As I noted in the last bit of the previous post, it was a very very crap drive in very high winds to get to Shakespear Regional Park. It probably wouldn't have been pleasant in a car, but in a high-sided motorhome it was very scary at times. And of course, motorways tend to be in the more exposed areas (or to have made them more exposed by chopping down trees - grrrrr) so the wind has free rein. As climate change continues to bite, the resultant high winds will become more prevalent, I reckon.
Shakespear Reg Park is lovely - and what a long drive it is down the Whangaparoa Peninsula! And lots of Aucklanders live on the peninsula and commute into Auckland for work - I can see why, even though the commute by road is long and very time-consuming - it is beautiful with beaches and boating so accessible. And Shakespear is a really popular place for campers and day visitors, for very good reason.
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| We had a lovely warm welcome from Bernice and Roy who are Camp Hosts at Shakespear for the summer - been doing it for 10 years, I think. |
It is a lovely place but I couldn't put the lettuce tub outside, not even up on the table - the pukekos, you know. In Russell, I could keep them safe from the weka by putting them on the adjacent picnic table, but pukekos can fly enough to flap their way up to my yummy lettuces...
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| And the babies are fluffy and cute but voracious... |
And the pohutukawa are absolutely stunning.
It was our 49th wedding anniversary on the day we arrived, so we invited Bernice and Roy to dinner. I recognise that my meals are not as special as Bernice's - she's definitely a chef, and I'm a cook. And as always when faced with wanting to prepare something lovely, I overthink it and get stressed and cannot make up my mind ...
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| I'm getting better at selfies though ... |
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| The day after we arrived, we had to move outside the Reserve area as a school group had booked it out - and the only people who could stay were those who had a police clearance, and we don't... Roy and Bernice had driven to us for lunch and we were watching this guy getting kitted out and wondered what he was doing. Readying himself for riding his fat wheeled unicycle, it turned out ... |
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| The oyster catchers were in residence but quite shy. I am not sure why they are called oyster catchers because oysters don't move terribly fast. But those beaks are good for digging them out! |
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| The wind continued and did require that jackets be worn. In the distance over there is Auckland city |
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| You can just about see the Sky Tower... |
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| The pohutukawa grow really well up here. |
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| I went out in the evening to see if the city was more visible. Pohutukawa flowers by night ... |
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| Even though it was quite dark, the lights did help show the buildings across the harbour. |
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| No lights, no clarity for the headland ... |
We had a really relaxing time there - went for a walk around the headland, had shared meals with Bernice and Roy, and sheltered from the sun and wind, and delighted in seeing people enjoy the surroundings.
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| David was discreetly allowing me time to recover from falling over at the beginning of our walk - the lace on my left boot got caught in the hook on my right boot and over I went ... very ignominious! |
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| I think that piece of land way in the distance is the Coromandel Peninsula |
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| And that is one of the islands - I am sure Bernice can tell me which one... |
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| This was the view from the dump station at Gulf Harbour part the way back along the ithsmus. As I said before, Whangaparoa is rather beautiful. |
We left pretty early on the Saturday morning, so we could do a supermarket shop on the way to West Auckland. Bernice had convinced me that the Pak'n'Save at Silverdale was good. I don't like that supermarket chain as I usually find that their fruit and veg are at the end of their useful lives and don't last, so the lower price isn't worth the waste. However, as we left the one at Silverdale I texted Bernice to tell her this one was pretty good.
We wanted to be in West Auckland to be able to catch up with Melita and with Lynne and Brent. So we stayed at Tui Glen NZMCA park. It was too hot to move and do anything!
Melita came for a late lunch and David set up the table and chairs outside the NZMCA compound (yes, it's got high fencing around it) in the shade of a tree in the lovely park outside. It was so lovely to catch up with Melita. She has been in our lives since she was 18 and that's 30 years ago! It was bizarre to be discussing peri-menopause with her when I always think of her as being very young!
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| Beautiful woman! |
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| David and me with one of our favourite people. |
We had been planning to stay the Sunday night as well, but David was keen to move on and get out of Auckland before the Monday rush. That depended on how long our visit from Lynne and Brent was and how fresh I was going to be for driving in the late afternoon.
It was wonderful to see Lynne and Brent and Coco - I think David secretly likes Coco the best.Evidence: he always spends most time cuddling her.
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| Lynne wanted to remain anonymous in this photo - I sent it to Kurt, my nephew. Lynne remembers burstiung his football with her car at Tongaporutu. Kurt didn't remember but said she still owed him ... |
Lynne and I have known each other and been friends since the mid 1990s when we did a Self Expression and Leadership course together. She's a no nonsense say it like it is person and I appreciate that. She's an excellent and challenging coach when I'm trying to sort stuff out.
Her middle daughter Tomai and Kirsty became really good friends when they were in London together (La Perla was their local, they said, and excellent for cocktails on a Friday night ...) and then when they were both in Sydney. So an intergenerational friendship - and that is so cool.
As I said, David was keen to get out of Auckland and I was okay with that but I wanted to get to Hamilton - far enough away to be out of the rat race-ness of NZ's biggest city. The drive down was pretty cruisey and there is an expressway once you get to the end of the Southern motorway, so it's at least 4 lanes all the way.
Hamilton has changed quite a bit since I lived there when at Teachers' College (in '68, '69 and '70) - I didn't like it then at all. Probably 3 of the saddest years of my life, in my memory of it. And since then I don't think I've ever stayed there apart from work trips.
So making the call to stay there was a bit out of left field really. However the Hamilton City Holiday Park is really lovely.
On the Monday we walked into the city and had a lovely time interacting with locals - although getting there in foot was a bit of a challenge - the challenge was finding how to get to be able to cross the Claudelands Bridge. It is always good to be able to ask for instructions, I find...
We had a really beaut late brunch at a cafe called Cream, on the recommendation of two women I accosted who were clearly on their lunch break.
David wanted to walk back a different way - across the Cobham Bridge which I remember as the town bridge. We then had to find Te Aroha Road, but google wanted to send us on 3 sides of a square route instead of just up the remaining 4th side. Doh!! Fortunately I was looking at the map, and using a bit of out of date local knowledge.
We checked out our steps on our return (David got back earlier than I did because I went on to Mitre10 and had to walk 3 sides of a VERY large building to find the front entrance, so I could buy some Araldite - the superglue on the camera monitor had failed in the heat). I had done over 15,000 steps and David had done 156 - because his phone had been in the backpack ...
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| There is is balancing on the dash. I had to take photos so I could send them to Freeway in Plimmerton - I've asked them to find a better solution than a suction cap. And for a couple of new window stays... |
The camp wasn't full and it has cabins - and the latter was important. David had developed a cold and his cough is the most piercing noise that cuts right through flesh - not his, mine. And it sends a skewer through my brain...
As his hacking and snotting got worse on Monday afternoon, I asked him if he'd mind relocating to a cabin if one was available. The lovely kind man said he'd been thinking about that himself.
So I booked a cabin not too far from the motorhome, packed him and his medications and some bed linen and more medications and plenty of tissues and water and a lemon and honey drink over the way to the cabin. He pretty much went straight to bed. The upshot of that, of course, was that he arrived at the motorhome at silly o'clock the next morning. I sent him back after he'd made a cup of tea and instructed him to take more meds. And he slept for much of that day. And he was able to have another night in the cabin as we delayed going down to Tongaporutu - no cabins available there.
To be frank, it was a blessing for me to have a couple of days available to blob - holidaying is tiring and I am more than ever noticing that my stores of stamina are quite depleted these days! It's old age that is catching up with me, dammit!!
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