We started off our mini tour by stopping in Pukekohe to visit old friends of Carol's. While there we checked out a second hand store and found some old, rather well used, furniture. A lovely shade of green!

Here's Roy loading the new couch and chairs into the van. Not much room left for sleeping in the van should we want or need to.

It was beautiful driving up the west coast of the peninsula from Thames and along the coast line. We took a gravel road cutting across the Penisula towards Coroglen and the West Coast. Talk about narrow, hilly and windy. What a road.

We stopped at a water garden along the way. Everything was dripping with lushness and moisture from a recent rain. Flowers, moss and vines everywhere.

Our next stop was Hot Water Beach. At low tide you can dig a hole (shovels are rented at the nearby shops) and make your own hot tub. The water seeps into the hole as you dig. The area was relatively small so we were all flocked in together.

There really wasn't much difference between the gannets we saw earlier all nesting so closely together and the people bathing here. Not much room for privacy! Like the birds, we were only just out of pecking range from the next group.

Some people leaving kindly gave me their spot so I didn't have to dig my own hole. Depending on which way you went from the main artery it either got very cold or just too damn hot to get into. Ah, just right! It was really wonderful.

Then we did a short hike into Cathedral Cove. It was a beautiful hike along the cliffs over looking the ocean and down to the beach. Accessible only at low tide.

Everything flowers in New Zealand. Even the weeds are beautiful.

The next day we stopped at Whangapoua beach where we sat and enjoyed the sun, (in between the clouds) read our books and sipped on a cold one. Roy was braver than I was and went for a swim. Too cold and windy for me.

We did a couple hour hike thru the Otama Forest. They are attempting to save some of the native land from the logging industry and to save the Kiwi bird habitat. Kiwi's are nocturnal creatures so we didn't catch a glimpse of any, however, we did hear lots of other birds singing. The forest was very dense with moss and vines growing on everything.

The Town of Coromandel was a quaint little place. One main street with a few shops and cafes and numerous places to stay. All the city "holiday makers" come up to this area for xmas and summer holidays. Lots of old houses have been converted to backpackers lodging. Coffee shops and eateries are all the big rage here now too.

The wharf was pretty sad and neglected looking. Some of the boats are left sitting on the sandy bottom when the tide is out.
Just off to the right was a big mussels farm.

Castle Rock was a short but grunty little hike. After leaving Coromandel we headed east to make our way back down the coast to Thames and home again. The trail was mostly straight up and had been badly eroded from the water running down the track. All the roots were exposed but they made for good footing in an otherwise slippery clay surface.

It would have  been impossible to hike up this is it had been any wetter. The clay was just too slippery.

Roy is just reaching the summit.

Here we are on top of Castle Rock. It was just a small rock pinnacle that stood 2-3 hundred feet above the surrounding forest. The town of Coromandel is in the distance. They have huge mussels farms there and we certainly took advantage of that.

We had to back track a few miles to buy the mussels, but it was certainly worth it. We bought a big bag for $5. Some things are cheaper than others. (Peppers, red or green are $2.50 each. Yikes)

We even got lessons on how to cook the mussels.

Nice size heh!

No time to sit down. We got some serious eating to do.

This is our last pit stop before heading home. We sure got some strange looks from passing vehicles as we sat in our lovely green chairs.

That's it for another day. Cheers!

Here we are on our first big day of mountain biking at Wood Hill Forest Park.

The group gathering up at a junction before heading off on another trail.

Like all good mountain bikes parks there's lots of ramps, jumps, teeter totters, and wicked descents. All of which you can ride over or around. Thank God!

In The Weeds
There's a whole network of trails and each seems to go through different types of vegetation.

Originally the Auckland Mountain Biking Club, who we are riding with, built the trails before the Forest Service took over. Each trail is very well sign posted.

Cookie Trail.
Another gathering up point.

Roller Coaster

Some of the teeter totters are pretty spooky first time around.

There are no real big climbs anywhere in this park but lots of rolling, winding trails. It's still a good work out.

Here's Roy coming back to the parking lot. This is probably the only riding area this time of year: it's still wet, so the parking lot gets really full. The area is big enough that you don't really run into others on the trail.

Murawai Beach
After a few hours of riding we headed for the beach on the west coast. The water is still a tad cold, but after a hot sweaty ride it felt good. Roy still has water pouring out of his nostrils from the results of us tumbling around in the surf for awhile. We managed to catch a few good waves.

