A Day at Bethells Beach

We strongly believe that you do not need to spend a lot of money to have fun. Actually, most of the time we have fun, we don't need to spend any money other than on gas! Just an hour drive west of where we live, we found a gorgeous beach to explore! We had a great time when we spent a day at Bethells Beach.

New Zealand is gorgeous...it really is. But, it's just so so on a cloudy or rainy day. When the sun comes out and you have a bright blue sky staring right at you with puffy white clouds...that's when the real beauty of New Zealand is seen! We are religious about checking the weather each weekend to see if it will be good enough to have an adventure. And this particular weekend called for no rain, so we went to explore a new place and it did not disappoint!

Our kids almost always winge (that's a great kiwi word for whine) when we tell them we're going on a hike. But they almost always love the experience and the destination. It's something we're trying to instill in them, to do hard things. Our youngest is 5 and she can hike like a champ. We just have to make sure to have things to talk about to distract our kids, to have a backpack full of snacks, and plenty of water.

We packed a picnic lunch and told our kids to find us a good spot to eat. It's always a good idea to give them a task because it keeps them focused and the ball is in their court when we stop. And they found the perfect spot! We parked ourselves on a stone bench overlooking a stunning view of the ocean. We ate, droned, took pictures, and played games in the warmth of the sun. Once everyone was ready to move on, we packed up and journeyed back.

We gave the kids the option to explore sea caves or slide down sand dunes and they chose the latter. So we dropped a few things off in the car and then headed to another track nearby to check out the sand dunes. Just a little walk away, were rolling hills of soft sand just asking to be explored. We learned from our Northland trip to bring our own boogie boards to slide down. The kids got right to work and climbed the hills and took turns riding down as fast as they could. Even I got in on the action. I want my kids to see that moms can have fun too and try hard things. I may not be as daring or fast as they are at things, but I give it a go and join in on the fun. After Cody was done droning and filming, he climbed to the tippy top of the tallest dune and zoomed down the hill for one last ride of the day.

So with just $15 in gas money, 2 hours of driving time, $5 chips for a snack on the drive home, we had a successfully fun day at Bethells Beach!