The Big Smoke and other things…..

I know! Bad me, I’ve been slack as and this post is quite a catch-up on my travels.

I had to be back in Auckland on Monday 20th for my ear specialist check up. For those of you who are not aware I had a fairly major operation in June 2013 to remove a cholesteatoma removed. I have been back every 3-4 months for a check up to make sure its healing ok and to get ready for stage 2 which is opening up again to check there is no trace of the disease left and to reconstruct the missing ear bone that he took out with the first operation. Anyway all is looking great, the surgeon is really pleased with the results so far. Back in 4 months.

On the way through I paused at Gulf Harbour again for two nights to see my son and his family and try some fishing in the Hauraki Gulf. The water was brilliantly calm and it was a lovely paddle, no fish, and most people coming back had the same complaint.

		Gulf Harbour VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The afternoon rush was amazing to watch with the tide out and minimal space on the pontoons and the boat ramp they were queued up and out of the bay….

So after the doctor there was another meeting to sort out other business which didn't go so well, but is now under control. By the end of that I decided to go visit my friends Dave and Yana in Ararimu. Spent a lovely two days there with them and their two young boys Jimi and Tyler. Such a lovely young family. We played with the helicopters that all three boys had got for Christmas!

Thanks to my son and his family I managed to catch their lurgies that they were all suffering from, not enough to stop me but enough to know that I’m fighting it like heck. Loads of vitamin C! and then I got out of Dodge and I hope that I haven’t passed it on to Dave, Yana and the boys!

I have been trying to get some more advertising things going but not happening so far so I decided to try out the NZMCA park over property at Ardmore Airport.

		Ardmore POP VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

A lovely spot, watching the planes take off and land and watching a couple of learner helicopter pilots. Great spot.

I was quite chuffed to meet up with Bernice and Roy. Bernice had posted a comment on the blog regarding the fact that she was reader number 4 of my blog and that they had  spent 4 months doing the trip that I had done in 4 weeks! Slow down she said!

So it was great to meet and have a coffee and chat about what we were all up to and get to put faces to names. A lovely couple, I hope to meet up with them again on my journey.

So from there I headed down to Huntly to catch up with my ex boss and catch up on the gossip! I stayed the night at the Huntly Golf Club. Very nice quiet spot all to myself until 4.30am when all the heavy trucks started moving to and from Te Kauwhata Transport at Rangariri!

Still it was a nice early start to the day and I decided that as there was a working bee at the Te Miro Mountain Bike Track tonight I would head over there, have a bit of a blat and then lend a hand on the track maintenance.

Just after I arrived the guys with the mowers arrived and they headed off and half an hour later they were done!

		Te Miro VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

It’s quite a busy little park here, there were two firemen from Hamilton off on a blat before work this evening and then a family of 4arrived for a blat as well.

So I’m off now for a bit of a ride. Will post some pics tonight.