Hello my love,

Wow – today was all about relaxing, not driving too much and being surprised on what life has in store for you. Doing just that, I loved today for what today represented…

I woke up crazy early mainly cause the sun is up and very bright by 6:10 am which early… I forced myself to stay in bed till about 7 am…

Having my yogurt in the morning, I set off to see the largest trees in New Zealand, the kauri trees… they are beautiful as you can see… so pretty and so tall, they remind me slightly of the redwoods we have in California. The way to get to them was interesting, in order to go, you had to brush your feet and disinfect them through this walkway (shown)…

This is to make sure no insect that you might bring from another part of New Zealand hurts them… Pretty brilliant when you see the affects of an insect or dirt or other foreign object take over the area… Happily I was the only one there to experience these majestic giant trees, no one to compete with for a photo…

Here is a photo tour of these majestic trees.. As you know, I love trees and bark…

Next was the falls, I wanted to play with my camera and do the long shutter speeds, I spent about an hour there just listening to the falls, I shared the falls with one other camping couple which was nice… Wanting to go in, the water was freezing, so I enjoyed the water with just my feet in and they were icebergs many times… By the time I was leaving about 5 other cars came and was internally grateful that I decided to see these two awesome places in the early morning before the people…

I don’t mind people, I just don’t like them getting in my photo… I can’t help it sometimes, like at Cathedral Cove or where I will be going next… I just like to also visit these places as if no one has been there before me and I am the first to discover this place and have it all to myself. 🙂

At this point it was just before lunch time, I have been wanting to go to this place called Muscle Kitchen, it just wasn’t meant to be… Whenever I tried they were closed… It was just 10am and I couldn’t fathom eating lunch so early. I went to the local grocery store thinking I would find something there, forcing it, I just couldn’t do it… So I went to Umm Café which is the first place I went to when I came into town… They have these vegetable biscuit/muffin that is great, I also bought a chicken bacon camembert cheese sandwich and a chocolate for lunch… All takeaway and perfect for when I am at New Chum Beach to enjoy…

Driving these wonderfully crazy windy roads was now fun for me, only going about 12 miles, it took about 40 min… that is how crazy the roads are – they are just calling my name most of the time… Last time I took this road I saw a viewpoint vista which I decided is where I will eat my veggie biscuit and enjoy the view…

Finally getting to New Chum parkway where I would have to walk about 40 min (again in time not distance) to this voted top 10 beach to see in New Zealand for its seclusion and views… How can you miss that… I knew I wasn’t the only one reading these articles so I accepted that I wouldn’t be the only one on the beach… Though it felt like it – it was pristine, and sunny and anyone who was there was in the shade trying to be protected from the sun…

I, of course, sat right at the other end of the beach on the full sun and loved it. Since I finished my book, I pre-downloaded my next bookclub book, thinking it might be easier to audio book it this time, I checked it out from the library. Not wanting to put anything in my ears, I had it on speaker… No one around me so it was all good. After getting into the water which was still very crazy cold, I dried off, ate lunch and started listening… Fell asleep, turned over on my back, then fell asleep again, then went back into the water to cool down and just enjoyed the sun and the lack of people.

By 4pm, I thought, it’s been about 4 hours in the sun, probably time to head back for dinner.

It was an easy day, not a lot of thinking, just enjoying the sound of the ocean, the sun and knowing that I really needed to relax…

Tomorrow I leave here and have a sort of busy day ahead of me, so why not just relax and remember – you love you!

As always – the love of my life – thank you!