in January sometime! We picked a huge bag of oranges and an even huger bag of grapefruit from their laden trees and had an orange for pudding each after fish and chips in Maketu on the way back to Welcome Bay. This is a photo I took of a seagull which ate chips out of my hand. Connor says its good enough to be on google images...

We loved Maketu. It's a small non developed old style NZ seaside town. Kids of all ages played on the playground and at the beach without the need for watching adults, the natural world is their backyard and they all look after each other JUST AS IT SHOULD BE! Ten kids spent hours jumping off this cool old wharf / bridge remains into a deep spot into a channel of the Maketu Estuary. Luka and Connor were quick to join them and this is a photo of Luka bombing into the sea. (A much better thing to be jumping on/off than you know what!!!)

Tomorrow Luka and Paul have got some paid work for a few hours at my friend Nina's shop 'The Wooden Toy Box'. So that's good as we are using a lot of petrol discovering all the cool places in the Bay of Plenty of Places to visit!

It really was the Bay of Plenty today: as I weeded I found new potatoes, then we were harvesting citrus and also at Maketu (while Luka and I were buying f & c) Paul and Connor were pulling up pipi for tea tonight. They were a little gritty but hey! We had them with NZ spinach which Paul picked from the garden here. If only Luka liked shellfish and Connor liked spinach it would have been a successful meal!

We're considering having new Year here in the Mount. Anyone game to join us? If you have never been to the Mount you are really missing out! Love Justyx