Holiday within a holiday

Helen guides the boat in at Sandspit.

Boat unloaded, Phil rows back.

View across Schoolhouse Bay from the deck.

Old copper mine.

I don't know why I am crying!

Preparation of the birthday breakfast.

Sunset from Phil and Helen's batch on Kawau.

Trev, Dorita, Bron and Helen eating the birthday breakfast. 

We swam round this.

Our lovely NZ friends Phil and Helen invited us to stay for a long weekend at their batch on Kawau, an island about 1hr north of Auckland. We met them at Sandspit where they launch their boat, Sir Reel, and 20mins later we are unloading the booty at their jetty. People have to walk the 180 steps up to their spectacular erie but the luggage goes on a winch. The batch must be in one of the most enviable sites in NZ. with views across to the mainland one side and to schoolhouse bay on the other, completely secluded with the night sounds of morepork, tuis, and wekas as well as sightings of the wallabies,  descendants of the escapees from the governor Grey 'zoo' at his residence on the island. The water around Kawau is a most wonderful shade of blue/green from the hint of copper in the water from the deposits in the island making the views even more mesmeric. Our first day was a mainland trip with Dorita, Helen's lovely mum, to some of the nearby beaches. We visited their first batch at Omaha after a picnic by the river at Matakana then went to the marine reserve at goat island for spectacular snorkelling. Saw my first 'school' of large squid with their huge eyes as well as lots of large fish and rays. Wine tasting at a local vineyard on the way back continued during the meal that evening. Trev, Bron and Shaun arrived the next day to celebrate Shaun's birthay on Sunday. Phil took us fishing and the ONLY catch of the day was a whopping nine and a half pound snapper caught and landed by me! Another good meal with lots of laughs and a hilarious game of charades. Off to snorkel round a wreck the next day followed by a stroll on another part of the island and view of the old copper mine. Boules before dinner but sadly Bron slipped and twisted her ankle. Another good evening despite that. Shaun's 16th birthday spent quietly after a huge cooked breakfast . Phil, Trev and Shaun caught another 2 (small) snapper to add to the fish plus fry up in the evening. Back to Sandspit early Monday morning for a scenic drive along the coast past Manganui Heads and Langs Beach. Barely saw either through the torrential rain and arrived back in Tapeka after a shop in Wangerai unable to see the house through the warm mist. Rainy catch up days until weather settled again by Thursday. A dramatic sub plot to the whole week was Matt's  month long secondment to Brisbane for training. He arrived Monday, was evacuated from his office Wednesday, from his apartment Thursday finding himself in the midst of the worst flooding Brisbane has ever had. He got back in his flat Saturday with power but no lift, not good on the 14th floor, and was told Tuesday that he was going back to Auckland Wednesday! He did make his first sale amid the turmoil and earned his first commission. Well done Matt!

First week of 2011

Kayaker for supper?

The new David Bailey?

Bear and I at the 2nd largest kauri.

Orca invading our swimming space

I felt a little strange!

Is it the Nile? No Hokianga harbour.

Matt joined us in Tapeka on the 2nd and we all went fishing from the rocks. Matt and Vincent successful but not a bite for me. The water quite clear for snorkelling and saw sting rays, small squid, and some largish fish as well as different types of starfish. Got quite brave about snorkelling from the rocky beach with lots of seaweed. Had a day trip to the west coast and Hokianga harbour where we found the slowest service bakery in NZ, 40mins for 3 panini, as well as a lovely harbour entrance looking like the banks of the Nile with huge sand dunes on the other side. Walked to the 2nd largest kauri tree in the world where a woman had decided to have a breakdown and a poor policeman was trying to persuade her to make an effort to get back to her life again, preferably without him carrying her back to the distant car park. Walked into Russell seeing a kingfisher nest in the bank and listening to the 'buzzing' babies inside. Had a delicious meal at Sally's. Matt took lots of photos with his new camera, all so good we gave up photos until he had gone. Also got soundly beaten at bananagram, rummikub and yahtzee. Had a whole day walk to Whagamumu bay stopping at the old whaling station for a picnic lunch and swim. Lovely spot and hope to do the quite testing walk again with Malcolm and Lovat. Matt got the coach back to Auckland from Pahia after an early birthday BBQ, very sad to see him go but an exciting year ahead of him. The next evening we noticed boats milling around, usually a sign of something interesting, spotting orca! a pod of 5, 4 small and one very large just offshore. They ended up just into our swimming bay by the platform chased by kayaks, a paddleboard, and small inflatables. They were well into our daily swim route, quite shallow and surfacing very near the boats. Once out of the bay they rounded the headland and appeared off our rocky beach. I googled orcas in the bay of islands and got horrific pictures of them killing dolphin by tossing them up and breaking their backs before eating them. The kayakers and paddleboarder might think twice about a repeat encounter. We shall certainly be very wary when swimming. Tame-ish moreporks just outside that evening saying 'morepork, morepork' and tuis in our tree during the day. Had also had parakeets and a kingfisher as well as wekas and quail in the garden. The tall ships race to end the week with just about every sailing boat in the Bay of Islands going past our deck. Had lovely BBQs for food and just a great start to the New Year.