Outstanding October: Northern Beaches, Geocaching, & Friends

The second week in October was also the second week of school holidays. The girls and I went to Wonderland (indoor playground of sorts), did activities outside, had a couple of play dates, went Halloween decoration shopping, and baked some treats. Friday came quickly and soon I was off to Snells Beach to hang out with Clara and Annika for the weekend!

First time in a ball pit since forever ago.

Playing at the school playground.

Snapchat filters are the best for using up 10 minutes of time!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12TH

After work, I packed up a bag and drove 45 minutes to Clara's house in Snells Beach. I met her host family, unloaded my stuff, and then we headed off to the Matakana Pub for dinner. Our waiter must have heard my accent because after a short discussion, he mentioned he had a friend who went to NDSU. We had a lovely chat about the NFL, Carson Wentz, and the Minneapolis Miracle. 🏈 So random! Back at the house, Clara and I visited a bit before hitting the hay. 

Classic burger and fries - delicious!

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13TH

We had a casual morning that started with oatmeal and coffee at the house before we headed to the Matakana Farmers Market. The day was gorgeous - perfect for spending milling around produce and food stands. I had been to a couple of different markets in NZ before and wasn't overly impressed. However, this market was amazing! 

There were so many different stands offering a variety of produce, pastries, flowers, condiments, products, coffee, and meals. We enjoyed wandering around and tasting different food items. Apparently, when in New Zealand, one needs to try whitebait (the immature fry of fish). With this in mind, Clara and I went to the stand selling whitebait since our friend Annika knew the guy running it. He put the whitebait in eggs that were then essentially cooked so it was an omelette of sorts. This was then put on a slice of bread and drizzled with lemon juice and salt. Sound appetizing enough for ya? We shared one and were glad of our choice considering the price and flavor. It wasn't that bad actually, if you want to know. Our problem was that we couldn't really taste the whitebait. Like hardly at all. So...not bad, just not worth the money.

If you zoom in, you can make out the whitebait in the egg. Look for the darker lines!

Once we finished our "treat," we headed up a hill to the upper level stands. These were mostly selling clothes, bags, rocks, shells, honey, candles/soap, antiques, jewelry, and secondhand items. Clara found a pair of earrings she liked and then we walked to a thrift store to look around before crossing the street to the grocery store to grab some items for a picnic lunch. We also grabbed a coffee and then drove to Tawharanui (pronounced Taw-faw-noo-ē) Regional Park. 

Look out for ducks, pukeko's, and kiwi's.

Our first order of business, after walking up from the car park to admire the ocean, was to sit and enjoy our pastry treats from the market and our coffee. We found a cute stick shelter and ate there - along with our seagull friends. The beach wasn't crowded at all, which made for a peaceful time. Then, we wandered over to a cave and spent time photographing the scenery. 

Snack location.

Our next mission was to find a nearby geocache. Despite a wonky GPS, we made the find and continued on our way to a different part of the beach to chat and have lunch. It might appear that we eat often, but trust me. There was a bit of time between each of our meals/snacks throughout this day! 😂 We found a comfortable spot on some grass overlooking the ocean and had only one seagull friend this time. Karen, I think her name was? Or Steve. 😆 Clara and I had bought a baguette at the market and meat and chips at the grocery store, so we had a pretty delicious meal. While eating, we were watching this couple on the beach take a TON of pictures. We thought it would have been adorable if the guy had proposed, but of course that didn't happen. LOL. Behind us, there were some ominous clouds, but thankfully no pouring rain fell! With our stomachs quite full, we wandered over to an awesome tree that I had to climb. I wish I could bring some of these New Zealand trees back home with me!

On our way to our lunch location.

Perfect place to read a book.

Because the tide was out, we were able to climb up some rocks to what turned out to be a BEAUTIFUL view of the ocean. The blue was so intense, it reminded me of Fiji in a way. The couple of pictures below are exactly what it looked like - I did no editing or anything. Obviously, it was more incredible in person, but these snapshots aren't all that bad either. We took turns walking out to the point while the other person took pictures. We had fun!

 Shadow views.

