Another lazy Sunday

Took Totty out for her morning walk before it gets too hot and met a very nice Maori man who had a dear little poodle who had a play with Totty.



Jon and I then went off to the Elms Mission House which is the oldest building here in Tauranga and was built by a Rev Brown from Colchester in 1839 so by UK standards not really that old. It was built with wood from Kauri trees shipped down from Mercury Bay in the Coromandel Peninsular. It is in the centre of town but has beautiful gardens, with some huge trees, and it is free to walk around and go into the chapel which is tiny but the house and library are only open on Sunday afternoons and Wednesdays, unless you happen to have arrived on a cruise ship and then tours are arranged out of hours and there is a small fee to go in which we will do one Sunday.

Forgot to get dog food yesterday so it was a quick trip to the supermarket before coming home for lunch and then waiting for Janet and John to arrive.

Janet phoned me at 3.30 from a house on Te Hono Street. I had given then very good directions and they had found the street without any problems and the "Christmas Tree" (a large Norfolk Pine by our drive) but I had told them the house was on the left and it is on the right and had not given her the number! She had her mobile but not the code to use it for a NZ number so they had gone along the street knocking on peoples doors until they found someone in (I said it was quiet around here) and the lady kindly let her call me and Jon went down the drive to meet them. Silly me! It was lovely to see them, they are really enjoying NZ. They had had a lovely drive down from the Coromandel Peninsular and say the beaches there are beautiful. After a cup of tea we went over to the Mount and had a walk around the bottom - I couldn't face walking up it again, my legs are only just recovering from Tuesday. The views from around the bottom are just as lovely and there was another cruise ship in the harbour. Like me Janet could hardly believe it could fit through! After our walk we stopped for a beer before walking back to the car by the harbour.

We thought we might have been able to go to the falls to see the glowworms but we ran out of time. We came back home and got the dog and drove down to Rotary Park to give her a little run about.

We had drinks and nibbles on the deck while I prepared dinner, NZ lamb, and although there was a bit of a breeze it was warm enough to sit outside.

We came in to watch the Australian Open and John enjoyed sitting in the recliner watching it on a 42 cm flat screen which Janet won't let him have at home! Australia is three hours behind us so after the first set we were all falling asleep so we went to bed.