A new week, a new country and a totally new destination for me. For 10 days I will be in the ‘Land of the Long White Cloud’, and several smaller rounder ones. Staying near my son’s partner’s parents in the Waikato home to some of New Zealand’s most stunning landscapes. I may get to explore a little further, but I’m actually quite content to soak in the views from where we are staying and chill out with my new grandson.
Home Sweet Home
We are staying high above Ngarunui (Ocean) Beach. Located 5km west of town this wide expanse of black sand beach lends itself to lazy beach walks and picnics in the sand. It’s also a popular spot for surfing, bodyboarding and swimming.
Aqua
What transfixes me the most is the colour of the water – a cloudy, milky turquoise, possibly because of the black sand, which is the finest powder sand I have come across and glitters in the sun.
Surfing
Raglan is a small surfer town on the coast and boasts the world-famous surf break Manu Bay. The long, peeling left-hand break, said to offer one of the longest rides in the world, featured in the 1966 surfing film Endless Summer. Situated on the West Coast of New Zealand’s North Island, just a 45-minute drive west of Hamilton or a two-hour drive south of Auckland, Raglan offers stunning scenery, beautiful beaches, inspiring arts or simply a good old cup of coffee.
Golden
You may have eaten Kiwi fruit, but these are golden kiwi fruit and taste SO much better. Sweeter and without that odd chemical reaction that I and many others have when eating the green fruit. I am becoming addicted!
Christmas Trees
The pohutukawa tree (Metrosideros excelsa) with its crimson flower has become an established part of the New Zealand Christmas tradition. This iconic Kiwi Christmas tree, which often features on greeting cards and in poems and songs, has become an important symbol for New Zealanders at home and abroad. It is just about to flower so I hope to capture some good shots of trees in full bloom before I leave.
TRAVEL WORDS 
Ah, there’s the wonderful color of that New Zealand sea again.
Because of the hemispheric seasonal differences, when we visited NZ in February all the kiwi fruit for sale there came from Italy.
Now that is bizarre! Nothing beats the golden fruit though IMO.
Actually New Zealand is as much an impostor as Italy. The earlier English name for the fruit, Chinese gooseberry, indicated its origin. Marketers decided that name wasn’t at all enticing, and so the “kiwi fruit” came into existence.
I don’t recall whether I’ve ever had the golden version.