The White Lady

With all the walking I've done in and around Auckland, I can't believe that I hadn't run across The White Lady before this. It's true that she's on a street that's a block beyond my usual route. I'm a little embarrased that I apparently follow such predictable paths. Nevermind.

I know about her now and intend to give her some business every now and then. She's the grand old lady of Auckland nightlife. Come and meet her. I'm sorry I can't buy you a hamburger of some sort. We could find a bench nearby, watch the crowds walk by and eat our fill. 

Here is my very own 'white lady' standing in front of Auckland's White Lady.

 There is a recipe in this cookbook for The White Lady Hamburger.

 This is Jeanne's copy of the cookbook...

 and the recipe as it appears.

Jeanne and I tried burgers slightly smaller than The White Lady Burger, but equally as delicious.

Here's her menu:

 https://www.zomato.com/the-white-lady-food-truck/menu

I'm pleased that Jeanne and I are now part of the history of The White Lady. Check it out. 

https://www.thewhitelady.co.nz/

What do you think Dianne? Shall we do lunch?        -djf

3rd part of Oneroa

It's now the middle of the afternoon and Jeanne and I have been either traveling to get here, or wandering on the beach, or climbing over the cliff from the northern part of Oneroa to this southern part for several hours. We're starting to drag a bit. Spotting this little store was the answer to recharging our batteries. 

What we need is a rejuvenating beverage FULL of caffeine. A couple of diet Cokes later, we walked back across the road to the park. 

I'd guess the temperature is about 75 and there is just enough of a breeze.

Here is another arch. If the boys were here, they'd have to crawl under it. I had enough crawling in the cave and that looks too low for me anyway.

A dinner plate-sized jellyfish

Quite a few seagulls are nesting. They didn't seem upset by our presence at all. 

After we got back from our first trip out here, I was surfing Youtube and came across a video by some guy, young and spry enough to climb to a hidden portion of these rocks and discover an opening or tunnel through to the other side. I vowed I'd try to locate it when we returned. Well, there it is. To get right up to it, I'd have to splash through some water, and climb up and over some rocks that don't appear in this picture. I'm holding my camera over them while I stand on tiptoe. 
Not gonna happen. Too old, stiff, chubby, etc. 

But at least I found it. I walked around to the other side but could not approach the opening at all. A person might have to get to it by coming from the sea side of the rocks. Beyond my abilities. 

We spent the last bit of our day at the beach quietly strolling through the sandy paths between the outcroppings of lava. 

One thing I noticed and appreciated was the number of benches that had been placed around the park and beach. Most of them were labeled by the donor. It must have been a project undertaken at some point. We made use of several of them.

The best of days has to end and we finally called it quits. The 50-sun block we had slathered on this morning had worked. We spent 5 or 6 hours in the sun but felt no sign of overexposure. That's good stuff. 

We caught a bus back to the ferry terminal and had to wait only about 15 minutes for one to arrive. This is a video I took while standing on the pier. You'll see Rangitoto out there, a bit of Auckland in the distance, and our ferry approaching. You'll see people heading down the ramp to get into line. Jeanne and I joined them just before the ferry arrived. 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNrld_R0qvE&feature=youtu.be

Here it is. Not much of a crowd returning yet. I'd guess that between 6 and 8 pm it'll get nutsy again. We'll be home and relaxing by that time. 

I don't normally like to travel on the top deck of a ferry. If it's rough, you get a lot more motion up there. The other reason is that these ferries fly. It's way too windy up here to be comfortable. I'm surprised there are so many people up here way tougher than I am.

The view from the top deck. No mystery ships chasing us this time.  I didn't really think the Dread Pirate Roberts* operated in these waters anyway.      

* The Princess Bride came out in 1987 when Allie was young and became an instant classic for us. I've made a couple of references to it in these three Oneroa posts. If you haven't seen it somehow or you haven't for a long time, I urge you to find it. Amiri and Arram resisted it at first, when we told them we had an 'old movie' for them to watch, but fell hard under it's spell before very long. Now we own it and it gets watched regularly. Peter Falk is wonderful and Billy Crystal beyond words.     -djf

2nd Part of Oneroa

As we explored this rocky beach, we were surprised at how few other people were to be seen. I'd describe our frequency of seeing other beach combers as 'occasional.'  After battling the crowds like we did to arrive here, it was pleasing to note that apparently all of them went elsewhere. 

Jeanne and I continued to simply wander around and relax. 

Here is that arch I showed you last time, taken from a different angle.

What's over here?

Another little tide pool

Look at all that green

Looking up at the trees growing out of the cliff.

It has been a couple of hours since Jeanne fed the ducks bits of half her sandwich. We've been in the sun the whole time and some shade and a rest would be welcome. 

You've probably noticed in a few pictures that Jeanne is sporting a walking pole. I recently bought this pair and we are sharing and testing them for the first time today. 
I have been aware that my balance is not what is used to be. I find that I can still manage on uneven terrain but it takes more attention to do so. And calling some of the places we wander to as 'uneven terrain' is minimising it. A fall onto the kind of rocks we are crossing today would certainly result in badly torn clothing and skin and it could mean breaking something.
We have been very pleased with this purchase. They collapse and can be stored in our backpacks, they're light and it's surprising how just the little bit of stabilization they give us improves our ability to manuever. 
You know, back in our previous lives, I had made quite a number of walking sticks. That's what I was familiar with. Buying these poles seemed just a little too 'trendy' to me, but they are much handier than even the lightest cedar wood. 

There was a clip from Portlandia that I thought of as I was buying this 'gear.' 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3SFqV0hMyo

 Jeanne had made us chicken and cheese sandwiches and brought along her home-canned dill pickles.  We had oranges and a mix of cashews and raisins. Plenty of water. It was a good lunch.

The view from our table toward the sandy side of the beach. This is at about 2pm. and look at how empty it is. I love it. 

After lunch, we climbed the hill behind the beach and found the Oneroa Beach track to follow to the top of the cliff. The view from the top was worth the climb.

Part way up.

A little higher

Almost there

 On top

 Look at this guy. I wondered if he intended to ground his boat on the beach.

 He's still coming, not fast, but steady...

 And look at this. I've never seen this before.

 He could steer the front tire and crossed the beach at a walking pace.  He drove to the top of the beach, turned around and headed back into the Pacific.

We began walking down the track, heading for another part of the beach and look what we saw. This is the back of St. Peter's Catholic Church. 

What a back yard huh?       -djf

--more to come. next stop is