Manukau Heads

David and Ruth have been here for a couple of days. Thursday we all visited Ali, for David and Ruth to meet Frances for the first time. Audrey and Noel called in as well, so it was a nice time of catching up with family.

Yesterday David, Ruth, and I set off to explore the Awhitu Peninsular. Our first stop was the lighthouse. This replica, was built at the northern tip, where the sinking of the Orpheus occurred in 1863

It was a brilliant day.



The Lighthouse




We then moved on to find a suitable picnic spot. Wattle Bay was lovely - plenty of grass to sit on and a lovely safe-looking beach that consisted of strips of gold, and strips of black sand.



After lunch we explored various roads around Awhitu before returning home.
We spotted this old Bristol freighter in someones backyard.

Whenuapai Air Show

We joined thousands of other keen plane spotters at the Whenuapai Air Show, yesterday. What a beautiful day for the event!

One of my favourite older planes is the Catalina.

You have to be impressed with the young lady on the Tiger-Moth!




What is the chance of coming across someone that you know at such a huge event? It was neat to see my nephew Simon wandering around with his camera.




See Doug's blog for better photos of planes - it was difficult to get good photos with just a 'snapper' camera.

I thought the queuing to exit at the end was worth a photo. We didn't move for more than an
hour - it then took another hour to get into free-flowing traffic.








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A Wander Through the Gardens

Another beautiful late summer's day. Most of the flowers are past their best - but I did want to practise my photography skills so here goes.......

Visit to Room 3

It was lovely spending the morning in the Year 1 classroom. I was eager to observe the class and get to know the routines so that I would know what to do if called upon to relieve
some time.

A New Niece

A big welcome to Frances Faulkner born 11th March 2009

Little Frances decided that she couldn't wait any longer....April 5th was too far away. She had a somewhat dramatic entry into the world, in the early hours, just making it to the hospital in time!




Tired Mummy and Daddy - 'Thank goodness it's all over.'



Aunty Julie couldn't wait to visit.

Wellington Trip March 3rd - 5th

Tuesday

We were up bright and early Tuesday morning to begin our Wellington adventure. We had decided to take our car to the airport and try out Park'n Fly. The idea was to park our car there and they would shuttle us to the airport, all for $5 a night. Sounded pretty good to us. We allowed plenty of time - just as well!



All went smoothly until Doug realised that he had left his camera on the backseat of the car. It ended well - the shuttle returned with the camera and we still caught our flight comfortably.


We had a lovely flight down with Air New Zealand. It was clear enough to spot Mt Egmont as we flew over Taranaki.



Wellington was fine but cool. We took the airport bus to Courtney St, then wandered our way to our hotel to check in, and leave our bags.

The main purpose of our trip was to visit the Monet and Impressionist Exhibition at Te Papa. We set off immediately to do just that.



We thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition and were able to take as long as we wanted to view the pieces of artwork. There were also some old movie clips of Monet in his garden and at work.

Another 'must see' exhibit was the giant squid. He was pretty big, but not as huge as we had imagined from the TV hype.

The day was still young, as we left Te Papa so we thought that we might climb Mt Victoria and see if we could find my great-great-great uncle's house. My mother had told me many tales about staying there herself as a child, after the Napier earthquake.


It was very hot by then, and quite a climb. I really hoped that we would eventually find the house.





We did! It was well worth the climb - the view was amazing. The house has been added to over the years, but Uncle's famous turret still looked impressive.
We were able to catch a bus back down the hill.

At last we could collect our bag and install ourselves in our hotel room. It had been a busy day, but wasn't over yet.



Another long trek to find the Metro New World. My feet were beginning to complain by now. We bought breakfast things then returned to our room to rest for an hour or so.

That evening we met up with David and we enjoyed a really lovely meal together in the 'Great India' restaurant. Yum! Great food and great service.


Wednesday

We awoke to another beautiful day.

A visit to The Karori Wildlife Sanctuary was the plan. We took a trolley bus and enjoyed the trip complete with 'bus only' tunnel. After paying our entrance fee we were instructed to do a self-bag inspection for seeds, rats and mice. We then proceeded through a predator-proof fence and set off into really beautiful bush.



David had suggested that we proceed on up the valley past the two lakes and just keep on going. The track followed a faultline and went through lovely bush alongside a stream.

There were so many birds close to the track. We watched saddlebacks, bellbirds, tuis, kakas,grey-warblers,waxeyes, finches, fantails and North Island robins. The birds were quite unafraid - one robin pecked away right next to our feet - too close to photograph! There were also giant wetas and tuataras to be observed if
you were lucky.








We limited ourselves to 3 hours in the bush - I know that we will be back - it was a lovely place to be.

We had planned on a tour of government buildings for the rest of the afternoon.

This was also interesting and enjoyable. It seemed to be a day of bag searches and security. This time it was weapons they were looking for, not rats and mice.

We were given a talk about the history of the buildings which had to compete with the incessant gong that was reminding the MPs that lunchtime was over. Time to return for the Question Time sitting. As we looked up we could see various individuals scurrying by. Apparently John Key was spotted leaving.

We were given a very interesting tour through parts of the old building, then into the oldest building of all, that is now Parliament's library.When the tour was over, we were shown where to go - more security checks - and we were able to sit in the public gallery and observe question time in progress.


It was such a relief to finally get back to our hotel - our legs just didn't want to work anymore. We cooked dinner in our room and had an early night.

Thursday

Another lovely mild fine day. Nothing was planned for the day other than returning home. We flew Virgin Blue and found the plane to have more leg room that Air NZ. The trip was pleasant and efficient.

The weather was horrible in Auckland!