Matakana

We dropped by Auckland Airport to pick up Ross and Carolyn who flew in from Sydney.  It was strange to see Auckland Airport just 2 weeks after it was under water.  There were a lot of temporary structures but still well organised in the Kiwi way. 

Then it was a short 90 minute trip to Matakana our home for the next 4 nights.

In 2002 locals Richard and Christine Didsbury purchased the old Matakana timber yard, with a vision to transform the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it rural service spot into a destination village with heart.  They sure did achieve this with a thriving farmers’ market, a village with small town charm, full of beautifully landscaped open spaces and gathering places for the vibrant local community. 

The surprise jewel is the spectacular arthouse cinema complex, featuring three dramatic theatres: the Paradiso, with a ceiling of 10,000 paper roses; the Roxy, draped in romantic fabrics from ceiling to floor; and the Tivoli, with a stunning centrepiece of an 800kg chandelier.

Downstairs, the village square hosts an intriguing selection of independent specialty shops. You won’t find chain stores in Matakana Village; our retailers are passionate about their carefully curated collections of art, homewares, fashion, jewellery and gifts.

The first game was at Gulf Harbour which was a 50-minute drive back toward Auckland.  Gulf Harbour is situated on a peninsula and has views to die for.  It is a mystery partner stableford, Shaz  was the best score in with 35 points and her mystery pick was second best score Caz.  Needless say they won the comp for the day.  Some photos below.

Next days golf was at Wainui which was also a 40 minute drive south back to Auckland.  As I have mentioned these courses were under water 3 weeks ago and they are still very damp.  Wainui was playing very very very very difficult.  Carolyn and I were running out of golf balls!!! This was a Mystery partner Skins, best score of the day was Caz with 33 points closely followed by Ross and Shaz.  Caz picks Shaz as her partner, but the mighty combining of the other duos was no match for this combination and they only scored 4 skins, with Suzie and John winning 9 and Carolyn and Ross winning the remaining 5 skins.  Bah humbug!  Some photos below

A day of leisure, took us exploring the surrounding areas with a visit to Omaha Beach for coffee.

Then a visit to Brick Bay Winery for lunch and a stroll around the Sculpture walk.  The sculpture trail is about 2km long and takes about an hour to complete and has around 70 sculptures from local NZ artists. 

Photos below

Back home for a rest, as you do so on rest day.  Then some of us ventured to the Sculptureum for a little look see.  After 10 years of development, Anthony & Sandra Grant opened Sculptureum Galleries & Gardens and Rothko Restaurant on their 25-acre property at Matakana in April 2017. Many more years have been spent collecting a vast array of artwork from around the world to display.   I love this place, not much had changed since the last time we visited, I love the way they intersperse artists works and create a story.  Photos of my favourites below;

A farewell dinner for Sue and Caz as they leave the group.  It has been a fun trip with those two.  Trying out chatgpt, they created a poem for us.  For those of you that do not know what ChatGPT is, it is program that provides a range of artificial intelligence that can do things for you, so i asked it to write a poem and gave it a few details and this is what it wrote.