Monday and Tuesday

At last the rain has come. However, it is even muggier and definitely hot at night.

The began at the end of Monday. Irene spent the day on house work and I replaced a 3 m long curtain rail whose brackets just pinged in a row.

Today it is very muggy. We walked down to shop in St Heliers. I have at last got my loaded disk to connect to the network and am busy setting it up. We are preparing for our departure from this place tomorrow.

No, we are not coming home. Tomorrow we all fly to Napier. Ian has rented a house there. He has rented a car for his family. We have rented one for ourselves. On Friday Ian and family will return home and we will drive down to for a few days. We will leave the car and return to Auckland by a train that will take 12 hours.

We are looking forward to this adventure.

Emily Gets Jabs

On Wednesday I had the delight of seeing Emily vacinated, one in each leg. She was obviously good about the first one. But, a bit more wise about the second one. After waiting for any reactions and having coffee. (The surgery has a very good coffee shop.) The car park bays are marked 'For the use of customers'. Being a customer rather than a patient is a double-edged thing. As a paying costumer of the doctor you can expect (even demand) a better level of service than in the UK. However, the doctor is free to carry out whatever treatments they might want to, and charge for it. Childhood immunisations can be expensive, but Kiwis balance it against the possible cost of the parent being off work.

Did I say that I lost my spectacles (glasses). I confused the Kiwis over this. I had rung the Museum on Tuesday and a kind lady described my missing glasses/spectacles that had been found. After a long discussion during which she took my name (the discussion was prolonged because we could not get the terminology of kiosk of foyer right; it turned out to be cloak room it was agreed that I should collect them on Wednesday. So, after returning from the doctors to collect Irene and take Emily back to daycare and Sally to her office, where we were served more coffee (Sally does sell it) Irene and I motored off to the Auckland Museum. I presented myself at the 'place' and announced my business. I was presented with an number of 'things'. What had happened to the glasses labelled Norwood. A tad of panic set and suddenly they appeared at the left side of the counter, amongst many other unlabelled things. I told the attendant that I really loved her and Irene and set off for a visit to the Winter Garden and I took more photographs. Among them was this beautiful lily.

Purple Lily

We had planned to repeat the Mt Eden visit, but in the confusion of the morning I did not have my tripod. I decided instead to do some boat watching. In the 'City of Sails' it can be hard to get near any sails. I looked at the map and thought that Hamer Road would get us near the main sailing harbour. I set the sat nav. It took us into dockland amongst large fuel tanks and other industrial plants. However, we could part in one spot for free. When we reached the top of this small peninsular we found that it was an excellent view point for the harbour bridge and sailing boats. Indeed we found it to be a point on the coach tours of Auckland, with one coach after another putting down and picking up tourists. Tourists can be a nuisance, but I was able to do some photography. (Us tourists?)

Auckland Harbour Bridge

Sailing by the Harbour Bridge

We made our journey back along the Tamaki drive, but stopped off at Okahu marina. This area is full of cruisers which must be worth many times more than our house.

Cruisers in Okahu Marina

Auckland Zoo - 2009

The zoo remains a favourite of the children. And of many people in Auckland.

We were 'late' setting off, so no attempt was made to park in the car park. Entrance was followed by coffee. As we sat in the central area elephants were bought out on parade. Irene says she does not remember being so close to them.

Up Close and Personal

Baby Tiger

Last years tigers have given birth to babies. They have grown fast.

The howler monkeys were noisy and playful.

The Giraffes have Grown

The Lions Still Roar Lazily

Ian spotted that Emily was getting tired. She does run around quickly. He took her home. We had lunch. Zoe explored some tunnels and posed nicely on the yellow lizard.

Waitakere Ranges

After the daycare run Irene and I set off for the Waitekere Ranges, spefically to the Arataki Visitors centre and the nature trail. As we are now getting use to, the sat nav gave precise directions along the Tamaki Drive, through the city, along the North Western Motorway, the Great North Road and Scenic Drive through Titirangi.

The visitors centre was undergoing renovation but there were spectacular view points.

View of Auckland City through Rainforest

Tree Ferm Emerging from the Rainforest

Panorama of Waitiki Range

We ended our visit by stopping for coffee in Titirangi. The chololate mudcake was superb. We bought a eve of inaugaration newspaper. There was a prophetic cartoon of Obama getting the oath wrong. The caption read that his oath would be "Give me five. Alleluia Bush has gone."