Day 43, Level 1: Local beaches & countryside, and rugby (well, sports!)

What a stunning morning at Omaha!

I had a haircut booked for 10am in Matakana and my initial intention had been to pack up, get my hair cut and continue back to Auckland straight after.

But this day was too good to leave.

So I did a bit of a cleanup, but not a packup, as I decided I'd return to Omaha after said haircut and go for a beach walk before heading back to the city.

Had my hair cut by the lovely Amy at Matakana Hair Co (very pleased with it!) and headed back to Omaha. En route, I made an impromptu decision to take a drive out to the Tawharanui Peninsula to take a look at some of the little beaches and bays. It's been ages since I did that.

First, I grabbed a coffee from Brambles Cafe at Matakana Country Park - it was heaving, good to see. This park is great, with all sorts of activities for kids, including a mini-train and a fantastic playground.

Note the "worm" in the foreground!!

On the drive out to the peninsula, I stopped and took some photos of the scenery. I wouldn't normally, but am keen to share them here. Driving along the top of the ridge there are some great views either side.

View across to Kawau Island

View back to Sandspit Marina (shown on left)

Countryside view

As I arrived in Buckleton Beach, with its views out to Rabbit Island and Takangaroa Island (both small islands - but bigger than Beehive Island which I talked about in an earlier post), the weather started to clag in. Damn.

Still, it was picturesque and tranquil and ... talk about solitude. Not a soul around. It felt a bit like lockdown. It's such a peaceful bay.

View from Buckleton Beach

The tide was heading out (it's better looking at high tide) but the sky was moody and I thoroughly enjoyed spending some time just wandering along the grassy banks, amidst gnarly old seaside trees.

Buckleton Beach tranquility

I then drove round to Baddeleys Beach and Campbells Beach - it started raining and by the time I got there it was pouring. I didn't hop out or take photos, but it was nice to drive around and have a look. Talk about sleepyville! All these beaches are south facing, with lots of trees and bush, so there's a bit of a dankness about it all, especially when it's raining! Not a lot of sunrises or sunsets viewed from here, due to the aspect. But as far as tucked-away quaint Kiwi coastal bay loveliness goes - these bays have it in spades. So many of the houses (baches) in Campbells Beach have caravans parked up on the front lawn. Some places need a good lick of paint. Many were empty, obviously holiday homes that are not frequented during winter months. I stepped back in time for a bit today.

By the time I left these parts, it was pissing down. Window wipers on full bore all the way home. What happened to that lovely sunshine!? Oh, yes, of course, silly me ... this is the country of 4 seasons in one day - or rather, ten seasons in one hour!

I headed back to Omaha - and stopped en route to photograph the Omaha spit from up high. There are some great views from the ridge, but the inclement weather didn't do it justice. Still, this gives you an idea of the lie of the land ... the strip of land that runs from right to left just below the horizon - that's Omaha. The ocean beach is on the other side - it's the estuary that's visible here.

Back in Omaha I did some cleaning and tidying and then some work on the computer while it poured down outside. I gave it a chance to clear, whilst being productive, in the hope of going for a quick walk to the beach - but it kept on pouring, so I packed up the car, closed up the house and prepared to leave. And what happens? The sun comes out, of course!

Too late, I'm ready to hit the road home, so I drive off into the lovely sunshine towards the city.

The traffic is light and flowing - until I hit the city and it is at a standstill. Grrr. Get me outta the city!

Quiz tonight - it was a pretty hard set of questions (with loads of horribly obscure ports questions) and most teams struggled. But it seems we struggled the least, as we won! In fact we ended up with a jolly good score, and won by some margin. Smiles all round.

When we went to leave the pub, it was POURING down. Rain as heavy as it gets. Waited five minutes or so, and then it stopped completely and off we went. More of the "10 seasons in one hour" scenario!

SHARE-NOTE OF THE DAY:

Rugby ... and sports in general

Super Rugby Aotearoa is in full swing. I've watched a couple of games and I'll no doubt watch the final, but I'm not really feeling any engagement.  

With Sam having played rugby virtually every Saturday since he was 5 years old, it's kind of weird not going to watch him play. He's now in London and this is the first winter in 22 years that we don't have a club rugby game to get along to on a Saturday.

Michael played junior rugby and a few years of schoolboy rugby, so there were usually two games to juggle on a Saturday during winter season.

And then in the summer it was cricket - they both played since they were 5yo.

Michael was more into his cricket than rugby. Sam was fully into both.

So it was wall to wall sports summer and winter.

Rugby was short and sharp and over in a couple of hours. Cricket was ... all ... day.

And even though I knew nothing about either sport before having sons, I learnt all the rules and learnt to adore both sporting codes. They were great social days.

In fact, I ended up managing the boys Junior Rugby Club for quite a few years during the 2000s - alongside my own work. It was a huge undertaking, and I introduced lots of new systems, a website, proper registration system, grew the membership, got lots of social things going etc. I look back now and think, how the hell did I fit that in? It was only when I knew where everyone else's kids were supposed to play but had no idea where my own boys were playing that I decided it was time to get out, hand over, ease up. But I'd done what I set out to do - get the club to flourish in all ways. It continues to do so. Job done.

Sam played rep rugby for the Auckland Under 85kg grade team for a couple of years. It was pretty full-on tough rugby. He's played No. 10 (first-five) during most of his senior rugby years. And kicker. All that early practice paid off.

It's fair to say both our boys adore their sports - rugby, cricket, golf, skiing, surfing ...

For years and years we've had rugby games to watch on Saturdays during winter, and cricket games during summer. And now we can go to Omaha on a Friday night with no FOMO or juggling involved!

I found this photo of Sam in his Grammar Junior rugby uniform - June 2005, he was 12 - he played for the rep team - he was half-back in those days. And kicker. He'd spend hours practising his kicking down at the Shore Road rugby fields, shown here.

Sam, Rugby, age 12

Michael (18) and Sam (21) - 2015