We’ve just spent a week in Wattle Bay on the Awhitu peninsula and this was the view from the deck of the bach. The sun shone for six days in a row and it felt like paradise. On our first afternoon at low-tide, we walked along the beach to the next bay and back, coming across a pair of breeding dotterels scurrying to distract us from their nest, listening to the squawks and clicks of what seemed like hundreds of tui feeding in the bright pohutukawa trees, watching the tide coming in, the water glistening in the late afternoon sun. Back at the bach we put some lamb on the barbecue, opened a bottle of Oyster Bay sauvignon blanc and gazed at the view, not quite believing our luck!