The Waikato

The longest river in New Zealand, The Waikato flows through Hamilton on it's 425 km journey to Port Waikato on the west coast, south of Auckland.
The river is important to local Maori regarding it as a source of Mana or pride. It is a beautiful and impressive river which also supplies electricity from nine hydro-electric stations along it's course.
In Hamilton, we went to the National Contemporary Art Awards exhibition at the Waikato museum a few weeks ago. This is one that I didn't get into. However a friend from AUT did get a painting in.
Several bridges cross the river in Hamilton, the most central two I have photographed here.

West Coast walk

I'm trying out my new camera. Last month we went over to the other side of Auckland, the west side, and out of the city. As you come out of the sprawling suburbs which go on for ever, you start climbing gently up to a village called Titirangi. This is the start of the Waitakere ranges, a modest range of mountains forested with native NZ bush, a great place for bush walking. You can get very lost here.

As you descend on the other side of the hills you come down steeply to the coast, the wilder side of the Auckland isthmus which has black volcanic sand and was made famous in the film 'The Piano' years ago, but like many parts of New Zealand, has now been used as locations for many films.

On this trip we went to Muriwai beach and the coast between Muriwai and Bethells beach (Te Henga). The Waitakeres are where Sir Ed trained for his jaunt up Mount Everest, and a new 4 day walk has been marked for keen walkers called the Hilary Trail. Our walk on this day was along a section of it.





Back at Muriwai Beach to see quite a few surfers around sunset. The waves on this side of Auckland are bigger; there aren't any sheltering islands out on this side to break up the waves.

Run, swim, run

Joe competing in the school biathlon at Remuera Primary.

Always have a supply of sunnies in New Zealand. The sun can be very bright you know.

Holiday at Church Bay bach

Barbecues on the deck are part of the New Zealand way of life.


Matthew had a day diving at the Poor Knights Islands.



The Poor Knights on the horizon.

Cruise ship at Princes Wharf, Auckland

There seem to be more regular visits to Auckland from cruise ships like this one, the Queen Victoria. Looks like fun!

Ken Carter Fireplace relief

Untitled (Fireplace Relief)
Ken Carter, 1969, Triptych, Cement Fondue and resin aluminium.
218 x 152 cm

The relief shows Adam and Eve at the gates of an orchard with a figure of a man climbing over the gate to get to the apples. It is in three sections, the standing figures (Adam & Eve) are cast in cement fondue while the section above is made in lighter resin & fibreglass. All have an aluminium gelcoat.

Installation

Reliefs from Figgins

We've unpacked the crates containing the reliefs from the lounge at Figgins which surrounded the fireplace. They are in three pieces and here we are trying the two standing figures against a wall in our lounge at Bassett Road.
The plan is to put in a fireplace here.

Ambury Farm

Ambury Farm near Mangere Bridge in South Auckland. Here is a lava tube that has collapsed showing the void space where the lava once flowed when Mangere Mountain was erupting.

The reserve looking over to the Manukau harbour. Sheep roam around the beach.

Graduation Ceremony

The AUT graduation ceremony started with a procession around Albert Park onto Queen Street to the Civic Theatre. I am in there somewhere amongst about 400 graduands including Certificates, Diplomas, Bachelors and Masters.

The weather was beautifully hot and sunny and the procession was great fun. Traffic in Queen Street was closed off, there was a bagpipe band leading.

The Civic is an 'atmospheric' theatre which has a star field of the Southern sky on the ceiling consisting of tiny lights. One of only seven remaining atmospheric theatres in the world.

After the ceremony outside the Civic on Queen Street.

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.

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!

Fencing North Championships

Tom fenced in the under 17s Fencing North competion (North half of the North Island) which was held at the Grammar shcool gym. Note above that there was even a funny mascot bear, sitting having a rest in the foreground.

Here is Tom getting kitted up with his gear.


Here is Tom in action (on the right hand side) fencing against one of the other School competitors.

We are back into term time. Tom has gone back to school and will be studying for IGCSE's and Joe is back at Parnell kindergarten. It is some kind of preparation for real school as this photo shows.
The kindys here are often situated next to a reserve which is the case with Joe's. The children often want to take a detour through it, and yesterday we had a whirlwind tour of the reserve.

The weater is hot, sunny and humid and in the shade are many creatures. Some of them bite!

The archetypal kiwi summer

The kiwi lifestyle has often been talked about and after 8 years I think I can now say that it has become familiar to us this summer. We rented a bach recently near Tutukaka. For those who may not know, 'the bach' is a New Zealand holiday home which is very simple, usually near the beach. The origin of the word 'bach' comes from bachelor, due to the simplicity of the lifestyle; consumption of barbecued food, beer, and a wooden shack to sleep in. The simple pleasures of whiling away hours at the beach, looking at the sea life, even doing some anachronistic sunbathing.
If I had to leave NZ I would really miss the native New Zealand trees. These extraordinary coastal flax plants were just back from beach at Woolleys Bay.

I don't know what type of flax this is. Actually I'm not sure it is a flax. I havn't found it on the internet where I have only found two types of NZ flax. The flower stalks are at least 3 metres tall. Actually it looks more like a succulent.

Being buried is one of the things Joe loves to do on the beach. Here he is on the beach at Matapouri Bay, one of the biggest beaches in the Whangarei area, which boasts about 100 beaches.

Tutukaka

This summer we have spent quite a lot of time lazing around not doing much. We did get our ourselves organised enough to travel up to Northland twice and stay at Tutukaka.

This is the second bach we stayed at in a kiwi sanctuary in the hills. It was extraordinarily peaceful at the bach. Unusually, the weather was windless and once or twice I stopped, asking for silence from my people, and listened for a distant sound of traffic. There was nothing!

This is the nearest beach, opposite Ngunguru school and facing the sandbar on the river mouth.