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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The weather looks very promising for our Whale Watching excursion – Sunny, 75 degrees and light winds. Since the trip doesn’t leave until 1:30, we decide to head over to Auckland at mid-morning and have lunch before the trip. After lunch we boarded the boat, received our safety lecture (don’t fall off) and started […]
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After Church we headed over on the ferry to continue the second half of out Hop On Hop Off tour – it just couldn’t be done in one day. We joined the bus from the same spot as yesterday, and began the circuit. At one point, the bus route was around the bay, directly […]
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We boarded our trusty ferry for the quick ride to Auckland – the Golden Princess was in port – there is a different cruise ship almost every day. We found the guy to buy the hop on hop off bus passes from. On earlier travels we have learned that these are one […]
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There are several “Heritage Walks” published by the Rotary Club, so we decided today, instead of walking into town for breakfast, to take off on one of the walks, since it appears there is a breakfast place on the the route. We walked down the hill to the beach, turned left and started toward […]
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We hiked down to the ferry, to head over to Auckland for a whale watching excursion. It is only a brief 15 minute ride, and we still sit where we can catch a view of either Devonport or Auckland, where many of the passengers are obviously commuters, sitting inside with their noses buried in […]
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