Our friends, Dan Hickox and Zaga Novakovic from Austin have joined the grand tour. Dan booked their Airbnb completely separately from me, but coincidently they wound up just across the fence from our place, and I saw their Uber deliver them. It sounds close, but due to the placement of the places, it is about […]
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I decided to climb up North Head, the second tallest volcanic hill in Devonport, having previously climber the tallest one, Victoria. Here is my target for the day, seen from Torpedo Bay. At the base of the hill, I discovered the Navy Museum – so I ventured in. New Zealand has a relatively small […]
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We have been waiting for the right day to go sailing, from Auckland – windy, but not too windy, no rain. Today is the day. After breakfast in Devonport we caught the ferry to Auckland and made our way to the dock area. After booking our reservation for the sailing tour, we decided to kill […]
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Today we decided to to Auckland’s Museum of Transportation and Technology, known locally as the MOTAT, which we had passed on the Hop on Hop Off, when we were hustling back to the city center. Today we had the time and decided to visit. We ferried across and after a brief attempt to figure the […]
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Todays adventure is a quick trip to the Devonport Museum. We tried to go earlier, but it is only open for 2 hours, a couple of days a week, and we were off their schedule. Today we specifically timed it when they would be open, and began the walk – sadly up hill instead of […]
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Piha Beach is on the west coast, WSW of Auckland, about an hour’s drive. Since Piha fronts on the Tasman Sea, between New Zealand and Australia, it is quite different than the beaches on the east side. The surf is bigger, and the sand is black, volcanic sand, like some of the beaches on the […]
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Everywhere we look, and in many of our pictures, the Sky Tower is a prominent feature of the Auckland sky line. Today, we decided to go over and ascend the tower. First stop – the ferry. The second story space, on the left is a really nice “workspace” company, like an executive suite space, called […]
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This is an aerial shot of Devenport which I found on someone’s wall and photographed. The old saying about a picture being worth a 1000 words was never more true. Our house is located approximately at the red circle. King Edward Parade runs along the right side of the photo, the ferry landing is at […]
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There are several islands within a few miles of Auckland in the Hauraki Gulf – some of them quite developed, and some quite primitive, with no permanent inhabitants. One of the more developed islands is Waiheke Island, which, beginning in the late 1970s became a center for wine production. At the current time there […]
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While our various tours haven’t been particularly taxing – just living in a hilly place where you walk EVERYWHERE, is plenty taxing. Not complaining, mind you, as I probably wouldn’t generate much sympathy anyway, but it is indeed an adjustment to our normal activity level. I grabbed this screen shot from my phone, from […]
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