New Year's Eve

We decided to have a quiet one and had a smorgasbord of seafood. Starter was pan fried prawns and scallops encrusted in macadamia nuts. We had bought the nuts the previous day whilst up the South Head peninsula.





With snapper and hapuka fillets to follow.

Happy New Year to everyone!!

Manukau Heads

At the tip of the Awhitu peninsula is the Manukau Heads lighthouse which is no longer operational as ships are now guided into the harbour by the harbourmaster via radio frequency.





The views from the top however were spectacular, looking over the southern end of the Waitakere Ranges. This is the view to Whatipu the most southern of the west coast Waitakere beaches.





Whilst further round the coast over to Huia and Cornwallis.






Ninepin rock is the furthest point into the harbour at the end of Whatipu beach, a popular but treacherous spot for fishing.






The view back to Auckland from the peninsula - city is about 90km away.

Awhitu Peninsula

Another day, another peninsula... This time we headed south to Awhitu peninsula which forms the southern end of the Manukau harbour. There's loads to see and do here so we spent time checking out places for future visits. First stop was the Awhitu regional park with some great walks and not only the beach in this photo, but another one around the headland in the distance.


We then stopped off at various beaches along the peninsula - this is Orua Bay to which we will return this summer as a nice small campsite right next to the beach.





Further round the peninsula is Wattle Bay where Royston managed to get in his last fishing of the year, no fish this time but plan to try again when camping at Orua. This is looking west towards the head of the Manukau Harbour.




The west coast Karioitahi beach stretches the length of the peninsula and reminded us a lot of our trip to Baylys Beach a year or so ago. The main difference here is the black volcanic sand. Though not the nicest beach on the peninsula, a popular spot for surfers and fishermen.

South Head Peninsula

Today we headed north west to Helensville then up the South Head peninsula. Unfortunately you can't get right to the end as private land, but the last accessible bay is Mosquito Bay - down a very steep slope which seems even steeper on the way back up!





The views out over the Kaipara Harbour were pretty spectacular - this is the area where Royston has previously been on his fishing charters, so good for him to see from a different perspective.




Also on the peninsula is a Regional Park currently in development called Te Rau Puriri. At the moment this is a working farm but eventually they plan to turn this into a park. A walk from this view point down to Waipiro Bay is the only thing there at present and we will return to do this one day soon.



Lunch was had on the shore of Lake Ototoa which is supposedly full of trout but there is a current ban on fishing there. We had the lake all to ourselves.






Our final stop of the day was Shelly Beach, a popular spot for fishermen, especially off the long wharf.





And the beach, although small, is also popular for the nearby campsite.

Army Bay - Fishing Again!

We managed to squeeze in one last fishing trip for Charlotte and Dougal before their return to the UK tomorrow. Down to the usual fishing haunt of Army Bay - a popular spot today with about 10 people fishing. The weather improved throughout the afternoon and we eventually left at about 6.30pm. Unfortunately no fish today.

Sheepworld

This morning we headed north again, this time to Sheepworld just north of Warkworth. We firstly wandered around the park feeding the animals - Royston making friends with a deer.





The alpacas were very friendly, especially when a hand of food was put in front of them...






But our favourite was this cute calf.







We then watched the sheep show - firstly the sheep dog rounding up the sheep.






Followed by a sheep shearing demonstration.

Boxing Day at Waipu Cove

Today was a glorious day so we headed north to show Charlotte & Dougal one of our favourite spots, Waipu Cove - just a day trip this time.





Unfortunately for the boys, the beach was a little too busy to let them fish safely (even though it doesn't look it in this pic!), so we just soaked up the sun, played in the surf and relaxed.

Christmas Day

Today we did the traditional kiwi beach Christmas with Charlotte & Dougal and went to Wenderholm Regional Park just north from home. It was a lovely warm, sunny day so the park was quite busy, but plenty of room for everyone. Lunch was a picnic of crayfish salad and smoked salmon sandwiches.



We all got very nice presents - Charlie included with his new tunnel and ball.





And Royston got me this lovely canvas print converted from a photo of Charlie.





The evening meal was cooked mostly on the BBQ - first course of battered oysters excluded. The second course was BBQ'd prawns and pan fried hapuka fillet.




Followed by small cuts of kangaroo and venison fillet with potatoes.






Desert was traditional individual Kiwi pavlova and fruit, finishing off a great day of sun, beach, food and matching wine.

Elemeno P & Supergroove Concert

Now back in Auckland, we decided to show Charlotte & Dougal a traditional Kiwi concert featuring two of the biggest NZ bands playing at our local pub - The Brownzy in Browns Bay. This was called the Rock N Roll Caravan tour.







Elemeno P were the first on stage and got the crowd rocking to all their hits plus some off their new album. The current song is being used by Telecom for their ads so a big sing along for that one.




Supergroove followed - a slightly manic band on stage with loads of energy. Several members of the band took the opportunity to practice a bit of stage diving...

Waitomo

Our final stop off on the way back to Auckland was at Waitomo. Here we called into the Shearing Shed - famous for its angora rabbits.






As their fur grows so fast, they have to be shorn every 3 months, which they do by tying them into what looks like a rotating spit! This is the before shot.





Whilst this is the finished, much smaller rabbit!






We then went to the glow worm caves, for which Waitomo is most famous. No photos allowed so this is taken off the internet to give an idea of what you see - the end of which is a boat trip into the glow worm cave.

Whakapapa

How lucky we were the following morning, blue sky and no clouds meant all three volcanoes were now visible rather than swathed in cloud. This is the view to Ngauruhoe from just outside our motel room. This is the most perfect shaped volcano of the three.




Whilst this is a shot of Tongariro to the left and Ngauruhoe. The fit and adventurous can attempt the one day crossing of Tongariro - maybe one day...




As the weather was so clear, we headed up the mountain road to get better views of Ruapehu. This is the only mountain that is commercially used for skiing, though now in summer it is walkers that frequent the area.




We could also see across to Mt Taranaki way over on the west coast of the North Island - often used as a stand in for Mt Fuji in several movies.





On check out, we were told how fortunate we had been - they don't have many clear days like this at this time of the year.

Chateau Tongariro

Our accommodation tonight was in Whakapapa Village, unfortunately not the main Chateau hotel in this picture, but the cheaper motel units behind. Ruapehu volcano is in the background.





This is the view back down the valley from the motel room - a non cloud moment, of which there weren't many today!






After dinner at the hotel bar we were fortunate to see Ruapehu as the cloud had cleared, the first time we had seen the top of the mountain since we arrived.

Taupo

On route to our next destination we stopped off in Taupo to see the Huka Falls - the sun shining on the water made it a wonderful blue colour.





From here we headed to the Aratiatia Dam, the gates to which open three times a day to fill the valley for generation of electricity. This is the view down the valley before the gates opened.




At 10am the gates opened after loud warning sirens, with 90,000 litres of water passing through the gates every second.






The gates stay open for half an hour at a time by which time the valley is full and the rapids generated. This is a view back down the valley now full of water.





We then walked down stream to the view point to see back up to the dam gates.