hello. we’re back. did you miss us ?
i have to admit i didn’t miss writing up the daily family blog each day. but as my punishment i’ll have to give you double dose for a few days to cover what we got up to last week.
anyway, after some confusion with the taxi at 5.30 this morning we made it to the airport in plenty of time for our 7am flight which was nice and smooth and got us in to auckland at 8am. we then picked up esther’s new glasses (pictures tomorrow perhaps) and then had a couple of hours sleep before heading out west for a walk.
we went to muriwai which is a wild west black sand beach very popular with gannets and surfers.
jane chose us a very excellent walk from her walking book
luckily it was the full ‘arduous’ version
but we did go on an extended loop which took us up very high for some fantastic viewpoints
but involved some lovely bush areas of native plants
and of course great views along the massive coastline which was all of a blur because of the sea and sand spray coming off the sea
there were some people filming on the beach which is always good fun to watch. i think they were just photographing, but it looked quite intriguing
i think i’ve mentioned the west coast before.
it’s wild and windy (compared to the calm golden east coast which is a bit nearer to where we live – 15 minutes vs 40 minutes)
the blackness of the sand comes from a volcano down the coast. the sand is high in iron and allegedly magnetic (read to the bottom to see if that’s true)
another amazing place about is the gannet colony
which is huge
the birds return here (from australia i think) to re-establish contact with their life long mates
it really is chocablock.
here’s a load of gannets for you
and here’s some crazy fishermen who somehow weren’t swept out to sea
and here’s another bird
as usual we didn’t use our allowance
and here’s a couple of beasties from our house
the thing above was dead and fallen apart and is similar to the things you find in the UK
and here’s a little funky spider (not its proper name). it was quite teeny and looked a jolly little chap
i mentioned we decided to prove whether the sand was actually magnetic or not. kezia took her giant magnet and we did a little video. unfortunately it was so windy you can’t hear what esther is saying. i may try and do some cleverness to see if it can be salvaged. but for now here is the magnetic evidence
