Hawke's Bay

After traveling around for two weeks it was comforting to come back to The Museum and sleep in my yellow room with the familiar framed cross stich pictures hanging on the wall. The week in Hawke's Bay with my parents was a special time. I loved being able to show them around the place that I've made my home. We couldn't have asked for better weather. In fact, it was sunny all week, and the day after I put them on the plane, winter started-it rained for three days straight!

Our first outing was the tractor ride to Cape Kidnappers and the Gannet colony. The majority of gannets had all taken off for the winter, but there were a few stragglers left behind that we got to see. The cliffs and scenery were beautiful and they have been at my doorstep this whole time! I took Mom and Dad up the windy road to Te Mata Peak to see the panoramic view of all of all of Hawke's Bay. We could see all along the coast from Wairoa to Waipukarou. Another day, Jeff took us bird watching in order to help Dad cross off as many NZ birds as possible. We stayed after dark with the hope of hearing a morepork owl (Supposedly it sounds like it's saying, "more pork!" I think it sounds more like a "whoo-whoo,") We didn't hear a morepork, but we did hear a kiwi! It was very exciting.

The honey farm turned out to be quite interesting. Who knew there were so many different flavors of honey?
We also spent a lot of time eating tamorillos, kiwifruit and fejoas. Mom and Dad loved the different fruit variates. Gary even made a fejoa smoothie one night-it turned out surprisingly well.

I said good-bye to Mom and Dad on Monday morning. As we sat together in the Napier airport we were all silent. We didn't need words to tell each other how much we loved each other and what a great time we had had for the past three weeks. I was sad when they left, but so grateful they had wanted to come see me in NZ. What a great blessing to have parents like mine!