We left Heathrow on the 4.15pm flight to New Zealand, after a flight of 26 hrs we arrived at Auckland. Adrian and Kim picked us up from the airport at 6am we had a shower and cooked breakfast, Jill had a sleep while I spent the day relaxing in the garden.
I counted 13 species of birds visiting the garden throughout the day.
Adrian's House
10th Aug.
Trip into Auckland City , A nice day we walked up Queen Street ( the main street in Auckland) . Had a walk around Mayers park and then a trip to the top of the Sky Tower, fantastic views of the city, the Harbour and North Shore,
11th Aug.
Today we went to Murawai beach on Auckland's west coast, this is one of only three mainland nesting colonies of Gannets in New Zealand, we stood on a viewing platform on the cliffs overlooking the colony and watched the birds soaring over the rock stack while others were mating on the rocks below where they will build there nest, Later we went to a Macadamia nut farm, where we had lunch, and walked around the gardens and lakes
Murawai Gannet Colony Gannet
Spent the day working in Adrians garden. The Cultivated part of the garden is large compared with UK gardens but the uncultivated part is native bush covering at least three times as much land, this is thick bush containing at least 150-200 Tree ferns plus native trees and shrubs
Ade dropped us off at the bus station, at about 7.30, the bus took about 35 minutes on arivingat the docks we took the ferry to Rangitoto an extinct volcano about thirty minutes from down town Auckland. we walked for over an hour through thick bush and lava fields going steadly up until we reached the rim of the crater, the weather was hot and the view from the top was spectacular,great view of Auckland City shoreline, The walk back down was a longer route taking a circular path around half the circumference of the island finishing at the ferry wharf. We had a well earned lunch before returning on the ferry to Auckland.
Rangitoto from the Sea
Today we stayed around the house and garden ,taking a well earned rest after yesterday, The legs were still aching three days later.
Cold overcast , heavy rain pm, took a ride into city, visited Maratime Museum, very intresting, weather turned really bad, strong wind off the sea with driving rain.
The heavy rain of yesterday has died away leaving a bright sunny day with a few light showers. We walked along Tamaki drive to Kelly Taltons under sea world, where we saw a large range of fish , Penguins and the hut that Captain Scot used at the south pole just as it was left all those
years ago.
Wet morning, Afternoon weather changed so we went to Gulf Harbour on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula with distant views of Rangitoto.
We saw plenty of new housing ranging from $300,000 to $3.5 million With views out over the sea.we all had a great meal at a Restaurant in Gulf Harbour. The weather changed on the way back and was raining by the time we reached home.
Went to Puhoi an historic village with a quaint Church, we had a Devon cream tea at a one hundred year old tea room overlooking the wooded hills of Puhoi. Later we drove to Warkworth where we walked along the river towards the sea.
Waiheke Island.
Waiheke is situated about forty minutes from Auckland City, The ferry journey was nice (calm for Jill) and we arrived at Matiatia Wharf at 9.45 .The island is quite big and they have their own bus services covering the island, We started our walk at the wharf and followed the path to the southern end of Matiatia Bay and then headed uphill to the lookout on Nick Johnstone Drive, great views of the smaller islands including Rangitoto the volcanic cone rising out of the sea a few miles away. We continued along the coast passing Te Miro Bay and on to Church bay where we stopped for lunch, Church bay is backed by a big sheep farm with a stream running down to the sea.After lunch we walked up the hill and through the bush until we reached Allison Park then followed the road to Atawhia Whenua Reserve ,the going through the reserve was down hill and quite wet although the weather was hot with a nice breeze , our walk finished back at the wharf, it had taken just over four hours. At 4.00 we took the ferry back to Auckland.