There were lots of people, mainly Asian, fishing from the rocks.

The beaches on the West Coast are mainly black sand. Here is a group of surfers heading out.

Can you guess what this is? A rock ledge full of nesting Gannets. Really quite incredible to see. Each bird makes it's nest just far enough out of range of being pecked from it's neighbour.

There were many that already had chicks while others were still sitting on their eggs. The males, we think, we're bringing food and preening with their mates.

This fellow caught the big one. Everyone gathered while he worked the rod to bring it in and ooohed and aahhhhed.
He said the fish was a Trevalli.

Lots of paragliding off the cliffs at Murawai.

Back on the home front, here we are in traffic coming home along the water front after a great day. This is Mission Bay where everything happens, especially on a spring weekend day. Traffic gets a bit thick here but is much quieter just down the way at our beach.

Weekends are by far the busiest, but on any given day there are people walking, running, roller blading, skate boarding, strutting,  cycling, windsurfing, sail surfing, sailing boats of all sizes, eating, drinking, you name it. The whole street is lined with cafes, delis, restaurants, pubs and take-aways.

November 10, 2001  From the command post.

The views from the office are great even when it's raining.

This is our futon bed in the foreground of this picture.

Here's a view of St. Heliers Bay from a vantage point.

This is looking at our strip of beach.
The road and foot path from St Heliers into the city is about 10 km with only one set of lights. It's a steady stream of people on bikes, roller blades, walking, pushing baby prams, running, etc. It's all flat but the views are excellent and there are any number of coffee shops, deli's, pubs, and restaurants. It's really busy on the weekend.

Any day, anytime, there are boats in the harbour.

View of our house. (There - behind the trees.)

These are the shops across from our house. We have a butcher, fruit/veggie stall, dairy, 2 bakeries, 2 Chinese / Thai takeaways, a place to make bets on the horse races and a few others. 

This is looking east across from our house.

This is our first ride with the Auckland Mountain Biking Club. We'll have more photos and stories coming.

November 04, 2001. St. Heliers, Auckland.

The view north from Headway Headquarters.

The new world-wide headquarters of Headway gets cluttered!

Our van now has a name HE POAKA MA O TE HU.
That is Maori for WHITE SHOE BOX. We'll have to come up with a nickname I reckon.

It gave us quite a scare when our bikes didn't leave Calgary with us. The amazing thing was that they left a day later than us and arrived a day before us. After 2 weeks of being here Roy finally had a chance to put them together today. Now if it would just stop raining.

Green Room.
The main door opens into the Green Room (Ugly green carpet). To the right is the White Room (white carpet) also known as the GUEST ROOM. Wonder who our first guests will be?

Kitchen.
You can't rent anything here that comes with with whiteware which means fridge, washer, dryer, dishwasher. We've only just got a fridge today so at least we can buy groceries now and cook. There is a door off the kitchen which opens up to the back yard and a small separate room that is used for laundry.

Bedroom.
We have an excellent view from the bedroom looking towards the city. Really beautiful at night. If we weren't sleeping on the floor, no bed yet, we'd be able to see the sights from bed.

City View. You can see the Sky Needle and buildings in the background.

Our only furniture so far, a desk and 2 chairs. It's so great to look out and see the ocean.

Here's Roy before we got the desk. He's pointing to where he's going to goof off and go windsurfing.

This is the view from the office window. It looks across to Devonport on the north shore.

This is the joining picture with St. Heliers Bay in the background and I'm not sure which island that is.

We went to visit an old friend Jyro (Jump Your Ring Off) who owns a Parachute Manufacturing Company. Here he is showing us how the computer operates the machine that draws the patterns and cuts out the parachute pieces. Amazing operation. He sells Icarus parachutes around the world.

Roy is enjoying the garden views (and a beer) out side the factory. 

Here's the gang that shows up on a Friday nite for beer or a glass of wine.

Roy didn't believe that there were places that still wrapped your fish & chips in newspaper, but there is evidence and remains on the table.

Here's a New Zealand Postie who uses a bike to deliver the mail. He's got his work cut out for him with all the hills around and only 1 gear. Yup, that's right, 1 gear. Yikes.

He's just heading off now. Across, Roy and I were having breaky at a local  bakery. Meat pies, pastries and a cuppa. Thank God we finally have a fridge and a few cooking utensils.