Hmm, what shall I do to celebrate my 64th birthday? I know! Jeanne and I can play with GOLD!

Today the header picture is the high point of this post. It shows the moment when Jeanne held in excess of $60,000.00 of solid, .9999 pure gold in her hands. And, she even let me take it away from her (I did have to pry her fingers ever so slightly) and give it back to the bullion trader who was hovering nearby. 

It doesn't look as large in the photo as it seemed when we held it, and you can't really see the thickness, but that is one kilogram (2.2 lbs.) of gold.  

I didn't know that we would handling that much gold when I got out of bed this morning. I intended to celebrate my birthday with a trip into the city and the purchase of some silver coins. 

Silver has come down in price somewhat lately and the U.S. dollar is quite strong against the Kiwi dollar. Those factors mean that is a very good time to buy some precious metal souvenirs of NZ. 

The New Zealand Mint is located just off Queen Street in Auckland, about a 20 minute walk from Britomart.  

Jeanne and I jumped the train at Sturges Road just before 9 am and 50 minutes later, hit the big city. 

About 10 minutes from Britomart, we decided it was time for a nice breakfast. Those little brown bundles are called 'hash.' They're very much like homemade hash browns but were deep fried. In the background you can see a guy walking past on Queen Street. 

We started with English Breakfast Tea. They served it with a tiny cinnamon wafer. I'm not really a fan of milk in my tea but tried it that way this morning just because.  Breakfast is bacon, eggs and 'hash.' 

After eating, we continued up Queen Street and started huffing and puffing a little as we climbed the steeper portion of it. We came to this very popular and well known area that often hosts open air performances and travelling art works. The square was empty today. 

Aotea Square

Well, the square wasn't completely empty. There was this small group of exercisers.

This is the front entrance to the New Zealand Mint. I love it. 

I have a new respect for the New Zealand Mint. Their building is six stories or so and very modern looking, but I love most that they had their architect add a very unique entrance to the lobby. You get into the mood of the business as you walk through this vault-like passage. 

We went up to the first floor, talked to the receptionist and were soon met by a 'bullion trader.' Mr. Sampson Heng showed us the coins I have pictured below and then, when I asked to see a Kiwi gold coin, not only brought the 1 oz. coin I asked for, but brought a kilogram bar of gold too. Just for fun he said.  And it was fun. A proper birthday treat.  -djf

A far cry from that fortune in gold we got to hold. These two go for about $20.00 U.S. dollars each. 

Yet another day at the beach...Army Bay Beach.

When I started to put together the first part of the Army Bay Beach posts, I didn't intend to do three segments. After showing you the first two however, I realized that I still had some nice pictures that I wanted to share. 

Today therefore, is the third (and last) installment of beach pictures. I hope that you're not tired of looking at beautiful scenery. 

The rocky shoreline means it's fairly slow going as you walk. 

It seems as though there are always people fishing at some point along the shore, but I haven't seen many fish caught. 

I love looking at this. Colors and textures, animate and inanimate
My advice is to use your zoom on some of  these. 

"Today's show is brought to you by the letter, E."

Tiny channels wind through the rocks and everywhere, the sea snails explore.If a person were shipwrecked on this beach, these snails might be important. They are tiny, but they are everywhere. There must  be at least hundreds of thousands of them in the area I have covered today.  

Have you spotted the village?

No, this is not one of Arram's creations. Some other kid left it behind. 

Even the driftwood here is impressive

Heading home, sigh.
Army Bay Beach is on a peninsula, which is only about 1/2 kilometer wide where ABB is located.  This is over looking  the other side of the peninsula.  As we make our way homeward, we can sometimes see water on both sides of us at the same time since the road follows the ridgeline for the most part.   -djf

I've enjoyed both kinds of bench rest activities. Long distance shooting and long duration snoozing. I recommend them both, though not simultaneously.

For those of us who have attained senior status, benches are a welcome find as we tramp through the parks and along the streets of Henderson. Today's post is a compilation of benches where Jeanne and I have rested our bones and once or twice even our eyelids.  

("Benches? He's posting pictures of benches?  Oh, brother. I know that old people like to watch grass grow and paint dry.  They probably sit on benches while they do those things I guess. But wow, this is pretty lame"....)

This bench is a bit utilitarian in my view, but better than the branch behind it.
This photo could be entitled: "The Evolution of the Bench", don't you think?

Aging makes one appreciate back support. This design could be improved upon. 

Aahhhh, this one is more like it and very cooling here too.

Certainly stylish, in the Corbin Estate, but a hot surface for one's back, at least on sunny days.

I wrote an essay some time ago that I entitled Welcome to the Club. In it I told the story of how aging has brought me into a whole new circle of friends. (posted here April 22, 2015)

While working on today's post, I looked around on-line for something that commented on another side of the aging process, and hopefully something that referred to benches so that it would make sense to use it here. That other side of aging is the fact that some segments of society don't notice or respect older folks. I've experienced it myself on occasion. Thank goodness that very small children still look me in the eye. And their mums and dads. In fact, I even rate smiles from them fairly often. 

This poem does exaggerate things a bit. (but I do like that it mentions both grand kids and benches)

 i n v i s i b l e

a few may see me,

most of them don't

my grandchildren would,

teenagers won't

old men like me somehow fade from sight

quiet on our benches, but in full daylight

as the street crowds pass unaware i wonder

...do i still cast a shadow?

 by S. D. Dubio, (U. S.) used by permission, 2015

Here are some more.....

