Opoutere

We decide to get out of town this past weekend. We left Auckland for Opoutere on Saturday afternoon after my soccer game was over. We were a little bit bummed at the time because it was raining and dark when we got to the hostel where we decided to stay. But there were some older couples staying there as well that we had polite conversation with while sitting next to a wood burning fire place.

Then we woke the next morning to see this view from the hostel. It was so dark the night before, that we had no idea what was around us at the time.

Over breakfast, we were contemplating what to do with our day. We both decided that really there should be no rush, schedule, or itinerary. We would just do what we felt like doing. Luckily, the hostel had a bunch of kayaks for us to use, and at that moment, we felt like going for a paddle.

We spent a good two hours on the kayaks, racing up the river near by and cruising across the delta to the spit that was directly across from the hostel.

After the long kayak, we traded in our boats for walking shoes, and headed to the beach. There was a little trail from the hostel that meandered through small section of pine forest leading up to the beach front. Both Denise and I thought it was strange that there would be pine forests so close to the sand, but i guess it is something we are just not accustom to seeing.

We finally made it to the beach to gaze over the clear blue ocean water of the Pacific.

Denise said it best while we were walking the beach. She said "this is how I want to remember New Zealand", and I think she was absolutely right. It was a gorgeous afternoon on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, and we were lucky to have the 3 miles of beach to ourselves. We were the only people out that day.

We walked the entire length of the beach and then came back to where we started. Beaches are fantastic. You never see the same thing twice even if you were to walk the same section one hundred times. The tides, waves, and shifting sand mold the beach differently after every crashing wave. The picture to the left was an area of sand near a stream feeding into the ocean. We decided that it looked like nature was making us an enormous batch of chocolate peanut butter fudge. And you never know what is going to ride a wave onto the beach. I found this empty clam shell washed in by the salty water. Symmetry brought to you by nature....

We had received a good tip from some friends we met in Auckland that there was a neat little art gallery in Opoutere called the Topadahil. If you say the name slow enough, it describes where the little gallery is, on top of the hill. The gallery itself is actually the artist's house oriented on one of the highest hill tops over looking the delta leading to the ocean. The view from her house was amazing. Anyway, the artists name was Guity (French), and even though we could not afford any of her original works (need to take out a sizable loan), she was nice enough to invite us into her house so we could view her works. We spent about an hour talking with her, and she even gave us a back packers deal on some prints of her original works. We bought a few, and left her home feeling inspired. I don't have any pictures to show you of her works, so you will have to see the prints when we get back the the States.

Anyway, this is how we will remember Opoutere, and we are sure to reccomend this little paradise to others. We may even come back to visit again.

Devonport

Auckland City is great, and we like the hustle and bustle....sometimes. Other times Denise and I like the slower, fudge and ice cream beach town pace. That is why we went to Devonport. The great thing is that Devonport is just across the bay from the city. We spent the afternoon walking the main street, ducking in and out of various art galleries and boutique shops.

The Devonport peninsula is home to two volcanic caps, Mount Victoria and Hauraki. We walked around the perimeter and up to the summit of both to capture a great views of Rangitoto, the Auckland City skyline, and the small town of Devonport.

On Mount Victoria, we discovered this interesting sculpture just off the footpath (below to the right). There was no explanation of its significance, how it got there, or who the artist was, but it reminded me of Auguste Rodin's famous sculpture "The Thinker" with a bit of a Kiwi twist.

Anyway, he was a great discovery that most people I think pass up because it is located just off the foot path.

I got an extreme close up of his mug. Maybe not as inquisitive as "The Thinker", but I love the expression anyway.

We moved on to North Head where Hauraki Gulf Maritime Park is located. This park was once an important base for the New Zealand military forces during the war times of the 20th century. Many tunnels, bunkers, and huge gun turrets were built beneath the mountain to help ward off any attackers during World War I and II. Fortunately, the fortification did not see any action during its time, and the area is now just a recreation park.

The cool part about the now abandoned fortification is that tourists can explore some of the tunnels and bunkers left behind by the military. A few of the large guns and munitions structures are still there as well to explore. We made sure to bring our flashlight in order to explore the tunnels. Some were long, dark, and kind of spooky.

Anyway, we hiked all around the mountain and the beach surrounding

Then we ended up on the summit to catch the sunset. It was a spectacular afternoon.

Rugby Victory

Well, it has been a while since we have made any additions to the Land of the Long White Cloud blog. You might ask the questions of why there hasn't been recent installments of truly intriguing and enlightening descriptions and photos of the paradise they call New Zealand. The answer to that question lies in the fact that there may be no such place as paradise. Just ask my pale white, untanned, cold backside. Weather has a tendency to put a damper on plans and moods to carry out those plans. And the weather here has been pretty drab lately. But the troopers that we are, Denise and I are making the best of it.

Over the weekend, we went to an international rugby game between the New Zealand All Blacks and the Australian Wallabies. The rivalry between the two teams compares to an Ohio State vs Michigan type grudge match but on epic proportions. The crowd was rowdy, and the stadium was rock'n.



