Kiwi summer lovin'

While the northern hemisphere is welcoming summer, down here winter is rolling on in.  We've had a spell of pretty atrocious weather in the last wee bit, thunder storms and torrential rain and it just makes you want to curl up with a blankie and a hot cuppa and reminisce about the summer just been.

At the beginning of the year, C and I went camping in the Bay of Islands, about a 3 hour drive from Auckland.  This is going to sound really cheesy but we've both travelled to all sorts of places round the world: America, Canada, Europe, Turkey, and South East Asia, and we are still stunned by the incredible beauty of places just a few hours drive away.

It is incredibly liberating going camping where you have to live off what you carry in, where there is no cellphone reception or running water or any other amenities of any sort.  We camped right on the beach and other than our wee group of four, there was nobody else in the bay.  We would forage for shellfish off the rocks and cook it up on a bonfire in the sand and spend our days lying around reading, swimming and sleeping in the sun.  Ahhhhh absolute bliss.

We are pretty lucky in New Zealand.  Most of us grew up going on camping trips like this every summer with our families. A kiwi summer is all about eating fish and chips wrapped in newspaper off the bonnet of your car, cooking up sausages on a barbeque on the beach and spending evenings in your backyard with the whanau and someone playing on the guitar.

So when the weather is packing up outside.  And you've put on your third layer of merino.  Put the kettle on and think back on all the warming summer memories you have stored up.  Bet you'll warm up in no time.

What's your favourite summertime memory?