Tradition says it should have been some sort of sapphire...

...but she told me some time ago that she no longer wants gifts of jewelry. So, I got Jeanne some Black Opium perfume instead for our forty-fifth wedding anniversary. 

And I asked her what She would like to do to mark the day? She said she'd like to go exploring. After all she pointed out, the first thing we did after getting married was to go off to Spain for four months. Why not go somewhere new for our 45th?  Somewhere like Waiheke Island, por ejamplo? 

Now, we had taken a Waiheke Island wine tour several years ago, compliments of Allie, but we really don't know the island at all. Why not take the ferry from Auckland out to Waiheke, hop an island bus and get off at some beach? We could walk the shore, pick up shells, study the lava and admire the ocean. We Love doing that. And it counts as exploration since we've never been to this beach before.

So that's what we did. The ferry ride out took about 40 minutes. We had some fog on the way out and the day was a little more overcast than I prefer. My pictures turn out better in full sun of course, but it didn't rain on us and we saw some wonderful sights, so, no complaints... 

Come along and share the day that we enjoyed...

 On the ferry, still in the harbor

 These ferries really go and look, we're out of sight of land already. It's the fog.

 Passing Rangitoto and quite a few sailing ships

 Arriving at Waiheke's Matiatia Bay. The fog is lifting somewhat.

 We're waiting for our lunch and you can see it's still foggy in the distance.  Burger and fries for me and fish n chips for Jeanne.

Walking down Oceanview Road above Oneroa Bay

 We're on the beach and looking west

A rugged volcanic coastline

 And look what's under foot. I love shells. 

 All those rocks are still sharp, even after all the weathering they've taken.

 Another one of my favorite things, a cave. Just a modest little one.

Dianne, we've got to get you out here. Look at this place.  

I think the soles of our shoes aged a couple of months out here today.

More rocks, and a tiny tide pool

 Looking east now 

 We're having afternoon coffee from an outdoor cafe.

 Our bus back to the wharf won't be along for about half an hour so we came back down the beach again. It has cleared up. I think that the land straight out that we're seeing is the Coromandel Peninsula. At the very left is a hint of more land farther out and that might be Great Barrier Island. Hard to tell if it is land or clouds. 

I'm guessing that this is a white-faced heron. 

What a great day we had. Our legs were tired from all the bending to pick up treasures and our feet were sore from walking on sharp rocks, but what a blast we had. Forty five years have passed since we tied the knot, but inside, we're pretty much as we were. We love to explore and we love to have adventures. And living here, we're in just the right place to do both. And just think, because we both carry Gold AtHop cards, ALL of the traveling we did yesterday was free. 

To close this post, here is a short, quiet video. I simply sat on a rock at one point, early in the day while the overcast was still quite heavy, and just admired the gentle ocean.  -djf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4lFOwm9kHs&feature=youtu.be