I was only able to snap a few pictures, because we were in the midst of a torrential thunderstorm. And despite the rain, thunder, and my fear of being struck by 1.21 Jigiwatts of electricity, the game went on. We were properly soaked, but the game was good fun.



The All Blacks pulled out a win in the end, and that meant life in New Zealand could go on. I can only imagine what would happen if they had not been victorious.
We took a Sunday a couple of weeks ago to walk around down by the Auckland wharfs, had some lunch and some beers.



The picture above is of one of the older building still holding it's ground in the hustle and bustle of the downtown grid. It's bright colors make it landmark seen from the bay. We also caught this cruising vessel coming into port from a sailing tour.



At the end of the day, we took a moment to catch the sunset over the harbor. Finally, a dry but brisk day that we spend outside in the city. I can't wait for our spring to start.

Rangitoto

Last weekend we decided to hike to the peak of the youngest volcanic cap in Auckland named Rangitoto. Young in volcanic history means that it erupted about 600 years ago and is now dormant. We took a ferry from Auckland to Rangitoto as it is an island off the coast. Below is a view of the city from the water.



The summit hike took us about an hour to finish. The landscape was a vastly different than we had anticipated. I imagined that a volcanic cap would be a huge slabs of hardened black molten lava. We were quite surprised to see that most of the landscape was covered in small bolder sized chunks of rock that had been spewed from the volcano eruption.


Someone was nice enough to clear a path through the boulders on this stretch of trail, but that wasn't always so. The picture below shows me standing on the trail that looks like a bed of charcoal ready to be lit for a barbecue. Not the easiest thing to walk across; however, striking a manly pose helps to overcome treacherous situations like these. All you self proclaimed men, feel free to take notes.


We did actually make it to the summit. The view was breath taking. We sat, enjoyed some snacks, and gazed at the fantastic scenery.




We even managed to have fellow hiker snap a picture of us at the summit with yet again the Sky Tower in the faint background. We had conquered Rangitoto!


We soaked in one last minute of the view from the top, then decided to check out the Lava Caves Trail about a quarter mile below the summit. As the name of the trail suggests, it leads to caves that were carved out by lava flows after the eruption. We came fully prepared with flashlights powered by semi lifeless energizer bunnies to light the way. We put down our gear, crawled into these dark anonymous caves, and tried our best to not to soil our trousers. It was awesome.

I posed for a photo in front of this one. The caves were in my opinion the highlight of the hike. Traversing through the caves was a bit challenging and a bit scary, but that's the thing that makes life so interesting isn't it?
Anyway, after the caves, we hiked for another 2 hours on a coastal track that led us back to the ferry dock. The track was difficult with much of the trail covered with the charcoals of volcanic history. Sometimes it was amazing what we saw growing amongst the rubble.


We happen to see these little fellas basking in the sun near the end of our journey. They were pretty much the only living things on the island other than those who were hiking that day.

What can I say? It was again, another excellent hike.

Extra Bits

This entry is full of some extra bits of Auckland. I was looking back at some of the picture we took from while we were just strolling through the city, and I though I would share.

Auckland is dotted by a ton of parks and monuments. We have been to a fair number of them, but we still have our work cut out for us if we want to visit all of them. To the right is Albert park which is oriented in the downtown area. We came across this one as we were heading to the Sky Tower. Below are pictures of Cornwall Park and the obelisk that adorns the peak of the extinct volcano cap in the park. The view from the top is amazing on a clear day.

One of the largest Auckland that houses the city museum is Auckland Auckland Domain. It is about 5 minutes walk from Denise's workplace, and I have been down there a several times to play soccer. We spend an afternoon exploring the domain snapping these pictures as we went.








The greenhouse area had a reflecting pool which was kind of cool.

I think the first picture we sent out to everyone was of Denise and I standing atop a hill in the Auckland Domain with the Sky Tower in the background. You can see the tower from almost any point in the city which make it good as a reference point when you get lost driving through town. We get lost pretty often, so making good use of the Sky tower as a homing beacon. Did I tell you you can go up the tower to an observation deck? You get an excellent view of the city.



The observation tower has a glass floor you can stand on. Instantly you feel you heart rate climb as you ponder whether or not the glass will break under your feet. Denise was reluctant to stand on it even though there was a disclaimer informing you that the glass was stronger than concrete. Did I mention you can jump off the top of the Sky tower? Well, this crazy fool isn't me, but I seriously considered it. It was tempting to do if you like to have the whits scared out of you.

We have also made a few friends. We had them over for dinner the other night. We also all gathered to go to the Lion Brewery tour in New Market.














The tour was pretty cool; although, we were unable to get to the actual brew house, and the packaging area was not running at the time. Oh well, the host of the tour made it more than worth while. To top that, you get to poor your own pints at the end of the tour. Awesome! The bar inside the brewery is picture on the right. It was pretty sweet with the old copper kettles in there.
The last picture are just to make everyone jealous. These are the Sunrises we have seen from our little balcony/deck. It is pretty nice to wake up to that.

The last two are the sunset in Auckland City. It looked like the Sky was on fire.