Made it out of Auckland!

Hello all! It is Tuesday, March 6 and we are sitting at an outdoor table at Muldoon's in Orewa having brunch.

We are staying at Orewa Beachfront Haven and our host is Judy and Peter Stansfield. It is a perfect place to escape from Auckland to take a breather to start planning our next adventure.

The unit itself is over their detached garage and is a well kept and maintained suite. There is no A.C. but the ocean breezes help keep it cool at night. Plus the beach is right behind the house! We will include some pictures but I'm going to post Judy's  phone and email address:

Judy.stansfield@gmail.com  and mobile is 027 953 6057 but I'm not sure what the international calling code is.

Driving out of Auckland was not too bad, we got on the Motorway 1 easily enough and I can say the windshield wipers did not come on as much as they did when I first started driving here!

Interesting to note that there 4.7 millon people here in NZ and one third live in Auckland, one third live in the rest of the North Island and the rest all live on the South Island! No wonder it was a nightmare that first night in the city. Every single one of Auckland's vehicles were downtown at the same time we were. Least it felt that way!!

We do have a golf game booked for 1:30, otherwise nothing too exciting to report on at the moment.


Brunch time and Bob with his nose stuck in the tablet doing the exact same thing that he usually complains about other people doing in public; having their nose stuck in their electronic device....but gotta keep the blog going!

This the backyard of our host's house.



Some shots of our suite...is that Vanna?

And this is Judy, our host

Here is Mo.....apparently he talks ...when he wants to...he didn't want to.

Naomi being playful on the beach. She wanted to see how long it would take to wipe me out...?
The water is coming Bob.

Naomi still loves Bob

Now Naomi just loves....what?


All gone!

The beach we were on is incredibly wide at low tide and has to be at least  5 to 6 km long and very hard packed.  Many joggers, bike riders and baby strollers moved easily on this beach.




And here is Bob after jogging the entire of that beach.....hmmmmn?

Now we have some shots of the Orewa area....we walked down the street to their shopping area. Really reminds us of downtown Sylvan Lake...in the summertime.


Is this the biggest pineapple ever, or what....?


These are some of the "pine" needles from that huge tree. This is one of the public access areas to the beach. Very little garbage about and grass well kept on all the boulevards and sidewalks. Naomi also noticed a flower bed that had Marigolds, Petunias and Impatients plus a scattering of Ilisum...very Canadian summer flowers





Next will be shots taken at the Wainui Golf Course. Very picturesque 18 hole course, plus we were not rushed....a very enjoyable game.






This golf course had the cleanest field toilets that we have ever seen, at home and abroad.





Well that's it for tonight....were tired after our drive up the island to our next spot "The Bay of Islands.  We'll check in again tomorrow night.


A shout to Anne and Lea...send me an e-mail at naomi.mccully@gmail.com so that I can send you an e-mail.  I don't have your addresses saved on my tablets.

Talk to you tomorrow everyone.  Good night.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Wrecks of Truk

Image
 It is now 0400 hrs on Feb 5 in the Singapore Airport and we are waiting for our next leg to Sydney Australia. Travel Hint: Avoid Manila airport if you can! It is very busy and once inside the Departure terminal there is no place to get food or drink. We found a place to sit and we sat there for almost 12 hours! Now stepping back a bit to Chuuk Lagoon. The area was controlled by different nations over the years. When Germany had the area pre WW1 they could not pronounce the "chook" sound so they started calling it "truck" lagoon and the name stuck until after WW2 when the territory became under the control of the US. During WW2 the Japanese used the lagoon anchorage for their South Pacific combined fleet. They had built a submarine base and a seaplane base, which incidently, is where we stayed at; the Blue Lagoon Resort. You can still see some old concrete structures on the beach and grounds. From this safe anchorage, the Japanese were able to control most of
Read more

A Fijian Standoff!

Image
Hello all! It is Monday night Feb 19 and we have just got back to our bure from dinner. Naomi was glad that she finally able to unpack her suitcase completely as our bure had more than enough room to store everything. She got to wear some different dresses and shoes with heels for dinner.  Here now are a few pics of the Neviti Resort grounds and one of front lobby taken from the computer station. Now to explain today's blog title..A Fijian Standoff..? It appears that we may have a plague of toads in the area. They appear at dusk and are all over the resort grounds. Unlike our toads in our native Canada, these toads stand up tall and erect and seem to be trying to stare down anybody who approaches them. Hence, in Naomi's view, the Fijian Standoff. Any guesses as to who has to lead the way and clear the path?  The local Fijiians say that the toads have only one main predator and that is the Mongoose, who normally prey on snakes. Naomi is
Read more

Pearl Harbor

Image
Hello again. The next tour we did was to Pearl Harbor. We got picked up at our hotel in a very nice 24 seat van with Charlie as our driver. He did give us some historical background of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. It was a sunny Sunday morning on December 7, 1941. People, military and civilians alike,  were just starting their day, some getting ready for church and others were getting ready for a football match between 2 of the ships sitting at Battleship Row. Charlie told us of one gunner who answered the call "All hands to Combat Stations" wearing his football helmet! The Pearl Harbor site includes the museum and visitor and information center with the Arizona Memorial monument across the harbor at Battleship Row on Ford Island. The ship, USS Missouri, is also moored there as a static display. The whole area is still an active military site so no bags, purses or backpacks are allowed so they have to be stored in lockers at the info center prior to entry. Pictu
Read more