A great day out.

Up bright and early to get myself ready for our day trip to Matakana Island.

I left to collect Janice and Margaret and left Jon with instructions for his lunch and afternoon tea.

Matakana Island is a huge island in the Tauranga harbour with a population of 210 mostly Maori living on it. Best part of it is covered with pine trees for timber but there is a flat area for farming and fruit growing and it has one of the biggest Kiwi fruit orchards in the region. You have to go over on an organised trip or request permission to go there and it is a place Jon and I have wanted to visit since we arrived here.

We all got down to the marina and boarded out little harbour cruise boat to cross the harbour to the island. The captain talked us through some of the harbour and we went down past the new wharf. The trip only took about 25 minutes and a bus was waiting for us on the island's jetty.

Our first stop was across the island and onto the ocean view beach which runs the 27km length of the island. The sand is lovely and the beach quiet and you get a completely different view of Mount Maunganui. If they ever choose to open it for full blown tourism it would make a fortune as it is really lovely.

We then drove around the island and our guide chatted to us all the way and pointed out various places to us.

We went to the home of one of the two white families living on the island - Roger and Mary!! They farm the Kiwi fruit and usually spend the winter off the island and I had a lovely long chat with her. They have the most beautiful views from their property and she told me she gets across to the mainland often and leaves her car across there and uses one of the trucks on the island. They also have a boat and she said they go out to dinner in the boat down to Tauranga which I thought was pretty cool.

Mary prepared lunch for us which we ate under the huge walnut trees and it was very good. All too soon it was time to get back on the bus but not before I bought some of the lovely flax flowers made by the young Maori wives on the island which I will bring back to England with me.

Our trip to the jetty didn't take as long as we all would have liked and we were soon back on the boat and heading back to Tauranga. We passed by the cruise ship that was in and saw the container ships being loaded and the log ships, all very interesting.

Once off the boat a few of us went for a coffee as we just didn't want the day to end we had all had such a lovely time.

On my way back I stopped at the Red Cross to pick up the balls and bricks for Helen and we will drop them off to her next week in Auckland.

I got back and made Jon a cuppa and told him all about the island. He had not done much through the day but did have all his clothes out and ready to be packed.

I sorted my things out and the case was soon ready - I am getting so fast at this now.

We had dinner and watched some TV and I made another beanie. MY friend Margaret knitted three for me to give to the orphanage which was very kind of her.

We are leaving in the morning as early as we can to make a good start as it is a long trip.

Not sure if I will get my blog written while we are away as I might not have Internet.

WEATHER
Sunny 24 degrees