Day 65, Year 6 A Day with the Tedders

Date: Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Weather: Sunny with Clouds on the Mountains; Still SE 30-35 ‘Round the Clock

Location: Hout Bay, Western Cape, South Africa

What a great day we had today. Bruce and Nadine Tedder are friends we met in Madagascar. They delivered a catamaran to Madagascar for a client who let them live aboard for three months before flying home. This was the first sailing trip they had undertaken with their then seven year-old daughter Tristen and they loved it. So this morning Bruce came to Simon’s Town to pick us up and take us touring for the day. We drove back to Hout Bay by way of the dramatic Chapman’s Peak Drive and then went to Bruce and Nadine’s home to pick up Nadine and Tristen. Wow! The Tedder “estate” is on the mountain above Hout Bay and the views are spectacular. About eleven years ago they bought the property and told Nadine’s brother what they wanted. He drew the plans and the result is really beautiful home. The guest bedroom is in the front of the house overlooking Hout Bay. There is a front porch all along the front of the house, a pool, a playhouse, a jungle gym, and small gardens with native plants. One of my favorite rooms is the guest bathroom. Nadine has decorated the walls with the best of Tristen’s art work and you find yourself staying in the bathroom just to look at all the fun pieces. Mark found a copy of Private Islands magazine in the bathroom as well, and we’ve decided we just need to make about 3 million when we get home so we can buy an island in the Bahamas or Belize. There’s even one in Maine for sale and it is under a million, so maybe that will have to do!!!

On our way to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens we picked up Oliver, a friend of Tristen’s, and we spent most of the rest of day walking in the gardens of Kirstenbosch. It is acres and acres of native plants and I was like a kid in a candy shop. The plant life on the Cape peninsula is called fynbos (fein-bos) with the three main plant families being heath-like Ericas, Cape reeds of the Restio family, and members of the Protea family. All are beautiful, but the Proteas are the most striking as they are colorful, large blossoms on small bushes. In the late afternoon, we left Kirstenbosch and drove to the oldest winery in Cape Town, Groot Constantia, where we had a delightful tour of the original home and wine storage building.We then went to the oldest winery in Cape Town, Constansia, and had a delightful tour of the original home and wine storage building. We did a bit of wine tasting and then headed home. The kids and Bruce have just gotten out of the pool and it will soon be time for dinner. Today was just perfect and I think they have another full day of fun activities planned for us tomorrow. As I said yesterday, we are feeling very spoiled. Our South African friends are making sure we see the best there is here and we are truly enjoying it.

101228 Day 65a South Africa–Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

101228 Day 65b South Africa–Groot Constantia

101228 Day 65c South Africa–Tedder Home in Hout Bay