Kathy and Hec are the best!
When I think about the time we spent in the north shores neighborhood outside of Auckland, that's the first thing that comes to mind. Also, I think I like the beach. We spent a lot of time there as it was only a five minute walk from our place. Ryan bought a little girls boogey board for $4.00 which he used until it broke. And then still used.
This board broke in three places. Perhaps it wasn't manufactured for someone with so much skill in the water.
Staying in their studio apartment was amazing. It had everything we could ask for and more. It had a whisk!!! And cable TV and a good enough wifi connection that we were able to upload 4K+ images and videos in a reasonable amount of time.
Giant happy butterflies would float by the garden nearly every day. It was quite magical. Or just nature, I guess.
Oskar and Ryan spend some quality time together. Oskar wonders when we're leaving so he can have the couch to himself again.
They kept a box of our stuff for two months while we traveled around with our packs on the South Island. We didn't want to be busing around and camping with our laptop. We didn't need our snorkeling gear either.
Hec picked us up from the airport, which was awesome because it was pouring rain and going to take two hours and two buses to get to their place on public transit. Hec drives a car like a motorcycle. He is not shy about applying the gas or brakes. I think he was proud to show us the first KFC that opened in New Zealand. Ryan and I sort of chuckled about that.
It rained constantly the first couple days but on about the third day Hec stopped in to say hi and check on us. We quickly learned of our mutual admiration for delicious beers and before long made plans to go out sometime in the future, for a drink. About 10 minutes later Hec was back at our door and we were in the car, on our way to learn about local breweries and how to drink properly.
I learned drinking properly means having at least two beers at each establishment. We had a lot fun, drank a lot of beer and then didn't see Hec for the next few days.
Lots of interesting things to see on the shore when the tide was out, for example this lumpy hill side.
View of Rangitoto from the beach during one of our walks.
When we weren't camped out at the beach we made a few day trips around Auckland.
The view from one of the dormant volcanoes located in Auckland. There are several in and around the city and while the volcanoes themselves are considered extinct, the field they are part of is defined as dormant.
We walked across the isthmus on the Coast to Coast Walk starting from the Tasman Sea and ending at the Pacific Ocean. The walk was a good way to see a lot of different areas and overall I don't think we stumbled onto anything particularly interesting.
One weekend Kathy and Hec invited us to travel down to the Waitomo Caves with them. We had a great time visiting the glow worms, checking out birds in cages at an animal park (including a kiwi which looks like a real live cartoon bird) and drinking beer.
One part of the cave tour involves getting into a little metal boat and floating down river silently while observing the glow worms, which look like stars in the night sky. Unfortunately, a child who was probably afraid of the dark and happened to be on a dark cave tour with his parents, was seated on the boat behind us and sobbed the entire float down river. His sad sniffling was sometimes covered by his parents whispering loudly in Dutch or German trying to calm his nerves, I assume. I felt really bad for him and Ryan was tempted to turn around and yell, just to give a really good scare.
Another day we took the ferry over to Rangitoto and walked around the volcanic island. It felt like a really good ankle exercise when we got to the part of the trail where you walk over piles of volcanic rock for two hours. The island had several loop trails and it was fun to see Auckland from that vantage point.
Approaching Rangitoto from the ferry.
School kids hanging out at the summit look out from Rangitoto. Auckland is there in the hazy distance. Also this place used to have big old guns in it for war purposes; it's now used to frame photos for tourists.
Ryan loves skipping around volcanoes!
Ryan also loves skipping rocks.
Parts of the beach were covered in a mix of shells and black volcanic rock.
Drift wood skeksis creature guy.
Just another day hanging out at the beach at the base of a volcano island.
Big ferry boat back to Auckland town.
On the way back from Rangitoto we took the ferry to Devonport. Nice bars and galleries and a great view of downtown Auckland.
We also took a ferry over to Waiheke Island, a little arts community that has a bunch of wineries on it. We spent an afternoon looking at the local galleries and then made our way to a winery that also made beer. Wild on Waiheke had electronic trap shooting which was probably one of the strangest things we've seen. It was right at the entrance to the place, people shooting fake guns at real targets next to the wine tasting room. Sounds of fake gunfire and fake clay pigeons breaking, or not; but we didn't care because we went for the beer. The beer was ok and we spent some time hanging out sketching the vines and barrels.
Jessie, the second Maine Coon cat hanging out on her deck. She cared even less about us and what we were doing than Oskar.
Auckland was a welcome break for us after spending several weeks tramping around the South Island. We are grateful for our hosts Kathy and Hec, who shared their home and love of good fun and drink with us. Despite Hec's best efforts, I still don't think I can drink properly.
Sorry Hec!
Our adventures continue on a whole new continent...Australia!