Blogs from North Shore, Auckland, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 7

Since our arrival back in Auckland we have occupied much of our time with live music at The Bunker, a folk club venue on Mount Victoria in Devonport, which is near the marina at Bayswater and in Ponsonby, another suburb of Auckland. In addition we've been spending our days at the Auckland Traditional Boatbuilding School where we're finishing off a clinker dinghy. The purchase of the said vessel came about after discussions with our friends John and Judy Salthouse, whose boatyard built Marnie in 1985. Judy's brother, Robert, runs the boatbuilding school at Hobsonville Airfield and on meeting with him he advised that the original dinghy to accompany Marnie was built by Snow Waters, a now deceased local dinghy builder who had been their next door neighbour for many years. Coincidentally, the last dinghy he'd been ... read more

Yes, that's right! Auckland. It's not a surprise to most, but it would be to my parents. I decided to make a detour back to NZ (which had been the plan all along) for my Dad's 60th birthday. And despite the years I took off my families' lives from the shock, I would say it was a very successful trip. So I flew back into bright blue skies in Auckland and met Cam who had come to pick me up (thanks again mate!) and he dropped me off at Leah's (thanks again as well!) where I would be hiding out for three days until my Dad's birthday. Of course the first thing I did was head to the beach via the bakery. Mince and Cheese pie and L&P! Quality Kiwi cuisine. The water was fantastic as ... read more

Today we had a trip to Devonport. Devonport is a pleasant little suburb of Auckland and home of the New Zealand Navy. You can actually see it from our window, but it's some distance by road, as you have to cross the Waitemata Harbour Bridge to get there. The easiest way to get there is by ferry from the Auckland waterfront. They run every half hour or so, and it takes about 10 minutes to get across. Devonport has a distinctive shape, it's a sort of peninsula, with two volcanic mounds, Mount Victoria at one end, and North Head at the other, jutting out into the gulf like a giant brassiere. (Trust him to think of that, I hear you say, but that really is the best way to describe it!) Once there, it's like a ... read more

Today we went for a hike in Long Bay in the marine reserve, what a stunningly beautiful place! The beach is about 1km long, packed with people cause it was such a beautiful day. The bay is really beautiful, you can see the islands on the horison. There were sail boats, speed boats, & cruise ships lolling around the bay. The walk was quite exhausting even though it was just a couple of km's & I realized I'm a bit out of shape, huffing & puffing up the rises along the cliffs! We passed the nude beach, it's a bit of a sausage fest. I only saw one woman on the whole beach & she was a bit matured, shall we say. We sat down on the beach after the hike, just looking out over the ... read more

left home exactly 2 months ago today! another local week this week, we were on Mount Albert on mon and fri and in North Shore tues - thurs team = Dan, me, Adam, Charlotte (i requested them for my birthday week), Taz, Matthias 21 germany, Hosung, Sascia, Kate (welsh one) MON - mount albert pulling out montpellier broom, thistles, privet etc. only did about 2.5hrs as we strated late and finished early and had a longish lunh break as we didnt have morning smoko, having started late, and also it rained so we waited for the worst of it to stop. finished early to get the shopping done for the week of food and to get a talk on the weeds we would be getting on tues - thurs in the office from dan. a birthday ... read more