Despite a forecast indicating otherwise, at 7 am the skies still looked promising…
Today was a classic “game of 2 halves”😉
First half saw us return for our second, Gail led, Zumba classes, where, once again, I was the token male amongst 40 females – yes, it’s a hard life, but someone’s gotta do it😉🕺🏽💃🏽
There were 2 new challenges for us in this session; firstly, getting our bodies to move, Bollywood style, to some Latin rhythms…
and, secondly, following one of Gail’s co-instructors, Beryl, as she led us through her interpretation of a classic Maori dance to this music..🇳🇿
We followed the class with a, now customary, coffee at the Gothenburg Café on the banks of the Waikato river😊
After lunch we embarked on our much looked forward to tour down into “The Gully”, which runs seamlessly down into a steep gorge, c.30 m deep, from Gail and Ian’s formal ( and level…) garden.
This is clearly Ian’s pet project and he has done an excellent, machete-led, job in maintaining it, for which it requires many man hours..
… accordingly he has, over time, built, all from a variety of recycled materials, the ultimate “Man Cave”, complete with many of life’s essentials…
…and that hammock, invitingly had “Try me😊” written all over it…so we did!
Ian displays many interesting artefacts there, including this camel saddle!🐫
..and here’s a flavour of the rest..😉
Ian is an engineer by profession, so it came as no surprise that the front wall, in front of his deck chair, has been designed to divide horizontally such that the lower half transforms into a viewing platform, whilst the upper half provides shade or a rain shelter…and all done with pulleys…neat Ian😊
And the views from that platform transport you far away from where you really are….
..so, all that remained was the ascent “back to reality🎶”…
Our timing was excellent as, half an hour later, the heavens, as widely predicted, opened with gusto🌧️🌧️
So, all that remained, in those conditions, was to order in a Thai meal, which rounded off the day perfectly 😊
Final task, make sure that the alarm was set for the opening match of the 6 Nations, France v. Ireland, viewable live here from 8.45 am Saturday morning 🏉😉
BTDU 