An Auckland base

 Wednesday 16th February

Heading south back to Auckland we had a few stops along the way. The first was the “World Famous Public Toilets” at Kawakawa.    Why so famous?  Judge for yourselves:




Next stop was Whangarei Falls.  Very beautiful and offered a great short walk down to the bottom and back. 



Escaping the main highway we headed off on another Tourist route which was delightful.  A few fabulous beaches and great views of off shore islands.  We found a wonderful café with a beach view.  Rick had brunch, Wendy ordered a coffee and cake. 

Breakfast at the bar 

While enjoying the coffee she chatted to a cyclist who rolled in.  He was from Newfoundland and surprised to meet people who’d been there!  Wendy’s cake never arrived, so when paying she said “Don’t worry, just take it off the bill”.  The response – they gave her the same cake in a takeaway box…on the house.  Impressive service.

Waipu Cove

Great trees at the beach

Having visited a supermarket in Auckland and finding lots missing from their veggie shelves, we tried in a town along the way.  Success.  We were able to get all we needed to treat Vanessa and Andreis a taco dinner with all the trimmings.   From there we simply returned to Vanessa’s house arriving before the madness of peak hour in Auckland.

The workers arrived home, they loved the dinner and we had a delightful evening of chatting and doing cryptic crosswords.

Saturday 17th February

We all rose late, had breakfast, packed the car, left Andreis behind and headed off on a Vanessa inspired adventure.   Heading westwards, our destination was Piha, on the west coast, only about 30km away. 

Before dropping down to the beach we enjoyed a splendid view from a lookout…unfortunately the photographer accidently deleted the photo!!!   A local café provided a delicious coffee and afghan biscuits and passing an art gallery we noticed it had an exhibition and live music.  



 An excellent unexpected treat.  Here we found out there was a community gumboot throwing competition with funds going towards cyclone repairs.  Vanessa and Wendy participated.  Due to a damaged finger, Vanessa threw left handed and her skill was such that when we left she was the leader of the women’s competition.




Wendy... not good enought

Vanessa had the style



Leaving Rick under a tree near the beach, Vanessa and Wendy headed off to do a walk to the Kitekite waterfall.  It was supposed to take about an hour, but with photography and swimming it too rather longer than that!   The area had been clear felled about 150 years ago so we were walking through regrowth, but it was beautiful rainforest as you can see…





We climbed to the top of the waterfall, took some photos but the “boom boxes” sent us scuttling down.  The pool under the falls demanded that we had a dip.  Vanessa did just that, in and out in a flash.  Wendy, as usual, just had to swim right up to the falls and get a thumping from the water.  Cold, refreshing, exhilarating…and painful!! 


Vanessa braving the pool at Kitekite Falls

Vanessa and Wendy after the dip

Masochist! 

Back at the beach, Rick had run out of patience and had his picnic lunch without us.  

Piha beach




Fuelled up and happily satisfied with the day, we returned home where Andreis prepared “bobotie”- a South African standard. 

A guitar and recorder came out of the cupboard, so a musical evening was enjoyed by all.

Warming up
Guitar and recorder.  Andreis in the background

A song





Comments

  1. Ness17 February 2024 at 12:32

    Lovely having you with us! It has been just magic 💕

    ReplyDelete

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