Our bus trip to Brown's Bay

This past Thursday we went on a day bus tour from our village to four beaches which lie north of Auckland, on the Pacific side of the island.  We had a great time.  And the weather cooperated. That was a minor miracle, based on the experiences we've had during the course of our just completed, very rainy summer.  

Jeanne and I have been to all four of the beaches in the past, but it has been a long time, so seeing them again was a treat.  We saw Long Bay Beach, Brown's Bay Beach, Milford Beach and Takapuna Beach. Brown's Bay is the only place we stopped and walked on the beach, and you're invited to take a look at what we saw.  

Our group had been gathered in the lobby for some time when the bus arrived. We loaded quickly.  We are all experienced day-trippers and wasted no time.  

About an hour later, we are off the bus and admiring the view from Brown's Bay Beach. 

That's Rangitoto of course to the right of the tree. 

We'll walk down the beach in that direction.

Let's go down to the base of the cliffs.

This is as far as we can go.  

At low tide, we could probably wade through the stream and over to the cliffs.  

We're back up on the street next to the park.  

I've turned 90 degrees from the street scene I just showed you and am facing the playground.  Amiri and Arram spent many happy hours here when they were young while we old folks sipped coffee in the shade. Allie was alternately busy with them or walking across the street for ice cream when they needed a break from gymnastics. 

We're boarding the bus for our ride home.

We came back past downtown. We're on the Harbor Bridge. 

Auckland is called 'The City of Sails.' 

We ate lunch at the Swanson RSA (Returned Services Association.  Similar to our VFW.)  

As we ate we could look out the back windows.  

Our tour was about six hours long, including lunch. We came home satisfied and ready to put our feet up.  

We'll be ready to sign up for whatever tour is next on the agenda.     -djf

GG's post

Hello everyone.  I am doing a special post this week in honor of a special person. Her name is GG and she is my grandniece. We have corresponded several times and she is interested in pictures of New Zealand.  

I was very impressed GG, that you emailed a comment to me about my last post. So, I thought I'd do something out of the ordinary to show my appreciation.  This post and these pictures are especially for you.  I hope you enjoy them.  I took these pictures over a period of several years and in many different places.  These are a few of my favorite pictures.  

This is Army Bay Beach.  There were lots of seagulls there that day.  Whenever I hear seagulls crying, I imagine that they are saying goodbye before flying to far away places. 

Look at how beautiful they are in flight.  This particular gull is a red-billed gull in English or an akiaki in Maori.  

That is a volcano called Rangitoto that erupted from under the ocean about 650 years ago. It shot so much lava out of it that it piled up, cooled off, and turned into the island that you see now. Rangitoto is just off shore from Auckland.  We have taken a ferry boat out to it and climbed to the top a couple of times.  

Once, some older boys wanted to play a joke on everybody in Auckland.  They snuck out to Rangitoto and lit a huge, smokey fire in the cone on top of the volcano.  Lots of people saw the smoke and thought that Rangitoto might be getting ready to erupt again.  They became very worried. The boys thought it was pretty funny until they got caught.  I don't know what happened to them, but they never tried a stunt like that again.  

Here is a video about two volcanos.  Maybe you've seen it before, but it's one of my favorites, so I hope you don't mind seeing it again.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh4dTLJ9q9o&list=RDuh4dTLJ9q9o&start_radio=1

We live in Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand, and it has many parks in it. I found this tree in one of them.  This one has a sort of cave it it's trunk, that is big enough for you, GG, to climb into.  

This is Bethells Beach if you're speaking English, or Te Henga if you're speaking Maori.  Jeanne is walking along it. 

Here, Jeanne has walked into a large cave on O'Neill's Beach.  You can see a little hole in the back of the cave that she can climb out through, if she gets down on her hands and knees, that is.  Did you notice that the sand here is black?  That's because this sand is made from lava.  

Here I am standing outside another cave at Te Henga.  There are two openings to this cave.  They meet way back inside the hill.  I went into the big side on the right and came out the small side.  I had to wade through a shallow river to get to and from this cave.  The water was only up to the top of my ankles.  It's not a dangerous cave but it was very exciting to walk through it.  

This is a picture of Auckland in the distance.  We are standing on the top of North Head, which was also a volcano, but one that erupted many, many ages ago.  To get here, we took a ride on a ferry to cross over Auckland's harbor.  Then we had to climb 160 feet to the top of North Head.  As volcanic cones go, it is a very small one.  

The next thing I'll show you, GG, is a video about gannets.  They are large seabirds that make their nests on the cliffs at Muriwai Beach.  We have climbed up to an observation platform.  It is windy here, the birds are very noisy and to tell the truth, they smell terrible. But it's gorgeous, in a wild sort of way, don't you think?  I almost feel like a bird myself, being up so high and seeing birds flying below me.  

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AhxhBoOUszlJ00Pru5JKfSE16qG7?e=qoKQ3M

A gannet sitting its nest.  (Its nest is really just a place on the rock. They're not very good homemakers.)  

Here is another video of a pair of gannets.  In this one, you'll see them greet each other when one comes home from fishing, and also see why they are so smelly. (They poop all over the place.)

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AhxhBoOUszlJgZNadZGNU1TKhTiMDw?e=tQp52D

Finally, I have several last pictures for you.  This first was taken while we were on a whale and dolphin watching boat.  We were a couple of miles out to sea when this happened.  

