Part 7...Home coming

It has long been my belief that when on a holiday, one should rise early and have a last walk and look-around on the day of departure for home. This custom is  especially important for someone like me who quickly forms strong attachments to places like holiday homes. And this h. h. most especially warranted such a tradition. It has been a corker.

Now, I'm quite sure that I have never, in my entire life, used the term corker before in reference to anything. To be fair, I suppose my very first use of it should have been to describe anything written by P. G. Wodehouse, since he is the writer that acquainted me with the term. 

Since I did not use it first for one of Plum's (nickname, P.G.W.) novels, and did so here instead, should serve to indicate in what high regard I hold our holiday house, Buffalo Beach and Whitianga as a whole. 

Further, I firmly believe that if one takes a walk on the last morning of a holiday, some special treasure will be found. I once took an early morning walk on the beach at Santa Monica, just a few hundred yards south of the pier, and was rewarded when a woven wood-strip basket in perfect condition was thrown to me by the waves. Jeanne used that basket for many years to pick and display her garden produce. 

I'll start today's final post of our holiday then with a walk along the beach. I walked away from town today for the first time and took some photos to share with you. And yes, as usual, I was rewarded for acting on my sentimental feelings with a partlng gift from the sea. 

I'm walking north and looking east by northeast.

I've come to a little steam. This is looking west.

And looking north east as it empties into the Pacific. 

Equestrians seem to be the 'bookends' to our visit. They have passed us coming and going. 

 There it is, my gift. I knew there'd be something. The ocean is my friend. 

I met a guy who had just adopted this retired racer. "Wasn't very fast," the guy said. 

One last look . I wonder if the guy with the metal detector is finding anything? 

I also passed a yoga class of about a dozen young (from my vantage point at 66, most people are young) and very fit-looking ladies on the sand, greeting the rising sun with what I think was the 'cobra' pose. I'd have taken a picture or two for this post, but they might have misinterperated my interest, not realizing that it was for 'cultural' purposes only that I seemed to be loitering.  

When I got back to Paradise, preparations were well underway to leave. Again, the weather looked great for our return trip. Before we left, the boys wanted one more session at the playground in town. We adults had another coffee and kept our eye on them from the cafe across the street. Here is the morning view of Whitianga on the day we left.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02SLiaE2ejY&feature=youtu.be

Instead of retracing our route, Allie decided this time to drive down the western side of the peninsula and to then cut back through the Coromandel Range. 

About an hour later...the beach showing the very low tide at Tairua

While there, Allie and Arram went crab hunting. (No crabs were injured or killed during the filming. They were momentarily inconvenienced at worst. ) And this one's expression and aggresive pose tells me he's totally over-reacting to getting his picture taken.  Remember, crabs got their name for a good reason. No sense of humor what-so-ever!

 New Zealand uses lots of one-way bridges on rural highways. The sign means that opposing traffic has the right of way. 

 Beautiful

 We didn't expect to find a helicoptor pad in this carpark. We took a short walk up a trail and had a nice view...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCNwpCgF0D8&feature=youtu.be

Lets see, we want Auckland.

Just about home. There is One Tree Hill, but without the one tree of course. 

Allie took the route that uses the new southern tunnel and it saved us a lot of time. The other route is longer and signs were advising that there was a traffic slow-down at Princess Street besides. 

We're home! And my new shell joins some of my other treasures. 

We had a blast but it's good to be home.  -djf

Treasures, from left to right...scallop shell, upper and lower jaws of a porcupine fish, a seal's vertebra (I think) and a jar of pebbles from the beach at Russel, NZ.