Week Beginning 6th February

 Monday 6th

The day started by using the bubble blowers that had been bought for the girls at the lantern festival. They work really well and are fun except for the monotonous tune they play.

Nanny is not really teasing Emily.
The bubble machine had to be held up.

Nanny is not really drinking the
 bubble liquid.

Sally, Irene and Zoe set off in search of strawberries. Zoe wanted to do a PYO and thought that we had done it when we here last. She had remembered the time when we flew down to Napier and did picking there.

The plan was for Ian and me to take Emily to Kelly Tarlton’s (That is the sea aquarium on the way to the city. However, Emily did not want to go and she occupied the morning playing by herself, while Ian and I talked some ‘toot’.

After lunch I decided to walk down into St Helier’s to see if there were any Waitangi celebrations. The grass edge all along the beach was crowded with various camping/picnicking paraphernalia and the beaches were crowded. On a corner of the green a table had been set up by the organisers and groups of people were playing team games in various places.

One of the old trees that line the beach.
Rangitoto is in the background.

Collecting shells on Kohi beach

Kohi Treasures

A wader on the beach

Just as I got to Kohimarama Irene rang to say that they were back, but that the PYO was unsuccessful. I waited for her to come and join me at Kohi and we walked further on. 


Firstly, we found ice-creams in a shop in the town. We had a tub each of delicious chocolate, honey comb ice-cream. We walked a little further into Mission Bay before returning for tea.

Tuesday 7th

Today Emily was going to have a scan following an infection which had now cleared up. This meant that Ian took Sally to work, so that we could take Emily to the clinic.

After taking the girls to school and kindergarten we used the car to take ourselves down to the spit. The spit is one of our favourite places. It is not far away and is a beach that swings out across the Tamaki River. It is always quiet and peaceful. This time we went through the nature reserve which brought us out on to the spit. We walked along before stopping for lunch and drinking our $1 fizzy drink that we had bought from the Superette at the start of the walk. We needed to be back in time to take Emily,  so we had to leave the walk to be completed at another time.

The Spit curving out across the Tamaki River
John 3:16 Ferry Building is just visible

The clinic is in a place called Remuera. All along the street are various clinics. The one we went to specialises in scans of various kinds. It has a garden with its own small car park. The scan would cost something like $400. This would be claimed back on medical insurance. Emily was an angel and no problems were found.

My last driving task was to pick up Sally from her place of work.

Wednesday 8th

Again we have to be back quite early to look after Emily while Bree (the Nanny) takes Zoe to Brownies.

After doing a few thing around the house we set off down to the beach. The aim was to get to the Michael Savage Memorial Park. Michael Joseph Savage (23 March 1872 – 27 March 1940) was the first Labour Prime Minister of New Zealand. He is commonly known as the architect of the welfare state and is constantly regarded as one of New Zealand's greatest and most revered Prime Ministers. He was given the title New Zealander of the Century by the New Zealand Herald in 1999.

Our route there was to be through the three bay towns, and then turn left alongside the park and find a pathway through. It was a steep climb, but the views were worth it. We found a place well away from the Joseph Savage memorial. It was a collection of Maori statues in remembrance of a five year old girl who died in 1977 during the historic land occupation of Bastion Point.

Bastion Point Memorial

Here we had our lunch and sat to do our sketches of the view.

Rangitoto from our picnic area

White Clouds Over Browns Island.
Picture taken on our way back.

On the way back we stopped in Kohi. This time for a honey comb ice-cream and a raspberry sorbet (guess who had which.)

We had a bit of a dash back in time to look after Emily.

Sally and Ian went out to the school open evening for a talk from the principal and to meet the teachers. As I write we are sitting quietly and the girls are in their rooms hopefully asleep.

Thursday – Rangitoto Day

This is it; the one day Irene has been especially looking forward to. We are going to climb Rangitoto. 

For anyone not in the know Rangitoto is a volcanic shaped island which sits in the Hauraki Gulf and looms over the city and the bays. http://www.rangitoto.org/ Basically, Rangitoto emerged from the sea around 700 years ago. The event was observed by the fairly recently arrived Maoris. Up till the mid 1800s it appears to have been largely barren. One early explorer wrote of taking 3 hours to climb it with blocks of solidified lava tumbling down. Most of the island is now covered in vegetation although there are significant, bare volcanic patches; mostly near the base. It is a study of ecological development with lower order vegetation breaking down the rocks until even trees can be supported. Apart from its causeway connection to the neighbouring island it is relatively isolated and should only be populated by insects and birds. Unfortunately, Europeans introduced the possum to the neighbouring island. There is now some concern about the appearance of hunting rats; hence the many traps that are visible.

In the 1920 there was a period of bach building around the shore. During the wars an observation point was built at the top and the island was taken over by the military. However, it was necessary to give the bach owners limited access. (Would this have been allowed if it was occupied by the UK military?)

Our own journey was very blessed. The weather improved throughout the day. This was in marked contrast to our 2009 adventure when rain started out of a clear blue sky as soon as we were on the boat; stopped to let us get some way up the path and soaked us as we tried to get down for shelter. Even then, by the time the ferry arrived we were well sun dried.

Not only was the weather on our side, but we managed to catch the earlier bus which meant that we caught the first ferry of the day. I am not sure I like being identified as ‘seniors’, but it does have the advantage of keeping the cost of the fare down. The journey on a powerful catamaran took only 25 minutes. That is £1 a minute for two seniors. There was time for breakfast tea and coffee on board.

The ascent up the volcano took just over one hour. At the top is a significant area of board-walk and look outs over  very remarkable and beautiful scenery. For the whole of the adventure, ‘beautiful’ was Irene’s favourite word. With a little time to spare we thought that we would  detour to the volcanic caves. It was a tough walk of 15 minutes. We think that we found them, but looking into the mouth was as much climbing as we prepared to do. The guide said that a torch was necessary for the rest of the cave walk. We are adventurous, but not that much.

Nearby Islands

Mouth of the Tamaki.
The Spit across is visible.

Auckland City

Looking into the Crater

The Harbour Bridge from the crater rim

Going down from the top

Looking back at the summit with part
 of a lava field showing

Part way down the main path we stopped for our lunch at a lookout and then made our way down. Near the bottom a young Australian lad came over to talk to me about my camera. He had a brand new Canon and did not know much about what to do. I noticed that his camera was set to manual. To use this setting you need an exposure meter and need to set the aperture and shutter speed separately. I explained to him about the programmed setting which would automatically match aperture and shutter speed. I think that he was grateful for the advice. I recommended that he reads his manual thoroughly when he can.

I rejoined a bored wife and we sat with sketch pads and pencils as we waited for the boat. A lady approached us. It turned out that she worked in the Cumberland Pencil factory. Perhaps she was more interested in our pencils than our drawings.

There was a sudden dash for the pier, which we joined. This gave us a chance to be on the upper, open deck. The speed across to Devonport would have blown my hat off if I  had not been sitting on it. There was little wind as we did the final few minutes to Auckland.

Our final treat was tea and coffee at Britomart before catching the bus home.

Auckland Ferry Building - The now dwarfed sandy coloured building

Friday10th

We are having a day at home. Emily is also off and we have had a happy morning with her. Bree has now gone off with her and later in the afternoon Zoe and her mum will be off to the Brownie camp for a night or perhaps two.

The builders who have been working under the decking for most of the week are just leaving and have given the all clear for the pool to be used again.