It was right next to me.  I felt as though I could almost touch it. 

And then, not much later, a fin whale went by at the same moment that another dolphin jumped completely out of the water.  

Do you see some mist in the air over the whale?  That's because when it's blowhole came out of the water, it blew a lung full of old air out of its lungs and breathed in a giant breath of fresh air before its head went under water again.  I'll show you some more pictures of that. 

Here are some more pictures of the same whale. Our boat turned and followed it for a while and I was able to get more photos. It's swimming away from us. 

This is what happens when the whale exhales, or breathes out.  Its breath comes out in a huge whoosh!  

Do you see that bump, sort of in front, on top of the whale?  That's its blowhole, sort of a nose but on top of its head.  It's breathing fresh air in now while it's out of the water.  

And now, its head is under water again. It's holding its breath and you can see its back and the fin on the top of its back.  

That's just the middle of its back you can see.  An average adult male fin whale is 70 feet long and weights 45 tons.  Do you think 70 feet is big?  I'd say so.  Just think, most school buses are about 42 feet long. Next time you see a school bus, think of a much longer fin whale sitting next to it.    

I enjoyed all the memories that seeing these pictures provided, and I hope you enjoyed having your very own post, GG.  Your special post is number 589.  

I lava you.    -djf

 

A long time.

It had been a long time since I've wandered along Ponsonby Road. I realized recently that such a serious lapse needed to be rectified, and promptly.  Accordingly, when a day with cooperative weather happened along, I jumped aboard bus 134, anticipating as I took my seat, the upcoming reunion with my old friend.    

Today's post will show you some shots from our reunion.  I enjoyed seeing it again, although I actually covered only a small portion of it.  In intend to return soon and expand my hike to include places that I missed this first time back.  

As always, you are invited to come along. I think my old friend has acquired a few more wrinkles since I last visited it.  A bread store we loved has disappeared, but a different one, located a few blocks away from the lost one will assure that I can bring Jeanne back a treat.  Those things are bound to happen with time.  I also visited a very interesting grocery that has survived the stresses that Covid brought to the world, and that has always provided me with some sort of never-before-tried delicacy. 

Here we are, just off the bus.  I wonder how Pollen Street got its name?  

There are quite a few Vietnamese takeaway places springing up all over the city, and I notice that they seem to like innovative names.  Another one I know of over on Carlton Gore Road is called, Hello, Mister.  The sign for Eat mi, which you see third from the top on the signpost, while possibly a little rude, does get its message across with a minimum of fuss.  

I enjoy looking at the signs as much as I like looking at the surroundings. 

Hmm, no wonder I like this area.  Feels welcoming. 

I'll look up from the street for a moment and show you where we are in relation to downtown Auckland.  The Sky Tower is 1.6 km., or 1 mile from us.  (thanks, Google Maps) 

It did happen to be Tuesday that I took this picture.  

Here's the grocery I referred to earlier. 

They've got a great selection of cheese from all over here.  I'll show you what I chose later.

I bought another little treat. Pasta sauce with Italian truffles and Pecorino Romano cheese.   

I've shown you Western Park in detail before, so I won't repeat the pictures here.  You may recall though that it boasts a number of replicas of old Auckland buildings that rise from the ground at odd angles.  

This restaurant is right next to the bus stop.  I'm relaxed and pleased with my adventure. I'm anxious now to return home and show Jeanne what I found.  

Home again:

Our old favorite, the Bread and Butter shop may be gone, but a new store, Daily Bread, provided me with this dense, heavily seeded sour dough style loaf.  Eaten fresh, with Spanish Manchego or Danish Bleu cheese it is perfect.  When we toasted slices for breakfast the next morning and slathered on butter, it was even better.  The sunflower and pumpkin seeds that dotted its surface took on an additional toasty-ness and forced us to prolong breakfast with second slices. 

I tried one of their French baguettes too as you see and Jeanne thought it was even better than those I usually get from our favorite French place over in Newmarket.  I wondered if Daily Bread might have used a small percentage of whole wheat flour in their dough?  

I've come to the end of my pictures for this week. 

There is a bookstore I enjoyed exploring once in the past, and there is a German pretzel bakery that I'd like to see again as well. Another trip to Ponsonby Road is a certainty

so don't be surprised when you see my report on it. I just wish I could bring home a big bag of pretzels and pass them out to all of you.      -djf 

The Coronation of King Charles

I offer a very short, but noteworthy post this week.  I've chronicled the celebrations here at Waitakere Gardens Retirement Village surrounding the Coronation of King Charles. Obviously, there is a lot of interest and excitement.  

The beginning of happy hour.

We normally have our happy hour every Friday afternoon at 4pm.  This Friday's was made especially 'happy' because we were treated to 'bubbles' and snacks in honor of the King's Coronation.   

The Coronation is taking place late on our Saturday evening.  I'm going down to snap a few photos in the Twin Streams Lounge, where a group is already watching the preparations on the screen down there.  Let's go....

This is the view from inside our lift on the 2nd floor. I just pushed the button. 

And with the doors shut.

And on the ground floor. The lights are low in the Atrium. The action is straight ahead.  

In the lounge.  Looks like they're ready to celebrate once the ceremony concludes.  I'm afraid that the actual ceremony doesn't start for some time yet.  Jeanne and I have run out of steam and are retiring for the night.  

A festive mood has surrounded and filled our village, and I expect it to continue today as all of New Zealand celebrates.    -djf