Blog from the Burbs

---

Just a quick report before we start the touring phase of our holiday. I hope you're keeping well.
Yesterday was an excellent day out on the Coromandel Peninsula, visiting the old gold mining town of Thames (It looked a bit like Klondyke as well) and the Kauaeranga Pass. The pass was majestically beautiful with topography just like Langkawi - with lots of Fern Trees and cicadas. We found a picnic spot by a bend in the river, only to be joined by boys and girls leaping into the river from the rocks above - that's what you do here on the way home from school. We must come back here and do the walks up the passes someday. But Mary finds the cicadas a bit too noisy for her liking. (But we can't find them to shut them up!)
Elsewhere in the valley, though. was plenty of evidence of how man finds ingenious ways to destroy nature. (Wish we were as clever at putting things right again.) The valley used to have lots of Kauri trees prized for the quality of their wood, but the wood was felled, and temporary dams were built to create artifiical lakes to cascade the logs down to the coast. Now there are very few Kauri trees.
We've also been inspecting the suburbs round our Motel. They're a bit like the burbs depicted in Hollywood films with immaculate lawns and pristine palm trees. (Better than Dalby Crescent?)
Must go now. We're off to see Kelly Tarlton's underwater place, I think.

PS. I've got a new gizmo, so I should be able to upload my pictures soon.

---

Photos

Auckland from Achilles Point
This is similar to what ships see as they approach

Hard Luck, Folks
Kelly Tarlton's fun and games

Coromandel and She
A little clearing in the forest

Into the NZ Jungle
You can't hear the cicadas, unfortunately

Achilles Point
Island opposite is a nature reserve

Early Auckland Residence
Interior - but it didn't have electricity in the early days

Comments

[Joanna Taylor]

River jumping
Now that's a good idea! This would get rid of some of their energy on the way home from school! I will send the boys over and Caroline might join them if she can hang around for long enough.

[sarah]

What gizmo?

[sarah]

What gizmo?

[Dunc and Mary]

To Sarah
A gizmo is a thing you put your camera memory card into - I've now found some FREE Internet use at the Novotel in Rotorua, so I might try the gizmo here