Bronwyn Sell has the arduous task of eating her way around the hotspots of a wintry beachside town, with interludes of hot pooling and a ride on a Harley.
I had three objectives for my wintry weekend at Waihi Beach: escape the kids, enjoy the leisurely meals and uninterrupted conversations you don't get when they're around, and walk the food off afterwards.
The first goal was achieved remarkably easily. Because I was researching this story the trip technically passed as "work". The pitch to the husband went something like this: "I have to go away this weekend for work. Don't worry, I won't drag you and the kids with me."
It was the loosest possible definition of work: two days sampling the best of the local eateries with an old friend and staying in the peaceful Waihi Beach Lodge, within earshot of the waves and with hours of uninterrupted gossiping, reading and sleeping-in.
There was also a dash of adrenalin. Within minutes of arriving at the beach I was on the back of a Harley Davidson. My leather-clad and bearded chaffeur, Baz Howie, runs his nationwide Bularangi Motorbikes Harley rental and tour business from the beach. We chugged up to a terraced pa site at the southern end of Waihi Beach, with crow's nest views of the churning tides of Tauranga Harbour and the turquoise crescent of Anzac Bay. To the north, Waihi Beach stretched out into a haze of sunshine.
