Recently we had a child free (yay!) weekend away at Omaha, a little settlement on the north-east coast, about an hour drive from Auckland. We’re doing the half marathon/10k events there on the first Sunday in December, so wanted to take a look around the place first.

I rented us a little apartment in the “new” side of the development, which is near the start/finish point, altho really nothing is too far away here. The furniture was a mix of contemporary and antique, including a rocking horse that I’d have loved as a child.

The top row of photos is from the beach at Omaha looking east – the shadow island is Little Barrier. On good days you can apparently see it clearly and further out to Aotea or Great Barrier. I know – to think this wasn’t a good day???

The middle row is just a couple of things that caught my eye at Matheson’s Bay, which is on the road to Leigh. Si learnt to snorkel and spearfish here when he was in the Army Air Corps unit; it was once the home to a thriving boat building business. There’s lots of rock pools down past that twisty Pohutukawa and we enjoyed exploring them.

The nearest town with full services is Matakana; full of gorgeous food, heritage buildings and wonderful people. The war memorial had been part of a service for VE day on the 11th and still had all the wonderful poppies; and this church still has working bells that call the faithful to service on Sunday morning (bottom row).

I’m ready to head back after the crappy “spring” weather we’ve had for the last few days!