After a day of recharging my batteries and generally relaxing on the Saturday, which included a nice walk around Little Shoal Bay Reserve with Lilly, Cath’s dog, Cath and I set off with her friend Di to Waiheke Island on the Sunday. We were able to catch a ferry from Devonport so, after purchasing our tickets, we went for coffee in the same place as I had had lunch with Barbara and Peter five weeks earlier. The trip to Waiheke was very smooth and relatively short and we were soon disembarking in glorious sunshine, a contrast to the overcast conditions earlier in the day.. We walked from the ferry terminal to Oneroa where we had a table booked at the Oytster Inn for lunch.
The bay looked beautiful and I recalled that back in December 1979 I had landed there in a seaplane. It’s so much busier now.
After a bit of poking around in the local shops, which included buying a new sun hat, I was starting to feel rather hungry. I had done a good walk along the beach at Milford and beyond that morning only to return and find the bridge up for the boats, which then required a longer route for the walk back to Cath’s, so I was definitely ready for food.
We had a nice table on the terrace of the Oyster Inn and asked the waitress to take a photo, which was not that good, but a nice record. After three attempts she almost managed to get us all in the photo.
I’d ordered John Dory fish, which my brother used to catch off the rocks in New Plymouth and was my favourite fish of all time. I was delighted to find it on the menu.
Waiheke is a place to go for a day trip these days, although many wealthy people from Auckland have second homes there. Oneroa is certainly a charming little place and we had a delightful day there.
Living as they do in such good weather, having a BBQ is a very common occurrence in New Zealand and Cath decided to have one on the Tuesday night. She is a highly organised person and all was prepared well in advance of the meal. I decided to contribute and made a pavlova. Although the wind had been pretty gusty earlier in the day it dropped sufficiently to make dining outside pleasant enough. Cath had purchased a rack of lamb and the largest sausages I’ve ever seen from the local butcher rather interestingly called “Well Hung”. That brought a number of ribald comments from the men, but it was very tasty meat.
Staying with Cath was great, because she likes to do the same activities, such as going to the gym and walking, but she was also keen that I should see some of New Zealand’s protected wildlife.