 😍😍😍

Unfortunately, we had to head back to the house because Clara was on babysitting duty for the night. We had a few minutes to walk on the beach before leaving and I did my traditional handstand followed up by some funny faces and laughs.

 Saw some pukeko's on our way out of the park.

View driving back to the house.

We played with Clara's kids (2 boys) until dinner and a bit afterwards. Soon, it was time for them to head to bed and Clara and I were able to watch a movie while we ate our dinner. I had run out to the nearby Indian restaurant to grab curry while Clara set up the movie. Long story short, my hard drive wouldn't work on the TV but we got it sorted out eventually and were able to relax the rest of the night. If you're curious, we watched Rock of Ages since Clara loves 80's music and hadn't seen it yet. Clara's host parents had gone to a comedy show in Auckland featuring none other than William Shatner. That's right dad...be jealous! 😉 After the movie, we stayed up later while sharing music/music videos with each other. When 1 a.m. rolled around, we figured we should get some sleep. 😄

Meet Tank, the raccoon dog! She's seriously so cute and super friendly!

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14TH

Instead of eating breakfast at the house, we went and met Annika at the Parsley Pot - a nearby café. Before meeting her, Clara and I went in search of a geocache at a donkey sanctuary. Sadly, we couldn't find it (probably due to lack of food and coffee), so off to the café we went! It had been forever since we had been able to hang out, so we enjoyed catching up and made a plan for the rest of the day. I don't know why, but I chose eggs for breakfast. I guess the whitebait from yesterday didn't impact my taste buds too much!

At least this omelette had some pretty garnish!

With breakfast finished, Annika had to run an errand so Clara and I stopped at a vintage "store" of sorts on someone's property where we met a friendly dog and Clara found a sweet bag she had to buy. We met up at Omaha Beach and enjoyed walking along the shore. The houses along the beach were quite fancy. Clara's host grandparents were building a house there and it had HUGE windows...crazy!

Māori statue at the boardwalk leading by the fancy houses.

 Omaha Beach.

Since the tide was going out, we were able to walk along the rocks to the beach next door - Pink Beach! We had to leap some water and create a rock path, but we made it! Along the way, we took a pause to swing on a rope swing over the water. It brought out our inner child!

Walking along the rocks during low tide...

Swinging the day away...

At Pink Beach, we enjoyed soaking up the sun and chatting for about an hour and a half. Besides us, there were only a couple other people there so we felt pretty secluded. The sun was shining and it was just a perfect day to be outdoors. Eventually, we decided to walk back and do some geocaching in Leigh (pronounced Lee). 

Misc. shots of Pink Beach...can you see why it's named that?

 

 Enjoying the beach..."Krista style!"

The gang.✌

When we walked back, it was REALLY low tide.

We found a little starfish on our way to our cars!

Leigh was a city about 20 minutes from Omaha Beach with about 10 geocaches, but we only had enough time to find four of them. The weather changed to rain for a few minutes and then it was back to sunshine and clouds. One of the best things about geocaching are the views and places it brings you to that you normally would have never seen.

Spoiler alert: Cache #1 was hidden near the sign!

Various geocaching views ↓

The reason we could only find four caches is we had to make it back to Matakana to hit up Charlie's Gelato. We all got a couple scoops of deliciousness and sat among the flowers until it closed. Since we were the last ones there, we got a free container of strawberries from Charlie's so they wouldn't go to waste. And can I say how wonderful they were?! YUM!

Sadly, we had to head out with evening approaching. Clara had to get some petrol so I quickly went with Annika to a nearby geocache to log #5 of the day! Then, we decided to grab dinner at the Pub - burger and fries anyone? The day was lovely and full of adventure, laughs, sun, food and friendship. It was another relaxing weekend around the area - but it's the last one I had until December! There are some pretty busy weekends coming up. ✊

Some of the places I went to this weekend.

I can't believe it's single digits until Christmas! Just so you know, the weather here is currently around 70°F and sunny, sunny, sunny. It definitely doesn't feel like Christmas so I've been wearing a Santa hat to try and get in the mood. 😂 However, I'm looking forward to experiencing a Kiwi Christmas at the beach this year! Stay tuned.

Krista out!