It's Christmas!!

Today we got festive and put up the Christmas trees and wrapped presents - still find it strange doing this and listening to Christmas songs whilst it is warm and sunny outside...








Amazingly, the Christmas tree is still upright, though Charlie has had great fun playing with the decorations...

Kylie Concert

Tonight we camped it up at the Kylie concert - an amazing show, spectacular dancing and all the hits. Her first time in New Zealand in her 21 years of performing.




The set had amazing computer graphics, pre recorded choreographed video and Jean Paul Gautier costumes, and Kylie got the crowd singing and dancing along. The final song was her first "I Should Be So Lucky" a throw back to the 80s!

Out to the Wild West

Today we went on a "tickey-tour" out to the west of Auckland to show Charlotte and Dougal the wild west coast. Our first stop was the Arataki visitors centre, or "a tacky vistors centre" that Charlotte thought we said... Here is the view from here down over the Manukau harbour.




From here we then headed to Piha, Auckland's most famous beach - here is the view down to South and North Piha beaches.






The sand on the west coast is volcanic black, a complete contrast to the east coast golden sandy beaches. This is the famous lion rock.






The next brief stop was at Rose Hellaby house to show them the view across Auckland.






We then continued up the coast to Muriwai for a picnic lunch then a paddle on the beach. Charlotte is dry in this picture before Dougal held her in the sea and got them drenched by a large wave!





Muriwai is home to one of the two gannet colonies in NZ, so we went up to the cliffs to show them the hundreds of birds. This one looks like it is coming in to land on Charlotte's head...





The rest of the afternoon was spent wine tasting at some of the local wineries, where we made a few purchases for later in the holiday.

Long Bay With Charlotte & Dougal

Charlotte & Dougal have come over from the UK for a 4 week holiday in NZ and spent a couple of days with us before heading down to the South Island for a while. To help ease them out of their jet lag, we spent the first day in the sunshine at our local beach.




Charlotte's request to have a bucket and spade were met, and she was inspired by the children of the local primary school who were sculpting in the sand. Charlotte's effort entitled "Man with Feet Buried in Sand"...








The pohutakawa trees (NZ Christmas tree) are now coming into full flower so the park was looking stunning.






No doubt we will head back here once they return from the South Island and will try and drag them in for a swim this time.

Recuperation Time

Royston is now recovering from an operation to extract two wisdom teeth. Fortunately the wonderful Auckland weather along with a rather fetching face ice pack is helping him to mend quickly.

Takapuna Bathtub Derby

Today we headed down to Takapuna beach to watch the Bathtub Derby. All crafts have to use a specific bath as part of the design, but can chose a variety of ways in which to power them.





There were a wide range of designs, some looking a little more substantial than others - this Russian craft didn't look like it would be going very far!





The very high winds however meant that the race had to be moved on to a more sheltered bay, but we decided not to follow them so didn't actually get to see the race. We were impressed though by the renowned Kiwi ingenuity in building these crafts.

Fishing Charter on the Kaipara Harbour

As today is Labour Day and a day off work, I headed off on a fishing charter with Paul and several others on the Kaipara Harbour, to the north west of Auckland.





After a few days of dubious weather, we were fortunate today - a warm and sunny day. It was still quite choppy though in parts. Unfortunately the big fish weren't biting, but still managed to reel in several fish.




This is my final haul of 8 snapper, 4 trevally, 1 gurnard, 1 small cod and 2 kahawai. The kahawai were biting well, so quite a few were put back, only the 2 big ones kept for smoking.





Our dinner consisted of sashimi trevally fillets followed by lemon pepper coated cod fillets with home made chips - the cod was probably the nicest fish we have ever had. As you can see I am quite tired after my hard day at sea.