Weekend Beach Trip

This past weekend was another public holiday weekend, meaning everyone from around here was off to celebrate Auckland Anniversary Day.  I was a bit confused over why Hamilton would be celebrating the foundation of Auckland, but I decided okay, if they want this as another excuse to have a holiday I am all for that.  Curiosity later got the best of me, and I had to find out why in the world this was a holiday.  A bit of research later, and I discovered that it is actually a day celebrated on the Monday closest to January 29th in celebration of the formation of the Auckland Province.  That made a bit more sense to me being that Hamilton would have been part of what was the Auckland Province.  Satisfied with my discovery, I was able to happily do what everyone else around here was doing...heading to the beach!!

That's right, it's summer and a holiday weekend.  Remember what I have said before about kiwis and holidays?  They make for the beach.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and we decided to head out for sand and sun!!  We had originally discussed heading out to the Coromandel Peninsula, but it was decided we would save that for a day when we could leave out at 5 o'clock in the morning due to me wanting to stop every couple of kilometers to take pictures.  I browsed a map trying to decided where I wanted to go, and I finally decided on Waihi, which is on the east coast.  We packed the car and away we went! 

After arriving in Waihi, Ben said, "Here or do you want to keep going and head up to Whangamata?"  We made a quck trip to Waihi when I was in NZ back in June, so of course I wanted to go where I have not been before.  A short, but very curvy drive later, and I was pleased by the site of an artsy little beach town!  We made our way through town and found a beach access spot that wasn't crowded.  By beach access, I mean driving down a street and parking at the edge of someone's yard and walking down the beach path.  This beach is much more easily accessible than our little west coast hidey hole, there is no stream to cross, and the path is actually marked so you're not blindly wandering around some Mr. Random Farmer's land.

Here are a few pictures of the path down to the beach.

And here is the lovely view we were greeted by!

Sadly, we were not the only people on this beach.  It was "crowded" according to Ben.  He of course was grumbling about "all the people".  Here's how "crowded" it was.

I will admit, I too started grumbling when this annoying little group settled within 30 yards of us.  I couldn't figure out why they chose to come to our little section and play Impress My 12 Year Old Girlfriend With My Football Skillz.  Yes, that was an example of the not so nice things Ben and I uttered as the two guys kicked and tossed the football in an attempt to look cool while wearing muscle shirts.  I really wanted to tell them that they lost cool points because they were wearing those shirts, but I didn't.  We were happy when they decided to leave 45 minutes after arriving.  :D

We continue to nap and sun in peace after their departure, and I am pleased to report...there was no sunburns associated with this trip!  My ankle is finally recovering from our last beach excursion.  I missed a couple of areas, and I ended up looking like I had a horrid run in with self tanner.  I was blotchy with dark patches here and there.  I giggled every time I looked at my feet and ankles, but I'm glad to be uniformed in color now.  Hopefully, I'll be able to get a bit more sun time in before our little one makes her arrival and the summer comes to an end.

I hope everyone back home is having a great week, and I will update again soon. The rest of my week will be low key, and then we'll be getting ready for our trip to Australia next week.  My camera is charged and ready to go!  Until next time, everyone take care and stay safe with the weather headed your way! XoXo