Thursday 10 March
Awoke to car leaving 5.30am as usual.
Yawn - back to short sleep and eventually up for breakfast and usual cleaning.
Then quickly grabbed some luncheon food and headed off towards THE ferry - $6 return per person. The Ferry takes people across the river mouth / Whitinaga Harbour and it has one of the fastest flowing in/out tidal movements in NZ. The boat goes across in about 5 min or so and will only go if they spot people waiting. There are a lot of people living at Cooks beach and work in Whitinaga - and the Ferry takes 5 min - the car journey round takes 45 min - so lots of locals are using it!! Then the tourists - us - use it to get across and do some walks.
Once on the other side of Whitianga harbour – we walked across flaxmill beach and then up to the Shakespeare lookout point – climbing from sea level to 125 m up. Mamabear surprising herself with the walk and managing it nicely without the usual huffing and puffing!
Once on top - great views. Lots and lots of pictures and even the odd video (MUST remember this function on my DSLR)
Had home made lunch on the run, then back down to the sea-level (all in 28 degree full sun weather) so this deserved as cuppa, thus we stopped at the cafe just before the ferry and had a lemon tea and a wickedly nice chocolate slice!
We eventually made it back across the river mouth into town. Decided that tomorrow we would drive to Pauanui town and stomp around there and then back home for a “dip and dine” at the "Lost Springs" - so booked that. Back to the motel via Countdown and then just sitting on the terrace and enjoying the R&R along with some wino-fino and cheese and slow Internet.
Dinner later and no doubt a quick dip in the ocean across the road b4 bed!!
Looked up websites re house prices – Mamabear confident we could buy something – might have to go back to work, or win lotto – certainly some nice houses around.
I decided late in the evening to take advantage of the clean sky and took some more night time pics – Milky way clear as!! Bed around 10.30pm . . . . . .
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| Flaxmill beach - looking left |
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| Flaxmill beach - looking straight out |
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| Flaxmill beach - looking left |
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| Just stylish testing the water Temperature |
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| Tui - also know as the 'parsons-bird' |
Not many people know this - but the Tui actually has blue feathers - you just need to see them at the right lighting conditions . . . .
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| Lonely beach |
The so aptly called Lonely beach was not so lonely - there were at least 4 people swimming in the water and one lass was sun-bathing! hope she used copious amounts of oil . . . . .
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| Our post walk treat |
Mamabears share of the Raspberry chocolate cake
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| 'Proper' Washing line - complete with Scout knot |
The sun was streaming in so hot - we had tro make our own shade cloth - recycling the washing line!! It worked a treat too!
Yup - night time again - this time took the nifty 50 lens - 50mm and F/1.8 - super fast - but limited field - a compromise . . . .
:P - I surprise myself - just realizing I had two pictures - offset by a margin on 4 - and I could merge them into a panorama image - it came out well - don't you think???
PS - Cooks beach was THE beach Capt Cook anchored in order to see the planet Mercury transit across the Sun (9 November 1769) - whence Mercury Bay and Cooks Beach! Honestly - HOW they knew the planet was going across the sun and you had to be down under in order to see it - beats me. The local maoris at the time thought it funny too that these 'white' people looked at the sun through hollow tubes . . . . . . .
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/captain-cook-observes-transit-of-mercury
Have fun!
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