Picnic with the Girls

I hadn’t seen Chelsea or Ari for ages before today. I bumped into Ari once or twice at Uni this year but we never really had time to have a good catch up. Since I saw Ari at work yesterday and she said that Chelsea was up in Auckland at the moment for the holidays, we decided to organise a catch up for the three of us. The idea to have a picnic was settled on and we brought our own homemade food (well, my mum made mine for me!). So at midday I went to pick up Ari before heading over to Chelsea’s. On the way to Ari’s house I crossed paths with Allie Le Lievre who was pulling out of a driveway as I was coming down the hill. We stopped our cars and had a brief chat through the window, though we couldn’t really talk that long because I don’t think how we were parked was legal. Ari was trying to decide what to wear before I came over; I could see what she meant by “picnic dress” when I arrived at her house. She was wearing a spotted blue dress and it looked quite summery. After Ari got herself ready and tuned her bright yellow ukulele, we hopped in the car and headed for our next destination – Chelsea’s house.

I don’t actually remember the last time I saw Chelsea. I think it may have even been last year at the TDI farewell evening? Anyway, it was nice to see Chelsea again after so long. While we were at the door, I also saw Peter (Chelsea’s brother) and Chelsea’s mum as well. I’m sure Peter grows everytime I see him! We said our goodbyes before we took off on our little joyride to nowhere in particular. Because I didn’t know where we’d end up, I thought I’d fill up the petrol before we got too far. So off we went on our journey and this is where we ended up…

[googleMap name="Waitakere Golf Club" description="This is where we had our picnic" width="610" height="250" mousewheel="false" typecontrol="false" directions_to="false"]35 Falls Road, Bethells Beach, Waitakere, New Zealand‎ [/googleMap]

The tourists arrived shortly after we did

I didn’t even know this place existed until we got there. It seemed like an odd place to have a golf course seeing as it’s in the middle of a forest. Then again, it’s probably really peaceful as well. I just wonder how many golf balls there are scattered around the surrounding bush. There was a long windy road down to the bottom of the golf course where we parked. A nearby little mound next to the large photo frame was a perfect location for our picnic. Chelsea unfolded her picnic mat and we all sat down in the sun – such a beautiful day! Ari’s plastic wine glasses added a nice touch to the atmosphere too. Just as we were getting settled, a tourist bus came down the gravel driveway packed with Asians. At first we thought they were Chinese, but later on we found out they were actually Japanese.

"There's a wasp in the container!"

We spent the next few hours talking while sipping on L&P and juice and snacking on Ari’s yummy cookies, Chelsea’s yummy ginger kisses and my mum’s sushi. In the end I realised I probably talked too much (there was heaps to say and not enough time!) but we had a really nice afternoon, despite the scary wasps that were floating around.

Tonight I discovered today’s picnic was exactly three years and one month (to the day!) since Chelsea, Ari and I had our first real deep meaningful conversation at Waiwera Camp in 2007. I look forward to our next picnic girls – maybe sometime before we’ve graduated perhaps?