Hanging Out

At dinner, Tesoro’s jumped into my lap and sat with me for about 5 minutes. I guess she thinks we are now acceptable.

An easy day. In the morning, Betsy and I went to town. First stop was to pick up donated yarn for her Red Cross group which we dropped off at their club house. Right in downtown Kerikeri, this was a generous donation by a now deceased member. 

From there, we walked over to the council office where Betsy was prepared to do battle royale to have her property taxes paid from a different bank account than the one currently listed on official records. She’d tried in the past to no avail. I sat down for the wait. This time, the staff said it would be easy leash, sign this form, and we were out of there. Who knows.

To celebrate, we had coffee and a ginger slice, this one with chunks of candied ginger on top.

Back to the Red Cross meeting. I bought hats for Bella and Remi ($20 & $15), plus some homemade orange marmalade ($5).

The ladies were sitting around knitting baby blankets and sweaters to sell and to put in the kits they give to midwives for new mothers. I decided to join in, taking 2 balls of the donated yarn to make a hat which I’m pretty sure I can finish before I leave. If not, one of the other women can.



After lunch at home, we went to the Stone Store, the oldest stone building in NZ, and the Kemp House, built in 1822, NZ’s oldest surviving structure, according to the information there. We walked across the bridge to see the Māori waka (canoe), then walked along the River a short way. As Grant scuffed his feet in the grass, a fantail hopped around catching the bugs he was stirring up.

Not being interested in the “ hour” hike up to Rainbow Falls (for us likely half a day and then we’d have to walk back down), we opted to return to the car and drive to see it.

Dinner of nachos and slaw at home.

Steps today: 5,535


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