Along the Opanuku Stream, paved side

This one looks about as old as I am, but my hide is lichen-free. 

At the hospital, sliver free and spotlessly clean of course

On the corner of Lincoln and Swanson, shaded by a gum tree.
I've been trying for a long time to figure out what this tree is. Allie recently found a site that lists protected trees in the area. That list calls it a gum tree. I think it might be a type of eucalyptus, Corymbia ficifolia. (Native to Australia) I need to wait until it flowers to confirm my hunch. I'll let you know.

 It's almost always breezy here at the base camp for Mount Dizzy

Back comfort is somewhat lacking in this model, except in the very center, but I like how it can to used to sit from either direction, depending on the length of one's legs of course. The upper portion is  also used by runners sometimes to lean against as they catch their breath.  Kids like these for climbing. Even the top of the center support is broad enough for a little one to attain and gaze upon the world far below. They remind me of little goats as they climb.
In a pinch, I suppose they could be used as a picnic table of sorts...but then, the real thing is available near by.

I think these should be renamed. From now on, they are ... Feasting Benches         -djf

("Well, I guess that wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. At least there weren't too many of the things. I suppose the old guy is pleased that he can still  aim his camera.  Probably a Kodak, with flash bulbs no doubt, from the last century")

Army Bay Beach, part two

With this post, we're going to look at another part of this wonderful beach. If you go back to part one, and look again at the 2nd photo, you'll be looking toward this stretch of rocks.

The picure below shows what a wide area of the rocks at the foot of the cliff are like. They've been worn smooth and many of their interiors appear to be softer than the outer walls since they've become hollowed out. Because the tide comes in and out here every 6 hours, they are home to all sort of beautiful creatures. 

There is also a multi-colored bit of cliff face that leaks a tiny spring that forms a little pool.

I wish you could be here to see how the sun glistens on the wet face of that colored portion of the cliff.  That's a little fresh water pool of course.

Now look at this flat rock. It's a piece of art. Can you imagine if this was polished to a high sheen? It's about a metre by two metres in size.

We'll finish off today with a few shots of the seagulls Amiri lured in using chips.  -djf

You can see that one gull has been knocked right off his feet.

A couple of times I thought we were on the set of  Hitchcock's The Birds. This shows a very small piece of sky. There must have been at least 50 flying all around, hoping for their chance. 

It may be just a gull, but it sure is beautiful up close.

Army Bay Beach, part one

It takes about an hour to drive to Army Bay Beach, but it's well worth it. It's worth it because it is protected from the westerly winds. It's on the Pacific side due north of Auckland and the surf is minimal most of the time. On either end of the sandy beach are unique rocky outcroppings with tide pools where all sorts of marine life can be seen up close. The parking lot is right above the beach, very convenient, that. It has restrooms! There are boaters, and fisherman, and shellfish gatherers. It has something for everyone I think. 

A couple of weeks ago, Allie suggested that we head up there. On the way, we picked up Subway sandwiches which we ate on the beach after we arrived.  

A couple of us had agendas for part of the day. I wanted sea water for another small batch of salt.  Allie wanted seaweed to mix with shredded paper she recycles for compost. And, as it turned out, the others brought home treasures as well. Grammy and Amiri picked clover for the guinea girls, and Arram brought home the stones and shells that he had used to produce a wonderful castle one the beach.  

Here we are relaxing after our meal. We were planning what to do first. 

We're looking north here. There are islands in the bay and more of the north island (the mainland if you can call it that) beyond them in the far distance. The seagulls hang around all day looking for handouts. Just before we left, Amiri indulged them with some Grain Waves and I got some good pictures.  The small blue plastic container  on the sand between the ladies contains the last few oatmeal raisin cookies that Grammy baked two days ago. 

This is looking to the left from our position (west). It's very low tide and you can see the rocks I mentioned.

And this is looking to the right. (east) Beyond that headland is the Army territory that the bay is named for. 

Soon, we had our plan. Allie and Amiri headed just down the beach to do a little quick tree climbing while Arram kicked his soccer ball around a bit. We all agreed though that after just a few minutes, we would head down the beach toward the rocks where we generally find giant snail shells. That would be in the direction of the picture just above.  

The tide is out and the rocks are nicely exposed. Between the rocks are numerous little channels that hold all sorts of critters. Who knows what we'll find today?

Here is Jeanne making her way over the rocks. Out beyond the end of the rocks is where some Maori teens harvested a sack of kina (sea urchins) one day.  Somebody else is out there today.

Allie has her collecting bucket, but she's not after critters, she has it for the seaweed she'll find.  She takes only the dead stuff that's been uprooted and tossed up on the beach. Note that there is someone sneaking up behind her.

Here is a nice find

Sometimes, it doesn't appear in these shots that there is any water. That starfish is under about an inch of water. We didn't find a single snail shell today. Rather disappointing.

In this next shot, I'm standing on the rocks and looking back toward the sandy beach. The steps from the car park are the centre of this beach. You can see that this is a popular place to lauch boats. The ramp up to the street starts just to the left of the big tree on the left side of this picture. The boaters have a car park of their own up there, sized to accommodate their trailers.  

I have many more pictures to show you of this beautiful place. With the next post, we are going to go down to the other end of the sandy beach and look at amazing rock formations and the gorgeous tidal pools they protect.   

We had sun but the temps were probably mid-fifties and it was of course breezy.

Before we leave today though, here are two last shots of activities I mentioned earlier. -djf

Every stone and shell was precious. They all came home with us.

Amiri has always been a climber. And an explorer. There he goes.