Opononi Sewing Weekend

I had a great weekend away at Opononi (southern side of the Hokianga Habour, Northland NZ). 

So here's a few snaps to make you all jealous! :-D

This is the Bach (Kiwi for Holiday Home) we stayed at. Opononi is still a small friendly holiday settlement with old fashioned Baches not like some spots where all the 'Baches' are multi million dollar mansions.

Looking left from the deck at the sand dunes on the other side of the Hokianga Habour. 

...and looking to the right from the deck, where nature is trying to tame the sand dunes.

The Sand dunes are amazingly large (I think something like 300metres high).

In case you have no idea where Opononi is I found this map of Northland and have added Opononi on so you can see. We drove from Whangarei thru Kaikohe (road not shown on map) onto Opononi. On the way home we went via Paihia.

Here's my Sewezi hard at work

Can you guess what I'm making?
 (Yes I know bad hair day and I need a haircut, some makeup would help too!)

Yes another star, as I really enjoyed making the last one.
 (those are Sandy's toes in case you are trying to guess)

There was some unpicking done too, see my triangle on the wrong way!

And Fiona joined her border, but that's the wrong side of the fabric on the right!

This is one the quilts Fiona was working on

Sandy & Mary both bought hand sewing with them, and didn't make any mistakes, or at least didn't show me so I could get the evidence!

On Sunday morning we went for a quick drive to the lookout/walkway on the southern head of the Habour.

I took a lot of photos but have been threatened with death if some of the silly group shots make it on the blog! No worries I'm in those photos too and I know how bad they are ;-). Anyway enjoy the scenery below.

Looking back down the Habour, the houses are Ompapere, and Opononi is just out of shot on the top left.

Looking west out to the Tasman Sea

It was low tide so we could see these large rocks. Can you the circle pool? It would be about the size of a para pool.

Sandy and I left early Sunday afternoon to go home via Paihia, as Sandy's Son was doing a tandem Skydive and we didn't want to miss seeing that. It was really nice because I got to meet all of Sandy's lovely family too. 

We were all sure they would land in the sea, as the beach was only a few metres wide. But all went well with perfect landings on the sand. It was quite exciting as they seemed be going slow till they were just above us and then we could see how fast they were dropping.

Nearly on the ground!