Memories of summer in the country

How are you? Hanging in there? We’re about one and a half weeks into lockdown here in New Zealand – another two and a half weeks to go, maybe? It might be extended, we just don’t know yet. So far it seems to be going well, so fingers crossed!

The weather is getting noticeably cooler, especially in the early mornings, and today was the first day of the clocks going back. These photos are not all that old but already they are distant memories – Covid 19 was definitely not on our minds! For me, they’re a good reminder of what the world will be like again when we come out of this. I hope they do the same for you!

Here’s the story behind them. Back in February we took a week off work and came up to the country for a late summer holiday, as we’ve done the last few years. February is undoubtedly the best month of summer here in the north of New Zealand – it’s hot but not unbearably humid, it very rarely rains, and most people are back at work and school so the beaches are uncrowded.

As is the general country rule for us, we didn’t do a lot! What we did was just the best though. It was just our little three person crew for the first few days, then our friend came up with his toddler (and Amelie’s bestie – they’ve known each other since he was born, just a few weeks after Amelie!)

We got in a lot of beach time. We stuck mainly to our closest beach at Mangawhai Heads – I mean, look at it. Why would you go anywhere else? We did head up to Waipu one day for a nice lunch at Cove, which is one of our favourite restaurants in the area, but decided to come back to our beach for the afternoon.

We went to Bennetts of course (the best!), and the playground. As we always do, we got fruit and vegetables from the farmer’s market, meat from the butcher’s, organic avocados from one farm stand and free-range eggs from another. We picked up local bush honey and homemade relishes from The Cowshed. We got strawberry ice cream from the cart by the beach, and chocolate ice cream from the Four Square in the Village. It is very easy to eat well here.

 

It’s very easy to live well here. We always relish our summer holidays in this magical spot. I miss the beach desperately right now! But it’s worth it to keep as many people safe as we possibly can, and to hopefully bring about opportunities for us to enjoy the beach and each other sooner rather than later. I hope that wherever you are, you’re keeping safe, and that you have great memories of summer and good times to tide you over. One day this will be our norm again.