Seaside Holiday

Today has been one of those we are on holiday days.

After doing some work around the house this morning we had lunch. I made a cuscus concoction. I have never had couscous. But, warmed up with chopped fresh tomatoes and sweet chilli sauce it was nice.

Then we smothered ourselves with suntan lotion, grabbed our books and went off to the beach at St Heliers. The sea was out and it was a very low tide. We headed 0ff in the direction of the rocky headland.

We were able to scramble a good way round until we came in sight of the Lady Bay steps. However, we reached a point were we could go no further. There had obviously been a connecting bridge from the flat rocks where we were to the rocks of Lady Bay, but erosion had long since removed them. The strata was very horizontal and at times looked like a man made wall. In places what looked like pipes of hard rock stood out.


In other places the soft rock layers had been undercut and the platform of hard rock and been worn into an overhanging jigsaw pattern.

The people who live near the edge of this place have wonderful views.


We tried to find some shade, but decided to sit on a bench overlooking the bay and read our books.

We did a bit of shopping and back to the house.

Zoe and Emily played their usual evening games on the swings and the trampoline. Zoe also picked the first of the raspberries. I am hoping that Zoe will settle down earlier than last night so that we can join Sally to enjoy another episode of Boston Legal

Mount Wellington - Plumbers World

Today, Weds, we had the car, so having done some work around the house we decided to have lunch on the top of Mount Wellington before visiting 'Plumbing World' as investigators for Lawrence.

Mt Wellington is landmark for this area. If you do not have a SAT NAV and are lost you head for Mt W and find a road from there. Mt W is a regular route marker for shopping and Sally's office. Although Mt W is not difficult to see, the entrance point is more difficult to find, even with a SAT NAV. We drove through gates up one way road that was light an upwards helter-skelter and just below the summit we pulled up into the car park. This was a favourite spot for workers to pull into for lunch. There were picnic benches where we had our lunch. We were glad that we had once more boosted the country's suntan lotion economy. There was no shade. From where we sat we could see Rangitoto and the housing development in the quarry below.

It is a strange development for NZ. The ground is totally flat, the roads are very grid like. The few occupied house exactly the same in shape and grey colour. From our vantage point we could see executive style detached houses, but at the back of their gardens their was a row of grey terraced homes. Very strange.

The crater of the volcano had been partly levelled and a fence added to prevent falls into the cone a good way below. I would seem that this filling in and earth work was carried out by Maoris to create a hill fort.

I made it to to the summit, but mum found the rugged path beyond the steps too difficult to walk on. From the top can be seen the usual city view, but to the south is the entrance of the Tamaki River flowing into the Panmure Basin. This area was very nearly chosen as the starting point for building Auckland and the current industrial use gives a good idea why that idea came up.

We returned via 'Plumbing World'. This a large store. The front has displays of all the elegant products used here, but through the back is a vast array of plumbing components. In the front were elegant ladies chosing the latest bathroom look and in back were rougher plmbers buying the fitments to make dreams come true. All the components that Lawrence gave me are compatible with components in NZ. But, sorry Lawrence, your boiler catalogue amused the hardened experts. One of the plumbers, a cutomer, looked at the catalogue and immediately said, "That's Pommie stuff". I replied "Yer, right". They most certainly do not do central heating, I asked about water heating. He pointed to a tall shiny cylinder. I asked how it works. He said that there was a 3 Kw element inside. (They do gas too.) Electricity is generally hydro or thermal and therefore relatively cheap here.

After lunch I did some woodwork. I left the glue to dry and when I returned a strange, alien like insect was on it.