today was a great start to the summer holidays
we dropped pearl in to doggy day care just after 8am
then we drove the nearly two hours to awhitu lighthouse
it’s only 40km from our house as the bird flies, but by road it was around 120km as you have to drive to the bottom of the peninsula and back up again down windy roads
you can go up the lighthouse and walk around the outside up high
the lighthouse is there as there are shifting sandbars in the entrance to the harbour
it was a bit windy there so we needed our jumpers
then we drove down to awhitu regional park which was lovely
we went for a walk to the homestead after a picnic in a field where jane’s crisps blew off her plate
bits of the walk were sheltered and we were all down to t-shirts by the time we got back to the car
we’d seen a bird park advertised on a sign on the way there so we stopped in and it was excellent in the traditional kiwi style
this meant falling down cages, an honesty box system of payment and a really nice chap who owned the place who was happy to show off his birds
this is charlie. he kept saying ‘can i have a cracker’
his crackers were actually nuts. you can see them in the video below
we were delited too
on the way back we stopped off at waiuku information office to find out if there was enough to warrant a return trip. which i think there is.
pies are popular in waiuku
here’s the video
(For best quality, hit Play, and then click on the sprocket wheel (
)in the bottom right of the video and choose 720/HD.)