The Life of Riley: December 2011

The week before Christmas Enzo, my two humans and I went to the beach to escape the madness of Auckland. They have found taking a holiday before Christmas is wonderful as the beach is empty (as most New Zealanders take their summer holiday from Christmas Day for two to three weeks). This beach, which is 70 minutes north of where I live, is one of my favourite places. I have stayed there ever since I was a puppy.

Dogs are allowed off leash on the beach before 9am and after 7pm, but on the first day young Enzo proved how fast he can actually run when he chased a seagull. He runs faster than both of my humans, and while he is running he also forgets his name so for his beach time he wore a gentle leader and very long leash.

I come back when called (even if I see something interesting like people or other dogs or birds or a smelly fish that has washed up on the beach) so I get to be off leash.

Being leashed didn't worry Enzo and he took to the water just like a young retriever should...

though at times I worried he was out of his depth!

Don't you just love my deserted beach - 3km of sand. The photo below is looking north

and this photo is looking to the south.

Every so often I would meet another dog and get to run and play.

Back at the bach, which is the Kiwi term for the old 1970's basic holiday house I stay at (though if you lived in the South Island of New Zealand you would call it a "crib"), I had five star accommodation on my very own couch on the front deck. My mum has a retriever coloured anti-fur showing cover especially for me (she always says my furs show on her black clothes). It blends well with my colouring. This is where I had my R and R. This couch is my special place (and a treat for me as I am not allowed on the furniture at home). I was so relaxed that they found me snoring several times.

However the young one decided he wanted my very comfy spot. I was not happy!

Enzo (with the black collar - mine is blue) found it very comfy.

But eventually I got my couch back,

and returned to his "kennel" which mum had set up to protect him from our hot summer sun. She went quite mad working out the best breeze, putting tarpaulins and shade cloth over old chairs and even putting in a dual temperature ding thermometer inside his kennel so she could check he wasn't getting too hot while he slept. Plus mum had lots of water bowls on the deck for us to drink from.

I found his kennel cool too, so sometimes I slept there and Enzo slept beside me! Mum said the kennel was cooler than inside the bach or the deck, and told me that she even thought about crawling in our special area with us for an afternoon siesta while our dad was out fishing, but instead she stretched out on my couch and read a book while we slept here.

The observant amongst you will have noticed that in the couch photo of us both above Enzo looked dry and I looked like a salty dog. It seems that Enzo has a coat that takes three shakes to dry, whereas my fur takes all morning! Dad went on and on about Enzo's amazing fur, but my coat had advantages too as the slow drying of the water kept me cool.

During the week we went for car rides to the shops and out to meals with my humans. Here is one of the places they had lunch.

My humans had an umbrella over their table and we had their table over us.

The service was really good there too, as when the waiter came out with drinks for my mum and dad and also had a bowl of cool water on his tray for us! From the little bits of food my humans snuck under the table I can recommend their food too.

In my last post I mentioned the pohutukawa tree which is also know as the New Zealand Christmas tree as red flowers appear each December.

Here is a neon sign version of the pohutukawa flower that we saw on one of the local shops.

So that was my holiday. I had seven days of swims, daily grooming, long walks, barbeques and car rides to interesting places. Seven long summer days with both my humans and Enzo.