Horseback Birthday!

It was my birthday last weekend so we went exploring along the Pacific coast of the North Island. Our good friend R arrived at 5am on Friday which was also ANZAC Day (NZ version of Memorial Day). This meant B got the day off so we headed up the coast with the goal of spending the night here:

Goat Island Campground is a fun mix of cabins, tents, and stay-put campas. It overlooks the ocean and Goat Island Marine Reserve (below), a popular diving and snorkeling spot. It is my new goal to convince my in-laws to move here and create one of these campgrounds complete with kiddie playground and communal kitchen. If I'm lucky they will name a campa in my honor.

P and I planned to go horseback riding while the boys went snorkeling, but the weather and water did not cooperate for the boys, so they tagged along with us. They opted not to ride and instead lounged in cafe at the stables and then walked to the beach and collected seashells.

Here P and her pony head to Pakiri Beach. To get to the beach we had to ford a river and I thought P might get to swim across it with her pony (an adventure sport of its own here!), but only her feet got wet.

While the weather was not very good for snorkeling (look at those rough seas!) it was perfect for our ride. The beach was beautiful! When R returns from tramping his way through the South Island I will post some of his pictures of our horseback riding trip.