Wildlife Pictures

The First three picture's by Jill.

( double click image to enlarge )

Just a few picture's taken over the last month.

Huelgoat, France

Spent a few weeks in Huelgoat , France last month, looking for property and enjoying the location.
The town is situated by the side of a two hectare lake and surrounded by six hundred hectares of Forrest. Not found a house yet but a few possibilities.

Pictures by Jill.

The Lake, Huelgoat.

Huelgoat from the lake.

New Zealand

Newzealand 2007

Thursday 9th Aug 07.



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

Sunday 12th.

Woke up to strong wind and showers the temperature had dropped a bit,

We went into the city and visited the museum and then walked around Auckland Domain a large park in downtown Auckland, there were great views from the high ground,

Monday 13th.

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

Tuesday 14th,

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

Wednesday 15th.

Today we stayed around the house and garden ,taking a well earned rest after yesterday, The legs were still aching three days later.

Thursday 16th.

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.

Friday 17th.

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.

Saturday 18th.

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.

Sunday 19th.

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.

Alanta in sleep mode

Easter weekend.
Naomi Rob and the kids + Bentley came down for the Easter weekend, the weather was great bright and sunny but with a slight breeze, Bentley is now 17 weeks old and getting very big ( already bigger than Jack) I think he enjoyed it here as much as the kid’s charging around the caravan and jumping all over people like a four legged Bulldozer.
They returned on Sunday evening looking tired but with a suntanned complexion.

The House.
The surveyor came on Thursday last everything was ok, so now we have to wait for the solicitors to get it together and then we can start looking in France.

Bently

Just a few pictures of Naomi's new dog (Bentley) named by Mitchell who said He is a British Bulldog so we will name him after a British car.

These pictures were taken when he was 8 weeks old

The Latest

Mum is much better now getting around a bit more, although still a bit unsteady.
Damien & Nathan are progressing slowly with buying the house , Marcus is still waiting to move into the flat. and us we cant wait to get back down the van and start looking for a place in france.

Damien in NZ

Damien has just returned from a month stay in New Zealand, He went out with a friend Mike and joined Greg who lives there (Adrian's son) for a trip around north island with the Kiwi Experience, Starting out from Adrian's house in Auckland they visited places like Rotorua,Waitomo,Taupo, and the Bay of Islands, and then down to Kaikoura on south island before returning to Auckland for Christmas and new year with Adrian and Cathe.

Damien tried free fall which was a surprise for us as he is not known for being adventurous, but as you can see from pic above he had smile on his face.

12 months later

Sorry we have been out of touch for over twelve months ,just so much going on and a bad and very expensive uplink to the web from my laptop.
Now we have time to catch up,
spent at least ten months on the coast bird watching , walking and photographing the wildlife.
Jill has had a bad spell suffering with rhumatics in her hands and neck , the medication seems to be working. As for me life is still good enjoying enjoying retirement,
will try to get some pictures on the blog soon.

Hope to sell the house soon,then with a bit of luck start looking for a new house in Brittany france