Days Before the Mount

This blog is only for anyone who is really interested. I have taken to using Google to put picture sets on facebook.

After the art gallery effort the next day was rain and we had a day indoors. Emily was inspired by the ‘sign posts’ art work and started to produce her own. I settled down to build my next ginger bread house.

On Wednesday the weather took an amazing turn for the better. Irene and I had the big car and we drove north over the harbour bridge to Warkworth. To stay on the SH1 involves going through the toll tunnel. Last time we did this we missed the turn off to the pay booth and had to pay for the out and back journey on our return. This time I was determined to find the northbound pay booth. However, once we off the motorway and in the large service area there was no sign of a pay booth. A friendly fellow traveller directed us to the shop and on the door was assign saying that there is now no toll kiosk and we should pay at the petrol station. When we got to the front of the queue we were asked for the car registration. (Now why did I not think that the number plate recognition software would need this?) I walked back across the car park, memorised the number (Why didn’t I think to use my phone camera?), went back and queued again and paid the $2.30. The moral of the story is use the technology and pay on line.

Warkworth had developed rapidly in the two years since we were last there. We got on to the coast road without going into the town centre. It is not the small town that we first saw in 2003.

Our coffee stop was ‘Morris and James’. This is a pottery we first visited in 2003 and returned home with a large, beautifully decorated serving plate. This time we stopped only for coffee and cake. As I drove on I noticed the petrol level. We had just passed what looked to be the last petrol station out in in this increasingly remote area. However, we got to our destination with petrol to spare.

The place of the ‘glass bottom boat’ is well developed for tourists, with board walks, interpretation signs, and a toilet block designed for showering and group changing. The beach is very clean and it was crowded with families. The main sport was scuba diving. It is amarine reserve and no fishing is allowed. Having prepaid our boat fare we collected our boarding pass and waited. Boarding was by paddling on to a ramp and only when the waves pushed the boat on to the beach. Once all the parties were boarded off we sailed. The water is very clear. I did manage to see the shoal of snappers. Most of our fellow travellers could say how many snappers could be taken at any one place and what weight they should be. Our fellow travellers were able to spot more than we could and name them.

From the boat we could see why the water was so calm along this coast of New Zealand. A large number of Islands, in particular Great Barrier Island, kept the shore protected from the full force of the Pacific Ocean. This would not be the case at the place we were to travel to later.

On Thursday we were in until the evening. During the day I started making a cardboard model of the ‘Millenium Falcon’. It is push out plasti-card which needs folding and gluing. It will take a while. In the evening we walked down to the beach and up Cliff Road to the memorial to the ‘Achilles’. There are Maori statues at the look out.

Although Friday was the day before our trip to the ‘Mount’ we walked to the ‘Michael Joseph Savage’ memorial. It was a very hot day and at Mission Bay we stopped for Kiwos. The walk was made difficult by the closing off of the steps at the bottom of the cliff. So we found access from a side street and scrambled up the steep hill. It was beautiful in the gardens. There was some unusual planting. At each corner of the lawn there was a large rectangular flower bed. A row of tallish, blue flowers were planted diagonally so that they made a diamond pattern across the lawn. It was difficult to find some shade to sit but we did some drawing and set off back. The walk home was made longer, in the heat, as we had to walk some way in the opposite direction down the gentle vehicle entrance.

Wet on the Way

Tuesday 21st
This is a special day for Irene and me. We celebrate our engagement on this day every year.


For the first time ever we started the day with pancakes and after a morning of pottering about the house we set off for the Spit. Going up the street we came to the coffee shop and enjoyed chai lattes, using vouchers generously supplied by Ian.


Near the spit we sat for lunch and then moved around for a view to draw. The first splashes of rain came and stopped as suddenly.


At tea time, during the talk time, Irene let it slip that we had pancakes for breakfast. This meant more pancakes.


Wednesday 22nd
This was a day of rain. We made it down to the bus stop in St Heliers and the rain really began and made it a soggy, windy walk from Britomart to the Maritime Museum. At the entrance a guide was waiting and at 1 o'clock the tour began. Initially it was just two of us, but a little later it became five, and later still it was only the Canadian lady that stayed the course.


After two hours, no lunch and no toilet break the tour ended. Our guide had been an 82 year old Kiwi. It was fascinating to hear his reminiscences and learn more about the exhibits than we would have done without him.

Mock up of berths used by the first settlers to NZ

Americas Cup Winner

NZ Icon - 1950's shop and cafe

From the museum we made a wet and windy walk back passed the Ferry Building to Britomart.

Ferry Building

Glass dome of Britomart

Thursday 23rd

This really was a day in. A monsoon would be a good description.

Later in the afternoon we thought that we would venture up the hill for coffee. It was only drizzle on the way up, but torrential on the way down. Fortunately we still only had very light clothing and there was little to get wet and this dried quickly in the heat.

Benny enjoying watching Zoe in the bath

Friday 24th
With the weather looking good and a car available we thought that we would set off north and have an opportunity to cross the Harbour Bridge.


Irene and me set off with Sally to her office and set straight off from there. As her office was just off the slip road on to the motorway north it was easy to reach a destination without a SATNav. The destination we reached was Warkworth. It is quite a pretty township one hour north of Auckland.


After coffee we went to the information centre. Irene's reaction to the 'Glass Bottomed Boat Trip' was "I'd love to do that."


Without further ado, we were on our way to 'Goat Island'. It is a beautifully scenic journey to a beautiful place. From the shore many islands were visible. The water is clear in this 'marine reserve' and many people were enjoying diving, snorkelling, just looking into the sea or, like we did,sailing around the island in the glass bottomed boat.

Goat Island

Diving and Snorkelling

Ready to board the glass bottomed boat

Under the sea

Into a cave

Shark's Mouth Cave

On the rocks

Sand canyon

We returned through Warkworth in the hope of coffee at the Kauri walk.

Large Kauri Tree

Kauri look-out

Protecting the Kauri (Sorry about blur)

Finding no coffee we made our way back down 'Route 1'. Road works had successfully made the Manuka Honey stop too difficult to get to. Passing through the motorway toll section and tunnel we came to another township called Silverdale. I can't help thinking that this must have been like the early days of the West. The old wooden buildings in the centre are being swallowed up by the new buildings of a boom town.

An example of Silverdale wall art

Old style shops

Mum chose her chai, but I had a 'Hokey Pokey' ice-cream. It was a 'Tip Top' and a hokey pokey is an ice-cream with honey comb mixed in.

The motorway beyond here was city style with the cut and thrust of people returning home in the Friday night rush at 3.30, but we were back to Sally's office in good time to pop down to the chippy in St Heliers for, what is becoming our regular Friday night, snapper and chips. Of course, at least one us, went in for fish cake.