Over Christmas madness so I took a back road #farmvoices #NorthlandNZ

You know when you get that feeling that you've had enough of festive season madness. All over the social media pages the christmas lights and thumpy music is being pounded out on videos taken by I-phones and all the other electronic age gadgets folks seem to can't do without. I'm over the videos. the adverts full of buy this horribly expensive item or your kids will hate if you don't kind of blackmail. I'm over the craziness and the mad rush to get the best christmas tree, the shiniest decorations and the biggest presents. Yesterday I wanted to go and get my dear mum something special. It wasn't big or expensive and it involved a drive on the back roads to get to where I needed to be. After picking up a couple of cute little pomegranate trees then renegotiate the rough as guts road with a couple of washouts in between I got back onto the long winding gravel road to head home again. I took my time I didn't feel like being in a hurry; not when I had spotted some glorious views of the surrounding countryside with the Otamatea river winding its way inland towards Maungaturoto and the mountain Pukeareinga. So I stopped for a good long 20 minutes and just took it all in. Beautiful isn't it. I'm feeling a little more festive now I took that back road away from the rush and pressure. As a friend of mine likes to write on his Kauri Coast Visitor Information Facebook page "Take a back road.....see where it leads" Indeed it's something worth doing. Happy Christmas everyone and don't forget to take a back road sometime and see where it leads......