Paddle Board at Hataitai Beach (and nice people)

You get such nice people at Hataitai Beach.  Dogs are only allowed on the beach out of daylight saving time.  Here's a pic of R on  her paddle board, with her lovely dog, Pinot.
And whilst I'm at it, a word (or a couple of hundred) about the nice folk who come down to Hataitai Beach in the summer.  Many of them I've known for years through beach visits.  We barely know each other's names - isn't it funny how after months of talking to someone you're too embarrassed to admit you've forgotten their name?   At the finish of the summer season, around about end of March, it's sad when we come to final farewelling until the following summer.
Sometimes, some of our friends never turn up again, and we can only wonder what's happened to them.
In our particular group, we love to sit on the board-walk (a rather grand name for a platform) outside the changing sheds, and we can plunge straight into the water, from the steps.  We don't have to walk into the sea, getting gradually tortured.  I can't stand sand in my sandwiches, and the wall of the shed protects us a fraction from the wind.
I was sitting on the platform eating my tomato sandwich one lunchhour and a rather posh-looking man brought out a picnic hamper, with pate, cheese, turkey leg, cutlery, etc.  He picked up a long-stemmed glass and poured from a bottle of wine.  I thought "My, he's classy".  He put on his headphones and I presumed he would be listening to a symphony orchestra or an opera.  After a minute or two, I could make out the tune he was listening to:  "I should be so lucky, lucky-lucky-lucky....".