First, we stopped off at a Honey Centre where you see all the bees on the honeycomb and could taste loads of different types of honey. I bought some local honey and some strawberry honey - yum! This guy who works there started chatting to us (he was VERY passionate about bees and told us that without them humans wouldn't exist!) and he gave us lots of information about the bees and pointed out the male bees and baby bees but we couldn't spot the queen. He asked where we were from and it turns out his wife is from Solihull and her parents still live on Rectory Road-what a small world!
Next we went to a village called Matakana where there are lots of nice shops and a market every Saturday selling delicious food. I bought a lentil and mushroom pie to eat for my dinner from a stall called 'I Love Pies' - all of the pies had a pastry heart on top! :)
After that, we drove a little bit further to Point Wells. We went to look for a bench which was put their in memory of Jennie's mum's cousin who died there in 1985 when she was travelling around New Zealand in her twenties. She was doing a cycling tour and was knocked off her bike on the Point Wells Road. Jennie's grandad had a bench put in the tiny village in her memory but after almost a year of looking, Jennie and her mum have never managed to find it so it was a bit of a mystery to solve.
We knew it was on Point Wells Reserve so walked along the riverside for a while, checking any benches we came across and speaking to a few locals but with no luck. Then we went to the store (the only shop in the village) but they knew nothing about a memorial bench so we wandered down to the community hall. Round the back of the hall there was some tennis courts and a small playground and from a distance we spotted a bench which happened to be it! It had a small plaque on it so we knew it was the one and Jennie was so pleased to have finally found it after all her searching.
Afterwards we decided to try the local library to see if we could find any records of the accident in the local newspaper (The Rodney Times) but they had already closed for the day so Jennie's going to try and look at the archives online. It felt as if we were on that 'Who Do You Think You Are' TV programme!
On our way home, we stopped off at a cheese factory (yes, the day was very food-orientated!) where we had lunch. We each had a cheese platter and I had a French one called 'Parlez Vous Francais?' so tried lots of brie and smelly blue cheeses! It was very tasty and I had to resist buying some to take home!
It was lovely getting out of the city for a day and the weather was beautiful for our adventure!
glad your having fun & happy mothers day!
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