Sunday, September 13, 2009

Takapuna


The walk from the North of Takapuna Beach is a favourite on a Sunday afternoon. The rocks along the way are, I think, volcanic scoria from Rangitoto Island (shown above) which is the most recent volcano in the Auckland region having erupted about 600 years ago.
Scoria is very light, with many bubbles having formed in it as the lava cooled, and most of Aucklands kerbs stones are scoria.

Saturday, September 05, 2009

Kayaking at Puhoi

The Puhoi river is a great place for Kayaking at the weekend from Auckland. We did a one way trip downstream to the sea from Puhoi (where a delicious cheese is made) and were picked up by the people who rented the kayaks and taken back to our car.



It did get a bit cloudy later in the day and it rained on us in the estuary approaching Wenderholm Regional Park, but it was a great day. Next time we'll go the other way and end up at the pub in Puhoi.

Various activities in August


Charlotte left to go back to Tahiti after staying with us for 9 weeks. We had enjoyed her stay again for the second year running. We will all miss her. Photo by Joe.


Many hours were spent playing Gran Turismo 4, which resulted in one of the worst back injuries I have had!



Joe was five on the 10th and here Anita's cake for him. Lego plane built by Charlotte.

Whenuapai Air Show


We had a day out at the air show at Whenuapai, (half an hour from Auckland) during the summer. NZ don't have very many jets and had to borrow a couple of F14'a from the Australian Air Force for the show. They were extraordinarily loud, even with the earplugs that were handed out to everyone, but very exciting.

NZ air force do have some interesting planes though. Look at the size of the tailplane on this transporter!