HOLIDAY MEMORIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1935, Page 2 (Supplement)

HOLIDAY MEMORIES.

Johnson Street, Waihi. Dear Wendy, — ; I doubt if many Budgetites, holidaying in the midst of the whirl and gaiety of the city, could have spent a more pleaeant fortnight than 1 did at the Ford, a tiny beach two and a half miles from Athenree. True,-the shops were conspicuous by their absence, a« also were the gay, well-dressed crowds of the better known beaches, but daily trips in the launch or yacht, the use of two dinghies and a tennie court, and mud flats on which to play cricket, golf or rounders, at our disposal, fully made amends for thin.

We left Waihi at 10 o'clock on Christmas Day. A chain or so past the Athenree station, the road leading to the beach starts off at right angles, and it wae here that we got our first glimpse of the sea. You can imagine our delight on our arrival to find the tide full in, and it was no time before we were "wallowing in. the briny." At low tide we waded across the Ford and went over the sandhills for a dip in the breakers on the Waihi Beach. In the evening, after tea, we all gathered on the grass with a gramophone and sang, and yarned until about 10 o'clock, when we went to bed, so ending our first day. The following days simply flew, we had so much packed into them.

One day we decided to cross the Ford and then walk to Shelly Bay. All went well until we reached the other side, when—down came the rain. There was a general dive for the nearest shelter, which consisted of knee-deep rushes —a most effective (?) protection. Deciding this was no good, we ventured forth as soon as the rain eased a bit, trying to keep dry beneath the scant cover of towels, or anything else available. With a black bathing cap on her head, and an old rug draped around her, niv pal hobbled (she had stood on a prickle in her rush for shelter) through the Maori settlement, and so earned for herself the nickname of Mrs. Renati.

The "weather cl&k" was not a bit kind to us on New Year's Day. We went to Bowentown in the launch, but it rained so much we had to pack up and start back for home at about two o'clock. Even then, the gods had no pity, and in the end we all crowded into tho engine room, where the smell of benzine fumes was preferable to a soaking. However, we forgot all our troubles an hour later, when, crowded round a cheery blaze, we could look baek and laugh at our former discomfort. The holidays passed all too quickly. and now they are but pleasant memories tucked away in the little storeroom of j my brain, to. be brought out and lived over again at will. Wishing the club' every success. j Your eincere Budgetite, ' Phyllis Bock.