Beach Bummin

Yesterday we headed over the bridge to Mount Maunganui to spend some time at the beach. It was about 80 degrees and sunny. Whatever temp it has been here we have always felt like it is a bit hotter than what it's measured at. We had to "google" why that would be and it's not because we are closer to the sun by the equator but because the sun is more direct in comparison to the poles. This explains why I'm pretty burnt. Luke was good about covering every square inch of his body with the sunscreen...me, not so much. It was pretty evident when we came inside that I rubbed it on my feet (so i look like im wearing socks even when im not), I put a dot on the back of my leg on a freckle, and my upper body n face. Well, it's hard to sit down today. The spot between the ass and back of the thighs-red as a lobster. That should feel wonderful when we go horse-back riding later today! We saw some people who rented the one-seated kayaks so we were thinkin about doing that today or tomorrow if we head back down there.

For dinner, Luke made reservations and didn't tell me where we were going. He said we'd be walking so I assumed it was the hotel restaurant. Nope! It was the Naked Grape, a place I pointed out that looked cool when we drove by. We've been in  the habit of getting "breads and spreads" before a lot of our meals. So darn good but we should probably stop that once we get home. We like to carbo-load before our busy marathon days here! The daytime was really busy with people on the stretch down by the water in both Tauranga and Maunganui but once it hit around 6pm, it was a lot more quiet. They call December 26 "boxing day" and I think some businesses stay closed. We aren't sure what that means.

Today, we are just relaxing and haven't decided what we feel like doing. We'll definitely have to get some shopping in and then later on we are going to ride horses in Maketu, a short drive from here.
I think this will be a good length for us to be here. I know there are other things we would be interested in doing and I know once we leave we'll want to be back here. But, we miss Rocky, we miss our bed, I miss my clothes closet, I miss family and friends, and we've spent a lot of money on what we want to do when we want to do it. So, soon enough it will be back to working hard so we can keep playing hard. Life is good!