Friday was a beautiful day so we spent the afternoon walking along the beach at Goat Island which has become one of our favourite places. We remain fascinated with the shags who are still nesting there, some with fledglings in the nest and others sitting on their nests. The parents are busy flying backwards and forwards, swooping in to land gracefully at the side of the nests on the delicate branches high in the Pohutakawa trees. They must have more sense than we credit them for as nesting on the edge of a marine sanctuary must provide them with an abundance of food.
It was low tide so we were able to walk along the beach as far as the pile of rocks which then blocked our way.
Another beautiful day dawned on Saturday, chilly at first but then the bright, warm sun soon warmed things up. I went into Warkworth in the morning to do some shopping. Matakana had the usual,Saturday mini traffic jam due to the farmers market. Julie has said to us that the weather here can provide 4 seasons in one day and in the supermarket I remarked, to myself, that one can also see 4 seasons of dress in the same day. There were people wearing real winter clothing - coats, wooly hats and boots. Others in shorts with t shirts or sweat shirts. Some young girls, like Danni, wore shorts and woolly tights. As for footwear or not it seems that anything goes from bare feet via jandles (flip flops), sandals, boots and wellies. Wellies with shorts seems to be popular with a large proportion of the men!! I have always noticed that a lot of New Zealanders walk around in bare feet and today was no exception as I saw 2 people in the supermarket in bare feet. I well remember remonstrating with Danni when she first started school and telling her that she should wear shoes but she said lots of us go to school in bare feet and I did indeed see many children entering the school shoe less.
In the afternoon we went to Tawharanui . Tawharanui is not far from here as the crow flies but by road it takes about a half hour, the last 6kms of the drive on a hilly unmetalled road.
"Set on a remote peninsula, Tawharanui Regional Park boasts some of the Auckland region's most beautiful white sand beaches, rolling pastures, shingled bays native coastal forest and regenerating wetlands.
The 588-hectare park is New Zealand's first integrated open sanctuary (mainland island) where farming, public recreation and conservation of native species combine. The name Tawharanui refers to "the abundant bracts of the kiekie vine". The iconic Anchor Bay is named after the anchor of the Phoenix, a vessel wrecked on the Tawharanui coastline in 1879.
Tawharanui Regional Park is also an Open Sanctuary, where native plants and animals including kiwi can live and breed successfully without the threat of predators.
We walked along the beach at Anchor Bay and I even took off my socks and trainers and had a paddle. So much to see on the beach, rock pools, interesting rock formations and geology. The sky was cloudless until in the distance we could see a long white cloud which gives New Zealand the name of "The country of the long white cloud". The sea was flat and calm out in the gulf and we thought that it would have been such a good day for going out fishing on the boat, As we sat on a rock looking at the stunning views and thinking how lucky we were we noticed several birds that looked to be swallows. Always a welcome sight back home in the spring but here we were in New Zealand in the winter. We watched a man walk down to the sea carrying a canoe surfer and then watched him as he paddled out to catch a few waves - he made it look so easy! When we got home I googled swallows in NZ and they are apparently welcome swallows who made their way here from Australia in the 1950's. They first nested in Northland but have since spread over most of the country. Unlike their relatives in Australia they do not migrate. They are considered to be native birds as they made their way here themselves rather than being introduced.
Sunday was a day at home and Rob, Julie and Daniel came for a roast beef and Yorksshire pudding dinner. It seems that my Yorkshire puddings are very popular!
After they left I went over to the house where I had made up one of the beds for me. I went to sleep at about 10pm and set the alarm for 2am as I wanted to watch the men's singles final between Andy Murray and Roger Federer. When I started watching Andy Murray was 1 set up but after a good match he lost 3 sets to 1. It would have been good to, finally, have a British winner but Roger Federer has always been one of my favourites and he did play so well. I was back in bed by 5.30am and managed to sleep until 10.30 am waking up to a beautiful view of the estuary from my bedroom window.
Rob had picked Danni up at 10 am and I went over to Snells Beach for lunch with them. I then took Danni down the road to have her hair trimmed - she was so pleased to go to the hairdresser! I brought Danni back here later in the afternoon and after our evening meal I was ready for bed after my broken night the night before.
On Tuesday Danni and I were over at Rob's for 9am ready to go out fishing. It was a chilly morning but the sun was out and the sea was calm. We had a bit of a drama on the way to launch the boat at Scott's landing when the boat slid off the trailer. Luckily we were not on the main road and there was no car behind us. The boat was still sitting upright on the road and using superhuman strength Rob managed to winch it back on the trailer. Thankfully neither the boat nor the engine sustained any damage. We set off at 10am and in 20 minutes or so the boat was anchored and we started fishing. Danni had the first catch, a small Kohawai that we kept for bait. The main excitement of the day though was seeing Orcas (killer whales) on 4 separate occasions. The nearest that they came to the boat was about 50 yards I think. It was a magnificent sight, they are so big yet so graceful. I suspect that they must have frightened (or eaten) a lot of the fish as I never caught a fish that was big enough to keep and neither did Danni. Luckily our "captain" hooked 4 fair sized snapper which we took back for tea. We were back at the boat ramp for 3pm and this time managed to get back home without losing the boat! Nigel came over for tea and Rob and I took the filletted snapper down to the local takeawy where they cooked it for us. The batter was very light, the chips were good and the fish was amazing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMxZK3XhP0Y
On Wednesday morning Danni and I went on a 2 hour ride on Pakiri beach. I had bought, online, 2 vouchers for a 2 hour ride for the price of one. A bargain as a 2 hour ride is normally 120$. Half way through the ride 5 of us took a different route to the others and had an exciting gallop through the dunes along a narrow, up and down twisty path. I was a bit concerned about Danni as I knew that she had not been that fast before but thankfully she had stayed on and was thrilled to have gone so fast!
On Thursday morning Danni helped me make up the beds in the big house as we are expecting 7 guests at the weekend.
In the afternoo we went to the cinema to see "Ted" a film for 13 year olds + so we had to embroider the truth somewhat as she is not 13 until next May. Had I known anything about the film I wouldn't have done so but she enjoyed it much more than I did. In my opinion (aged as I am) there was far too much gratuitous swearing in it but sadly it is what they are used to these days.
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