Lunar Eclipse

Tonight we got to see the first lunar eclipse in NZ for seven years - managed to get a few photos during the breaks in the cloud.







The effect of the eclipse caused the moon to go an interesting shade of red - difficult to get decent photos though.

Ambury Regional Park & Mangere Mountain

Today we headed south west to Ambury Regional Park on the Manukau Harbour. The main feature of the park is the farm centre where there were several recently born lambs.







They also milk their cows everyday to feed the calves, lambs and piglets.



This is the view from the park over to Mangere Mountain, an extinct volcano, that we were later to climb.








From the original crater rim, you can see down into the crater and the point of eruption. The mound in the middle is a lava mound.





The view also shows the number of extinct volcanos around Auckland - from left to right, Mt Eden, (Sky Tower is then in the distance), One Tree Hill with the obelisk, and to the right in the distance, Rangitoto.

Tawharanui Regional Park

We then headed out down a windy unsealed road to Tawharanui Regional Park. A very quiet and beautiful regional park with a stunning beach.






This a definite place to revisit, camp and do lots of the nice walks around the park.

Parry Kauri Park

Today we headed north to visit the Parry Kauri Park just south of Warkworth. There were a few very impressive kauri trees - and no Royston hasn't shrunk...







There was a walkway through the bush with many native NZ trees and ferns, and several newly planted kauri trees - a little smaller than the one above.