Scorching Bay.....

I've said it before, and I'm saying it again.....it was so great to spend time with family......seeing my cousins again though was also a rather odd experience.....the last time I saw my cousins, they were single or just newly married......now they were mothers and fathers with children ranging from 6-14 years.....no different from myself really ......except that I had missed the in-between years when they were pregnant, with newborns, and then toddlers.....so there's been this big leap, and now I was seeing them as fully-fledged, totally comfortable with their role, parents of young people.....do you get my drift....sorry, I probably haven't explained this too well....but this weird feeling is sooo hard to explain.....perhaps my cousins felt the same about me too?


Anyway, we were lucky enough to spend an afternoon with me ol' cousie SL, his lovely wife W, and their two great kids T and M.....we took a short drive from their house to a wonderful little bay.....Scorching Bay.....usually on a brilliant sunny day, this bay definitely lives up to it's name, but unfortunately, the weather was not at it's best, with a brisk southerly wind coming straight up from the Antarctic, through Cook Strait, and directly into the bay...but the sun was shining and we were all desperate to get some beach time in......

The Lads

At each end of the bay there are little rock outcrops, perfect for a little rock pooling....

Starfish found by the Misses 

Baby Anemone 

The view of the harbour is superb from the surrounding hills, and plenty of people are lucky enough to live there, some seemingly right on the edge of the beach.....just cross the road, and the beach is on your doorstep, quite literally.....

Scorching Bay, Wellington 

Phew....I've just been trying to figure out what my children are to my cousin's children .....second cousins, once removed.....I think.....anyway, friends were firmly made.....

M and Little Miss

The Angels didn't know it at the time, but a few days later they were to be riding their bikes along the gravel coast road, across the water and directly opposite Scorching Bay ....if Little Miss turned around, she would see where she was going to be riding....all the way along to the point.....Pencarrow Head.....through the little gap between the hills is the harbour exit/entrance, towards the South Island.......

Little Miss

And this is looking back into Scorching Bay from out on the water......taken on a different day.....on a different excursion.....more about that later......

Scorching Bay, Wellington

After a most delightful BBQ dinner back at the cousies' house, we drove into the city centre...... 

Wellington Harbour & City Centre at Dusk

to oooh and ahhh over the giant Telecom Christmas tree made entirely of lights....

The light sequences continually change, with background music to keep you bopping, jiving, or just humming along......

There are loads of beanbags strewn all around the base of the tree for you to pull up a pew, settle yourself down, make yourself comfortable, lie back.......and enjoy the light show.....

You could hang out on the beanbags for as long as you liked......and then just give them up for whoever else wanted to lie back and marvel at this somewhat unusual spectacle .......you could even stand in a queue at several specially placed telephone boxes and call the B I G man himself......SANTA......to tell him if you'd been naughty or nice......of course, we'd all been very nice.....well, we were in New Zealand weren't we, so we must've been very, very nice...and delightfully, it was all FREE!

Another fab day had by all......thanks cousies!!!

-xx-