After having an uber-busy week (custom orders aplenty), Easter weekend came and we were all sooooo looking forward to it! Four days of fun, sun, relaxation and A&S were coming up from Wellington for the weekend – woohoo! We hadn’t seen them since their monster tour of NZ and Australia, so we had lots of catching up to do 
Chilled out on our own on Thursday night (boy, did we need it after that week!), then A&S arrived on Friday afternoon. I had spent most of Friday morning tidying up in readiness…as the kids both followed me round making more little messes, so by the time A&S arrived, I was soooo ready for a glass of wine and a catch-up! My hubby had gone fishing at the last minute that morning with Dad and a friend out on his boat, and lo and behold (first time in ages) they came back with a shedload of fresh fish! You cannot imagine the joy – after so many fish-less escapades (I was starting to think he was going to the pub for a pint, rather than actual fishing) I was happily shocked My sis and her 3 kids were over for the night, staying with the folks as our “hotel” was fully booked, thanks to A&S, so everyone descended on us for fresh battered fish for dinner and it was marvellous. My sis and I were like a well-oiled assembly line in the kitchen, preparing the fish in small chunks, and beforehand I’d chucked together a lovely salad, and Mum had bought one down that my sis had “prepared earlier” as well. It was just delish! All 5 kids and 7 adults totally gorged ourselves A few glasses of beer/wine and we were all well-stuffed.
Saturday turned out great – we didn’t really have any plans but the weather was beautiful so we threw some beach towels, sunhats, sunblock and buckets in the car and all headed down the East Coast to Te Kaha for some fishing. Threw the lines in just past Torere Beach and within half an hour my hubby had hooked a lovely snapper – his first from the beach! Another highlight was the invention of our new favourite game: “Who Can Get the Most Stones In the Bucket” – what a thrill! Now, this game (we have decided) has everything: everyone from a 4 yr old to a 42 year old can play (and we did), the stones on the beach were plentiful (and free) and the bucket was cheap (and probably not quite big enough, judging by the amount of misses and near-misses we racked up). For sheer “home made entertainment” we were pretty impressed with ourselves, I can tell you.
After about an hour of this (and no further fish), we decided to up anchor and head on further down the coast. Found a lovely spot about 5 mins drive from Te Kaha, where we spent the next couple of hours, but alas no more fish. Ended up in the newly refurbished Te Kaha Hotel – wow, what a difference in that place these days! The place was humming and it was the perfect atmosphere to sit on the balcony overlooking the sparkling Pacific Ocean (literally – the deck overlooks the beach) and enjoying our drinks. We stayed for a short time but it was getting late and the kids were getting a wee bit on the grumpy side so we headed home to Opotiki and out for dinner (which was gorgeous, if a little slow in coming – we nearly ate the kids meals, they came out first – unluckily for them in some ways!). Finished off the evening with a few more drinks at home…and got to bed around 3am First time I’ve done that for awhile…probably the last for awhile too!
Sunday the weather was just toooooo hot…we didn’t venture outside much at all. It was that hot. Not pleasant – burny burny for fair-skinned folk like me too. We threw a couple of salads together in the late afternoon and headed up to my folks house for a lovely bbq though with some more friends, and fair enjoyed ourselves
We all woke up on Monday feeling not the best…it appears that A&S had bought up a nasty stomach bug with them from Wellington. S came down with it first (A had it earlier in the week apparently) and by the time we waved them both off at luncthime on Monday, both my husband and I were also feeling ill. After a phone call to my Mum, it transpires that both her and Dad were feeling icky as well…luckily, the kids were germ-free. The next 2 days were spent in bed feeling miserable and today (Wednesday) I managed to get back to work but am still not feeling quite right. Hubby came home early from work, Dad went in but feels rotten and Mum spent the day in bed still.
Needless to say, I haven’t had much of a chance to make anything new for the website as yet. Between working on the custom orders I have, having A&S here for the weekend and fighting off this bug, time has just gotten away from me.
But, that said, I have also been busy taking new photos of my earrings, rings and some other items on the site and will be slowly updating the photos in the next few weeks. A few have been already done, many more to come. I also managed tonight to add a couple of new pairs of earrings onto the site. Not much, but a start.
Hopefully, when I start feeling better, I will have more to show for myself. For now though, I’m off to bed.
Amanda
