We just returned from a week away. Some writerly friends arrange a writing retreat each year, and this time it was held at the new home of one of the couples – a big property in New Zealand that they’re planning to turn into a retreat hosting business. I had already decided it was going to treat it as more of a holiday than time for writing before the RSI struck, because now that Paul is going to photography school we can only travel during school holidays. Also, we didn’t make it north of Auckland when we visited in 2008, so it seemed like a good opportunity to cover that end of the country.

Our hosts’ new home even has a waterfall:

The first day trip we did was to the Kauri forests. It’s almost impossible to convey a sense of scale in photos. They’re huge:

The second trip was to Cape Reigna, the furthest north you can get by road:

And stopped by Ninety Mile Beach on the way back:

Our third was to Russell and the Bay of Islands:

All these photos were taken on my iPhone, whereas Paul took a ‘serious’ camera’. I did a little sketching, first of our host’s house:

And then their dog, Buffy:

It was great to see this bunch of friends again. They live far from me, so I tend to only see them at conventions or the retreat. We’re all writers so there’s a fair bit of writerly discussion and debate with a good mix of opinions and interests to spice it up. Along with lots of stirring and laughs, and a fair bit of overeating.

The end of the retreat was pretty much the end of my time off. It’s been a strange ‘holiday’. A lot of what I’d like to have done was scuttled by RSI, and I suspect I’ll have a nagging feeling I wasted the break when I look back. With that in mind, I’m relieved I organised to spend some time away from home.

It’s a shame, but I really do need to get out of the house in order to have a proper break. I guess it’s a down side of working from home. I can’t help checking websites and Twitter, and unless you tell people you’re not going to be home on your holiday they’ll still contact you about work.

A week away from the computer, craft, housework, cooking, etc. seems to have given my right hand and wrist the rest it needed. It feels a lot better, though the true test will be when I get back to work on Monday. I have some changes to make to my book by the end of the month. If I get through that without the RSI flaring up, things will be looking promising for the future.