New Year's Eve

A nice quiet one this year spent with great company and a yummy BBQ. Alistair not so impressed with Royston and Darryl's attempt at strike a pose...



Wishing everyone a very Happy 2010.

Rainforest Express

Today we headed west to the Waitakeres for a trip on the Rainforest Express, a narrow gauge railway run by Watercare.






The track passes over several wooden bridges, one of which, the Quinn's Viaduct, is in the picture above, and through ten pipeline tunnels, the longest being approx 600m.





The journey gives great views out over the Manukau harbour and the bush of the Waitakeres.






At the end of the line is Seaver Camp picnic area, and a 10 minute walk back up the hill leads to the Upper Nihotupu Dam (a walk we had done just a couple of months ago).

Matakana & Mahurangi Peninsula

Today we visited the farmers market at Matakana, leaving Auckland early to beat the crazy traffic that always hits the roads on Boxing Day. The market had some great stalls and we had a breakfast of whitebait fritters - beautiful!




We then headed along the Mahurangi peninsula to show Mum & Dad some of the various parks. First stop was Sandspit where there were lots of boats heading out for a day fishing.





Next we headed to Scandrett Regional Park with its historical homestead and farm buildings. Pretty much deserted here.






Final stop of the day was Scotts Point (part of the Mahurangi Regional Park) where we walked along the spit to the island, only possible during low tide, then back to the park for lunch.

Christmas Dinner

As usual we opted for a Kiwi Christmas dinner of a BBQ which was washed down by various award winning wines we had purchased during our travels in the Hawkes Bay wine region. We started with prawns and marlin fillet with Ngatarawa Alwyn Chardonnay.






Followed by a smorgasboard of meat - kangeroo, lamb steak and a treat of wagyu beef served with a bottle of Te Mata Coleraine - recently voted the best red wine to be produced in NZ.






Dessert was the traditional Kiwi pavlova with a beautiful Farmgate dessert wine from Ngatarawa, which was a trophy winner at the recent Air New Zealand wine awards.

Christmas Day

A glorious Christmas Day so we opened our presents quickly this morning before heading out into the sunshine. Charlie was most impressed with his cat massage centre!





We then headed north to Wenderholm Regional Park, getting their early for a good spot before the masses descended.





Lunch consisted of crayfish salad, smoked salmon and ciabatta, all washed down with a bottle of fizz from Soljans - Royston and Dad not too sure where the cork went flying off to!

Wintergardens, Auckland Domain

After lunch in Parnell, next stop was the Auckland Domain and a visit to the Wintergardens. We had been here last month with Joan and Steve, but the majority of plants have changed since then. Although I am a big fan of sunflowers I had never seen one this colour.




In the tropical house, several of the lily pads were starting to unfurl.





And then we had a wander around the fernery with a wide variety of ferns not just the popular ponga or silver fern for which NZ is most famous.

Parnell Rose Gardens

Not so far afield today, just a short trip over the bridge to the suburb of Parnell and a visit to the rose garden set in the Dove Myer Robinson park.





The park also gives good views over to the city and down to the port with Devonport in the distance.






We also came across this huge pohutukawa tree, quite tempting to climb it...

Omana Regional Park

For lunch we headed to Omana Regional Park, just around the coast in Maraetai.






Despite being a lovely sunny day, the beach was pretty deserted.







The area is called the Pohutukawa Coast and there were many trees out in flower ready for Christmas.

Ayrlies Garden, Whitford

Today we headed south to Whitford to visit Ayrlies Garden, the only garden in New Zealand considered to be of international significance.






The private garden is the work of a small team of gardeners and has been developed over the past 30 odd years. There are many pools and small waterfalls throughout the garden.







The views from the garden over the Hauraki Gulf and Rangitoto are stunning and there are many seating areas taking advantage of the views.

Auckland Zoo

Girls only day today as Mum and I headed to Auckland Zoo. The heat of the day meant most of the animals looked pretty warm. The red panda was quite happy in his home and not willing to come out to play.




The tiger "cubs" are now about eighteen months old and are as big as their mum! They were quite happy resting in the shade, but a little sleepy!





You would think the animals in the Australian enclosure would be used to the heat, but even the kangeroos just couldn't be bothered...





I'm not quite sure what these spider monkeys are doing, but as they are scared of water, their pen has a moat around it so they are not caged in.





For some reason the lemurs had big stripey socks on their tails...






The meercat was probably the only animal showing any interest.






Burma the elephant looked very lonely following the recent death of Kashin the other elephant. As elephants need company, the zoo will either have to get a new elephant for the enclosure or move Burma to another zoo.




The lions were majestic, but again mainly in the shade.

Karangahake Gorge

The journey back home to Auckland took us through the Karangahake Gorge where we stopped for a walk and lunch.






The gorge was once a huge gold mining area and the remains of the works can still be seen. The Windows Walk takes you through the old railway tunnels with the "windows" being gaps in the tunnel giving views down the gorge.

Ohope Beach

Ohope is fast becoming our favourite place to stay, and a recent return following our holiday here back in March. Once again, we stayed at the Top 10 Campsite, but in a quite stunning 2 bed apartment, with a reasonable view from the deck...




We had a quick journey down to the end of the spit to see the estuary.





The rest of the afternoon was spent fishing, with Royston catching his biggest kawahi off the beach yet, and then watching the sun set in the evening.

Whakatane

A brief visit into Whakatane before heading to our overnight destination of Ohope. We firstly headed down to the harbour entrance.





With great views over to Whale Island.







And back to the developed harbour area.

Waioeka Gorge

Today's journey took us through one of the most scenic gorges in the country, a 50km stretch between Gisborne and Opotiki. The monument here honours those killed building the road.





This used to be a one lane dirt track until they somehow managed to build a road here.

Gisborne

Another day, another city...this time the most easterly city in the world and the first to see the light, Gisborne. The city is also famous for being Captain Cook's landing spot and there is a statue at the harbour entrance marking the fact.







There is also a statue of "Young Nick" to mark the first sighting of New Zealand by the sailor aboard Endeavour. The beach behind is the main beach in Gisborne.


At the top of Te Poho-o-Rawiri is the lookout back down over the city, firstly down over the Waimata River and the harbour area.






And then Dad and Royston with the main beach in the background.






We stayed in a lovely motel just outside of Gisborne at Wainui Beach, one of New Zealand's most famous surfing beaches, though not much surf today.





The next bay down was Sponge Bay, an area of proposed new development with many sections for sale. Based on the beautiful beaches we have seen here, we are now planning a trip around the whole of the East Cape.