BBQ

Well we went to the sales today, some places were very quiet and others you couldn't even park within 5 minutes of the shops!

We have finally managed to buy a BBQ, and here it is.

Now we are looking forward to the weather staying good (it has been very hot today) so that we can start cooking some nice food on it.

Christmas Day

After our trip to Takapuna, we headed off down to Bayswater to see Paul, Georgina, Lauren and Mollie for a BBQ.

When we'd finished to the first session of BBQing and the odd toast with Lindauer Fraise, we headed off to their local beach, sort of...
















We wandered out across the mud flats, getting very very muddy in the process and almost losing several shoes!

We then headed back for some more BBQ and a glass or two of wine. We all had a very good day.

Christmas Morning

Christmas Day started with the traditional breakfast of leeks and bacon.


After breakfast we went to Takapuna, to take some pictures of the pohutakawa trees in bloom, but found a 15 min play about to start on the grass near the beach.



It was a one man performance starring an actor from Neighbours!!!



We then managed to take a few pictures of the pohutakawa (New Zealand's Christmas tree), which are really starting to bloom now.



And finally we took some pictures of us on the beach on Christmas Day...

New House

Hello All,

Well we finally found a place to live, on the North Shore of Auckland in Torbay.


Here are some pictures of the house.












We'll add more as we go, hopefully some of a nice sunny BBQ on Christmas day!

Camping at Waipu Cove

This weekend we decided to make the first use of our new tent and headed up north to Waipu Cove. After pitching the tent our first meal was freshly caught snapper and chips.





The beach is absolutely stunning and was very quiet - not yet peak holiday season - so we had most of the beach to ourselves. A very successful first camping trip.

Mission Bay

Today we headed over the Harbour Bridge to the Auckland suburb of Mission Bay and the M J Savage Memorial Park - a great view point. This shows Rangitoto island in the background behind the memorial.




The park is also home to Bastion Point, a old military gun placement with good views back to the city.

Diwali

This weekend has seen the Diwali celebrations held in downtown Auckland. There were many food stalls selling wonderful curries, and Indian clothing stalls.

Muriwai Beach

Another day, another beach... Again we headed out to the west coast, this time to Muriwai Regional Park and another surfing beach.







Muriwai is famous for the Takapu Refuge gannet colony.





And just to the other side of the gannet colony is a smaller beach - Maori Bay.

West Coast Beaches

Today we have headed over to the rugged wild west coast, best known for its surfing beaches with Piha the most famous.







From Piha we went to Karekare beach, where The Piano was filmed - a very eerie but beautiful place.

Shakespear Regional Park

Today we ventured further north to Shakespear Regional Park at the end of the Whangaparoa peninsula, also known as the Hibiscus Coast.






As well as plenty of walks through the park, there are also three beaches around the tip of the peninsula. Army Bay is the launch area for all the boaties.








Whilst Te Haruhi Bay is more for families and BBQs.

Long Bay & Our New Car

Our first trip out in our new car was to Long Bay Regional Park. A 4 wheel drive with bullbars, how UK un-PC but the car of choice for the kiwis.








This is the view down over the beach which is 1km long and the furthest north of the East Coast Bays on the North Shore.