Tuesday 2 December 2008

Summer days and nights

This is my favourite time of the year. Summer has officially started now, and we have been promised a good one this year. The silly season coincides with warm weather here in New Zealand, and there are Christmas parties and gatherings gradually filling up my diary. It has started well; we went away with a group of about 20 friends to Himatangi Beach, two hours north of Wellington, for the weekend. The weather was scorching hot and the sky was clear; perfect conditions for a relaxing time away.

We got into a bit of mischief on Saturday night. We had lots of marshmallows to toast after our barbeque at the campsite finished, so headed to the beach and climbed over the sand dunes, stopping on the way to collect large bits of driftwood. Yes: a bonfire! The driftwood was really dry and we quickly had a roaring fire for our marshmallows. Bliss.

It turns out that lighting open fires in the area is illegal, though. We knew there is a fire ban in cities, but this beach area is out of the way and no real risk. Well, that's what we explained when the volunteer fire brigade traipsed over the sand dunes saying that they were going to put our fire out along with the four they'd already done further up the beach that night. Apparently we needed a permit, and then could have lit one right on the beach at the high tide mark. Bureaucracy, geez! So, like going down with the Titanic, we stayed sitting on our deck chairs and watched our bonfire being put out by a grumpy firewoman (not even a hot fireman to keep us happy!). More than a little naughty, and even more than a little fun while it lasted. :-P

Last night, we had a girls' pamper night at a friend's place. Ok, so it was a Nutrimetics demonstration, and we all bought a few bits and pieces in time for Christmas, but the highlight of the evening was the girl talk which followed. Three of us finally said goodnight around 11pm (on a school night!), after solving the problems of the world. (Kind of.) Evenings like this are always so good for the soul. And what did we talk about? It's girl talk, sweetie, so don't bother asking!

Oh, and I saw the first of the new Goodnight Kiwi ads on tv tonight. For us over-25s, nothing will ever really beat the original Goodnight Kiwi, but it was great to see our old friend back in action on the small screen once again. I'm also looking forward to the other two ads in the series, one to be played between Christmas and New Year, and the other in January 2009.

All is good on summer days and nights like these. :-)

3 comments:

Kelly said...

Oh!!! I have so many happy memories of Himatangi Beach! I grew up in a small rural settlement about 20 min drive away and we would spend lots of summer evenings at the beach. In particular, starting Boxing Day and running for two weeks was "Happy Hour" - a church based fun evening for kids. My siblings and I attended almost every night and I can proudly say I won the colouring in competition two years in a row!

Kelly said...

And you're right, nothing will ever be as good as the original Good Night Kiwi. I haven't seen the new ad yet though - at our new house we can currently only get TV1, Prime and Maori TV. Waiting for our FreeView box to arrive from Trademe to rectify the situation!

Random Thoughts said...

Summer = Christmas...? No snow on the evergreens? I guess New Years fireworks must be so much more enjoyable to watch in the warm weather. Although I usually stay in and watch some countdown on the television rather than bare the pub crawls in the cold.