Purakanui - Dave's surprise birthday weekend

So going back in time a couple weekends...

Drea, being the trickster that she is, pulled yet another surprise birthday on me. She said we were going to Tom's mom's place in Purakanui for a barbecue on Friday night. Instead we spent the weekend at a very cute little 1800's fishermans cottage right on the edge of the tidal estuary that runs along Purakanui. Drea drove me to Purakanui on Friday after work and we were met at the village boat ramp by our friend Tom waiting in the middle of the estuary in a rowboat. Tom then rowed us to the front of this cottage saying we ought to take a closer look (they told me it was almost never occupied)
So we rowed up to the side of the house, tied up the boat and took a closer look. I hate to admit this but even though the inside of the house was decked out with balloons and streamers I still didn't put it together that it was a surprise for me. I finally got it when I saw the 'Happy Birthday Daveycakes!' sign in the window.

Anyway, we had a fantastic time over the course of the weekend. On Friday night we had a nice barbecue dinner (Drea even bought me steak! Wow!) follwed by two different cakes for dessert (which we consumed over the course of the weekend)

Yummy cake (with the raspberries we picked on the way home from Omarama)

I got flowers too!

This was our patio and barbecue area. It was wonderful just watching the tide go back and forth.
Here's Tom and Andrea when they don't know you're taking their picture.
And when they do. Scary!

Why Tom, I'm flattered!

The next day we got up late and took the rowboat out for a cruise. Tom came over around noon (It was nice having Tom as a neighbor) which happened to be low tide. We waded to the other side of the lagoon and found that if you dig in the sand it's absolutely full of cockles. Cockles are also known as Southern Clams and are apparently quite prolific in this harbour. Every time you dug up a handful of sand about 5-10 clams of varying size came with it. Awesome. The daily limit per person is 150 so we grabbed what you see below and then boiled them up for lunch.

Yum!

After lunch Andrea and I took the rowboat out again. This time we went out the mouth of the estuary and into the small surf of the bay beyond. We then had the inspired idea to ride the surf in our rowboat. Genius! We had a great time 'surfing' the waves in to shore. They were only a couple of feet high so nothing scary but it was a pretty fun ride. I think the cottage owner must have seen what we were up to because he came by the house shortly after we returned to "make sure the boat was tied up right".

We had a wonderful dinner and played Scrabble and Pictionary with one of Drea's coworkers and his friend who dropped by and gave me some tips on using the surfcasting fishing rod Drea got me for my birthday.

The view from our cottage.

And the view of the Purakanui Estuary on our way home on Sunday.

Thanks to Andrea (and Tom) for a very special weekend.

Dave