Taking flight....

In between all the boring stuff we have been making the most of our last few weeks in Auckland. Now we only have a few days left and a list as long as my arm to get through... annoying, dull little jobs that I won't bore you with here. 

Instead, something pretty. Auckland on a shining winter's day, a backdrop to the Matariki Kite Festival. 

Matariki was the name given by ancient Maori to a small cluster of stars. They believed the appearance of Matariki signified the end of one year and the beginning of another. 

Kites have an ancient link to Matariki - Maori believed they connected heaven and earth. On a day like this I quite believed it too. 

Heaven for small boys and kite geeks alike and there were plenty of both...

Day tripping...

This is not really a day trip, more like a quick trip to the park but heavens what a park. When I first walked up to the top of Mt Eden in Auckland my jaw dropped... that green, green grass and that incredible crater.  I finally took the boys (and my camera) back last week - a fabulous view... 

Mt Eden last erupted about 15,000 years ago. There are quite a few smaller craters dotter around the cone but this is the biggest at 50 metres deep. There are 49 volcanoes in Auckland's volcanic field and we might get another one apparently. There's a 5% chance of a new eruption in the next 50 years. I've done my research though and experts will give at least a few days warning and we'll all probably sit in traffic for three days trying to leave the city. Better that than what the poor sods in Christchurch are going through. 

All those volcanoes do make for fabulous green space in the city. Mt Eden is a great spot to run, walk or take the kids to play. Mine love to stand as close as they can to the edge of the crater.

We have to make the most of playing in long grass - I won't be so relaxed about that in Australia. Mud I don't mind so much.

Island life...

We spent the weekend at Kawau Island... a little less than an hour north of Auckland and a thirty minute trip across the water from the mainland. It's a little private patch of paradise, coves lined with jetties that lead up to the baches built up on the hills. Our friend's family has had theirs for thirty years.  

 

The weather was not on our side - it was wet but warm enough. We swam a little, kayaked a little, ate a lot and all in all had a lovely weekend. Life on Kawau (Cow-wow) revolves around the jetty...

This is our two year old 'bombing'  - about a two metre drop off the jetty into the water. 

I did spend a few seconds wondering whether we should let him try it but he popped up out of the water like a cork with a big smile on his face, then jumped again and again shouting with glee. The kid is crazy.

We'll have to go back one day when the sun is shining.

Planes, trains and automobiles...

Planes and trains are not my usual thing but when you have two boys sometimes you just give in to the inevitable. I may have made the usual rash statements when pregnant about buying my boy a doll (rather like not dressing your little girl in pink) but forget it. It's hardwired. Or it is with mine.

So to indulge our boys, Auckland's  Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT as it's known) was our destination yesterday and there are boy things in abundance and plenty of girls enjoying them too of course.... even me.

Why is it that the trams that seem so mundane in Melbourne are so much fun on a Kiwi Sunday afternoon?

MOTAT is a train and plane spotters dream and my Dad will LOVE it. They have a fabulous collection of bits and pieces from New Zealand and plenty from other parts of the world too. Fire engines, steam rollers, buses, trams, carriages, cars, trucks and planes.

Oddly enough, I was really taken with the massive Lancaster bomber. My dad is a Word War Two buff and I grew up in a house littered with books on the subject. The Dam Busters story has always fascinated me and it was Lancaster bombers that carried the specially designed bouncing bombs to breach two dams and flood the Ruhr valley. Apparently Peter Jackson is remaking the film and there are ten life size lancaster replicas in a warehouse in Wellington.

Lancasters flew more than 150,000 sorties across the Channel during the war.  It's a lumbering looking machine, and just imagining the gunners perched like sitting like ducks in the gun turrets gives you shivers. Not to mention the Germans at the receiving end of 600,000 tons of bombs.

To market, to market...

I have taken you to markets once or twice before.  Matakana is a small place, about an hour's drive north of Auckland and it has a fabulous Farmer's Market and is close to some beautiful white beaches. It ticks all the boxes for a day trip. We've been before but without a camera. This time I was armed...

We started with a Kiwi favourite, the whitebait fritter and it is gooood. On a cold crisp winter morning they make the perfect breakfast.

My five year old is fearless about seafood and knocks back oysters without flinching so he wasn't put off by the little whole fish lurking in the omelette, he was delighted!

Whitebait are slimy little critters but delicious when fried. They are the babies of a couple of fish species that live in rivers. The tiny fish hatch in late autumn and are carried along and out to sea where they grow - then in late autumn and spring they migrate back up the rivers to settle and breed.  Whitebaiters use nets to catch them at the river mouth on their way through - and whitebaiting is quite the Kiwi art.

Back to the food... both boys devoured one of these healthy treats - the colours were really that intense... 

 

Raspberries, strawberries, spinach. Forget those awful e-number enhanced fruit drinks, there is nothing like nature to colour your food.

We also sampled some feijoa wine...

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Feijoas are a Kiwi thing too - a small green fruit, they drop off the trees in great abundance in autumn. I think they're rather an acquired taste, best made into chutney. Call me dull but I think I like my wine made from grapes.

We took home a couple of these avocados... who could resist?

After we left them to ripen slowly over a couple of weeks  they were creamy but firm and so very much better than the gas ripened ones in the supermarket.

So very good on toast with a little Maldon sea salt and a squeeze of lemon. 

Quite worth another trip north I think.

Day tripping...

I couldn't end the week without sharing a few more pictures of our weekend away on the coast north of Auckland. It has been a gloriously sunny July week for the school holidays. We have been too, too lucky.

We went to Pakiri Beach at sunset. The drive down through a steep, wooded and oh-so-green valley was breathtaking.

 At the bottom is a white, white beach with that sand that's so fine and clean it squeaks when you walk.  We're going back earlier in the day next time  - and with our swimming gear when it warms up.  

The sharp eyed among you may have noticed I have been playing with my blog layout. When I started this blog I did a bit of a DIY job and thought I'd fix it rather sooner than I have. Now I have a professional on the case - my much more talented brother who is a graphic designer and has a far more hip and funky approach than moi. Stay tuned. And let me know what you think!

A weekend away...

Omaha Beach, on the Matakana coast about an hour north of Auckland... our mid-winter, mid-school holidays long weekend away.

Beautiful sunny weather. Basking in the sun on the deck of our rented bach, reading, playing lego, hunting for crabs in the rockpools, playing football on the sand, chasing seagulls, drinking red and toasting marshmallows on the open fire, grazing at the farmer's market, marvelling at the Kiwi countryside, revelling in the clear, cool air and sleeping, quite a lot of sleeping.

Beautiful isn't it?

Day tripping...

Sometimes New Zealand feels a little old fashioned in a really delightful way. I've told you about Devonport before.  It's one of the loveliest places to spend a sunny morning and even though it's just across the harbour from the city it feels like a proper day trip. The lazy man's day trip.

Our two year old loves boats and shouts with excitement when we drive past the city ferry terminal. So yesterday we took the boys on a ferry adventure and ended up soaking up the autumn sun on the top of Devonport's little volcano Mt Victoria.

It's a bit of a walk for little legs but even the youngest breezed to the top this time and still had the energy to jump, run and roly poly.

 

Next time we'll head across to the smaller of Devonport's two volcanoes for a play in the old tunnels that cut through the hill.

What a lovely way to while away a sunny Sunday.