Auckland, Piha, Wellington and Picton

New Zealand beach shells - lots of purple colour - so beautiful

We’re back in Auckland a month after we first arrived here.  Our AirBnB this time is a little cottage of our own that is the opposite of beach cottage.  Concrete floor, very straight lines, everything matching and kind of ‘industrial modern’  Very nice . . . just different.  We are sure getting some ideas of what we want and don’t want in our next home, wherever that may be!  We’ll be here for two nights, mostly because the flight to Wellington on Saturday is half the price of the flight on Friday.  

Our Auckland AirBnB cottage

Inside the cottage

Tea trees - everywhere.  They smell wonderful

So tonight we have arranged to meet an old friend of mine who lived across Marine Drive from our family in West Van.  She’s been living here for about 30 years now, and we recently connected on Facebook.  She is very busy with a real estate development project for a racetrack in Auckland, but she managed to squeeze out some time for a quick visit with us on Thursday evening.  So we got to the AirBnB, settled ourselves in, and then headed out to the track.  The TomTom GPS that we bought here is not the best.  The trip that should have taken 25 minutes took almost an hour and a half.  Part of the problem was that Friday was a national holiday and everyone was leaving town for the long weekend, so the roads were stupidly busy.  And the other part of the problem was that TomTom likes to put us on highways whenever possible.  In this case a trip through town on city streets would have been better.  We did get in a nice visit for about an hour, then she had a meeting to get to.  But not before arranging to meet up for a weekend in Christchurch before we leave.  It’s funny meeting up with someone from my past - it never seems awkward.  There’s always enough shared history to get the conversation going, and I guess whatever it was that made us friends before is the thing that keeps a connection going later on.  It was a treat to see her.

Anne and Dominique - we still look as good
as when we were teenage neighbours 40 years ago :-)

We had a free day on Friday, so we headed to the surf town of Piha, a major surfing beach town, on the west coast just outside Auckland.  Holy waves Batman!  The wind was really up - we heard it was 30 km an hour later that evening on the news and gusting up to 45 at times.  We hiked along a mountain trail along the coast and ended up on a huge promontory - neither one of us wanted to go too close to the railing by the edge as it felt like the wind would pick us up and throw us over onto the rocks below.  My hair looked terrible - ha!  

Waaaaaay up on the hilltop

Probably about 500 feet down -pretty wild sea on the west coast.

Looking down on the town of Piha and Lion Rock.  The
road down from the hilltop was a 'jelly-knees' experience.
I was very glad that Glen was driving!

From there, we went down to the beach - the road down was another crazy, winding narrow road - I can’t imagine living out there and driving on it in the dark.  The beach was another black sand beach and the waves were HUGE.   We had a picnic in the car as, with the wind, it was no fun eating on the beach getting sand in our mouths.  After that, we headed home for an early evening to get ready for our flight to Wellington tomorrow at 1:00

Black sand beach at Piha, just outside Auckland.

See the surf breaking on the rock - it's quite a ways out.
The waves were huge, but there were a few brave surfer
souls going out into the water.

Purple jellyfish. There were a few on the beach.

Sand dunes and some of the town homes in the back.

I just love these dune plants.

Beach cafe at Piha.

The flight to Wellington is only an hour - very scenic along the east coast of the island.  There are a number of wind farms at the south of the island and even though the pictures are taken through an airplane window, they give a good idea of what it looks like.

Airplane snack.  Made me laugh.

South end of the north island nearing Wellington.
You can see the windmills and the roads leading to them

Wellington airport

One of several of these inside the Wellington airport.  They
really are capitalizing on the Lord of the Rings movie
here.  It was a little weird walking under this - huge!

We arrived in Wellington to a town filled with people wearing matching costumes and having a big party on the waterfront.  Turns out there’s a major international rugby tournament happening and this is how they celebrate it.  Our hotel was right downtown, and so we didn’t get much sleep due to all the action in the streets until well after midnight.  We were up at 6 am to catch our ferry at 8 am to the little town of Picton on the south island.  Farewell to the north island - it’s been a wonderful month!

Beanbag chairs on a fake lawn on the Wellington waterfront.  There
are glass panels in the fence to keep the wind out.  Love it!

You should always bring baguettes to a rugby party.  I think?

Where's my Nintendo?

Fred? Wilma?  

Where's the party?

Ah, here's the party!

$19.00.  'nuff said.  Don't go into a town where a major
sporting event is being held.  It's expensive!

The ferry ride over was about 3 hours and was kind of like riding up the inside passage in BC.  Stunning scenery, the odd fish or oyster farm, boats, homes tucked into the hillside above picturesque little coves.  Our B&B hostess picked us up at the ferry and drove us up to her home, and the next day drove all our luggage to the train station.  It's a 5-minute drive to anywhere in Picton, but it was very helpful and kind of her, nevertheless.  She invited us for cocktails on the patio with the other B&B guests at happy hour, so I had a nap while Glen walked around town.  We had a glass of wine with the Australian couple and German family on the deck, and then walked into town to find some dinner.  We wound up buying some take out salads at the local grocery store, and taking them home to eat.  We were both tired after not much sleep and the gravol we took when we boarded the ferry - the ocean swells looked a little threatening so we figured better safe than sorry.  

Beautiful patio for happy hour at our B&B in Picton.  Glen is
ready and waiting!

Picton town waterfront walk. It's a sweet little town.

Ferry dock in one corner of the harbour. Kind of like
Horseshoe Bay.  

Funny jellyfish on the beach.  Clear with a little
purple flower-like centre.

The Picton Yacht Club.  The man in the water is removing jellyfish
from the water with his stick.  He's doing it because he's got
blisters on his feet from cancer treatments, and the salt water
relieves the pain.  So he stands in the water for a half hour
and rids the town of jellyfish to amuse himself.  I find out the
weirdest stuff talking to people.  

I don't know what these trees are, but they
are most bizarre.  We see them a lot, so I should
try to find out I guess.  They are almost
cactus-like.

Tomorrow we catch a train to Christchurch, where we will pick up our rental car and start exploring the south island.

Another purple shell