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.

Spit, Nuts, Honey and Cheese

This blog covers trips on Wednesday and Thursday.

On Wednesday we had the most glorious weather, but with little free time we decided to repeat a walk we made last year. Five minutes drive away is a play park which has got to be known as 'Ladybird Park', because one of the rides is shaped like a beetle. Across the park, over a bridge up and down a rise is a sea/river side path which leads to spit that reaches across the river. It is a beautifully quiet walk. The sea was very warm and gentle. Even I got my feet wet, as did mum.

Well not in this picture

The spit was populated by birds and small car ferries went back and forward from 'John 3:16' to Waiheke island.


On the land side of the spit mangrove were taking over and forming swamps and pools of clear water.
On Wednesday the day was not quite as pleasant, but we did have a good drive up the North West side of North Island beyond Helensville to MacNuts Farm on South Head Road. Here they grow and harvest nuts -Macadamia nuts to be precise. We had a slice of very tasty MacNut mud cake and a cup of chai latte, before exploring the garden attached to the farm and buying a pack of tasty nuts.

From here we made our way, with some help from the SAT NAV, across from the West coast and State Highway 16 to the East coast and State Highway 1.

We eventually made it to Warkworth where we joined SH1 and started down to Puhoi which was our destination. Very soon I spotted the Honey Centre. Here we had (Mum - Ginger Ale and fruit yogurt / me lime milkshake and a wrap).

On we went. SH1 goes from the furthest north of North Island where it is a gravel track to Wellington, where it is a four lane motorway. From Warkworth to the new toll road section it is a single lane road, but like most open roads the speed limit is 100kph (70 mph - if you dare).

Just before the toll road tunnel was our turn to Puhoi. You simply go to the centre of the road and take the right turn.

Puhoi is almost another world. It calls itself a town. (Population is too small for 'Lonely Planet' to record.) It claims to be NZs first Bohemian (Czechoslovakian) settlement. It has a Catholic church, a hotel, a Catholic school, a stables and a library.

The library is a good example of the village spirit. It is a small white hut in the centre of the village.


I had set up my tripod to take a picture of the front of the building when there was a movement and an apology from inside. I then had a very pleasant meeting with Mary. I went in and spoke with an elderly lady. She told me that she was not the librarian, but was standing in while the librarian was playing golf. I then asked how often new books were put into the library. Here is where the strength of community came in. Apparently the library has no public funds. Once a year the whole stock is put out in a marquee to be sold and the people of the village supply a new stock by donating books.

Mary did not sound very much like a Kiwi. She told me that she was from Yorkshire. I asked how long ago. She said 40 years. She had bought out her three children. The eldest was now 52 and all had settled either here or in Australia. Her husband was a carding machine engineer. We talked about not everywhere being as rosy as people make out. She made it clear that if it was only her and her husband they would return to the UK. It is still home to them.

Puhoi was our destination because it had a cheese factory.This was 3km further up the road. We were free to walk around the grounds which had fountains and great views of the hills. After our walk we had afternoon tea and set off back to Auckland.


Once more we crossed SH1 and a few meter later arrived at the mouth of the very recently opened toll road. Regular drivers clocked up a bill, courtesy of cameras and computers. We chose to pull off to the cash pay point. Two officials had a tent and seats to help motorists deal with the computer terminal. Mum succeeded in typing in our registration number and putting the princely sum of $2 into the machine and we were on our way. From here it is motorway through Auckland.