Buying bamboo on Saturday turned our to be something of an adventure. Because 'Charlie's Bamboo Nursery' was in Murawai we took the opportunity to visit the famous gannet colony and black sandy beach. It was a beautiful sunny, but very windy day and the gannets were making a great display. The main gannet colony is on an island off one of the headlands on the west coast of the north island. It is only about an hour drive north west of Auckland.
The bottom picture shows the top of the stack type island on which many gannets make their home.
Here are some photos of the gannets.
From one of the lookouts there is a good view down on to main Murawai beach. This spot looks down on to the wind surfers below.
The extent of the beach and the power of the waves are shown in the shot.
To our disappointment the cafe below had closed the seating area and was not serving hot drinks after 4 pm. We find this strange thing to do on the first holiday weekend of the summer holidays. Having started on our milk shakes sirens blasted in our ears as fire appliances sped past us on the way to the beach. We speculated as to what could be happening - perhaps a surf rescue. In the end it turned out to be an incident on the caravan site.
To finish off our time down near the sea we drove to the beach car park. The sand is special here. It is black but sparkles.
Looking south you can see the gannet colony and the trouble that the council has taken to make the walk to the lookouts safe.
From beach level you can also see the extent of the beach shrouded in mist as the wind whips the spray off the sea.
Irene and Sally chose to paddle. I decided to beat a hasty retreat as the sea rapidly climbed up the beach. I then took some shots of the windsurfers.
It was now 5 pm and the time designated by Charlie to collect the bamboo. The scary adventure was about to begin. The directions were in themselves scary with instructions like go by the red container. I know that there are many places in New Zealand that have unsealed road. That is, they lack tarmac. But the roads that we travelled on were like nothing I have been on before. The poor car bumped along with clangings as stone flew up and times when the wheels just spun on the gravel. At last we made it to 'Charlie's Bamboo Nursery' and spied Charlie coming down the hill to meet us.
The nursey was a wild place with bamboo of different sizes. Charlie gave Sally and Zoe a guided tour and explained the whys and wherefores of bamboo culture.
The bamboo plants were finally chosen and Charlie wheelbarrowed them to the car.
Doing the car scramble up the hill was too much for Zoe and she elected to do her own climb up to meet us.
Eventually we were back on the main roads and, because of the lateness of the day Sally decided to find somewhere to eat on the way home. There are few houses in this very rural part of the world, but we saw a sign to a possible restaurant.
As we headed towards Riverhead we came to a sudden halt. Sally and the driver coming towards us stopped and smiled at each other as a family of ducks decided to amble across the road in front of us.
Finally we arrived at the restuarant. It was called 'River Head Landing. It is on Rangitapuni Creek which is a wide river going to to the one of the gulfs of Auckland. Boat sailed up to this landing and the restuarant has been open since 1868.
It is now a very upmarket place with seating overlooking the river. The food looks good and is delicious. My dessert consisted of icecream, a shot of coffee and a glass of 'Baileys'.
Sunday was full on entertaiment day. Sally and Ian booked tickets for the three of us (Ian, Emily and me) to see the latest 'Star Wars' film.
First we had to pick up Zoe's friend who was going to spend time with Zoe Christmas shopping at Sylvia Park. I bought lunch for the five of us at 'Coffee Club' and then we went to see the film. I had a double, well upholstered, reclining seat to myself. It was an enjoyable film. I could follow the plot and there was a lot of action.
Almost as soon as we got back Irene and me were off with Sally and Zoe to the Elim Church at Botany. We had reserved seats as guests of Sally's friend. It was an amazing pantomine type performance called 'We Three Kings'. The three kings and all the cast were truly amazing. The lighting and effects were brilliant. The gospel was preached. Light hearted moments were cleverly interpersed by the serious parts. At the end it was possible to have my photo taken with the brilliant 'Three Kings'.
Being quite late, Sally made a stop for dinner. This was a pizza place called 'Sal's' (Salvadore). It had a history of pizza making in New York. They were juicy and delicious.
Today (Monday) we have spent a lot of time Christmas wrapping, packed our bags, visited our accommodation at the B and B, gone down for coffee and ...(I can't tell you what it was, but it was deliciously chocolatey), done some shopping and are now resting and waiting for the next exciting event.
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