A Quiet Day!

With the clocks changing last night and going away next weekend our plan was to have a quiet local weekend!

After taking Totty for her walk our next stop was to the tip and get rid of the very smelly grapes and vine cuttings. We go to the tip every two weeks but we have never had "green waste" until this week. You enter the "green waste" area via a weighbridge and you have to pay to dispose of it!!!!!! We tipped our three bags of smelly grapes into the skips and then made for the exit weighbridge and we had to pay $7!!!!!! For the first time we were both very glad that we do not have a garden over here. The amount of "green waste" we took to Newmarket tip would have cost us a fortune. Well at least we got rid of the smell but we were left with lots of fruit flies in the car!

We had seen a sign on the road in Te Puke for Looking Glass Gardens and thought it was worth going to have a look so after a coffee and a date scone (I didn't have any breakfast!) we headed up into the hills to find the gardens. We went up and up and the road became a gravel road and still we went up until we finally reached the gardens nearly at the top. I am not sure what I thought it would be - maybe some pretty gardens. However it was a lovely area created by an old lady with the theme of Alice Through the Looking Glass and they were really beautiful. We wandered through the gardens which had the most amazing collection of trees including an enormous Norfolk pine which looked like a huge Christmas tree with a star on the top. We walked up the Stairway to Heaven which has 200 steps to the top and St Peter's Hill which has the most spectacular views over the coast.

The lady at the gate had told us that the gravel road had once been the main road to Rotorua! She told us we could get back to Tauranga that way and also visit the Kaiate Falls which I had read about but not found the road to. We set off driving up the hill and it was a bit scary but very beautiful and the views over towards Tauranga and where we live really lovely. We found the falls and went into the car park and there was not another car about. We had a lovely walk down to the falls, more steps! They were not the biggest falls I have seen but they were very pretty and so peaceful. I think in the summer there would be lots of people bathing there as they look to be quite safe. We followed the path along the falls crossing two bridges before coming to the bottom and then had to climb up the other side and head off to the car park which by the time we got back had seven cars parked there!

We followed the road down and came out in Welcome Bay which is not very far from our house, 15 minutes in fact.

We were more than ready for lunch by the time we got back and were really quite tired after all those steps.

We took Totty to Rotary Park this evening and due to the clocks changing last night we found that the park is now closed to cars after 5.00pm until October when summer time starts - that seems a long way away! The park was really quiet and very peaceful as there was no wind this evening and the tide was in but not another person about.

After a roast chicken dinner Jon is now watching the Grand Prix and I am just about to make the coffee.