Category: Uncategorized

February 28, 2020

You can always tell when I’m working on the boat…

An engine oil and filters change and we’re back to zero days!

-Rich

January 2014

La Cigale

This fabulous French-themed market is open every Saturday and Sunday morning, and we went every weekend! Growers bring produce from all over New Zealand, but French food, cheese and baked goods are featured. We’d start by getting cappuccinos from the truck and picking up a couple of croissants while the coffees were being prepared. We’d then have our little breakfast under a nearby tree.

Afterwards, we’d peruse the food tables which always offered samples of whatever they were selling. We’d buy some goodies plus a selection of French cheeses and a baguette to bring home for the night’s dinner. This sort of thing is fun in a box for us, and this market alone would be reason to live in Auckland! (Below, a few photos; click to enlarge and scroll through.)

Parnell

La Cigale market happens to take place in Auckland’s most charming neighborhood, Parnell. Especially pretty is Parnell Road lined with brick-paved courtyards and cottages full of quaint shops, cafes, and galleries. Not surprisingly it’s a pretty wealthy neighborhood, so we’d have to win big in the lottery to buy our cottage here and make weekend trips to the French Market before taking our dogs to play in the dog park. No, not in the cards for us, but a person can dream!

Elliott Stables

This downtown “dining village” is housed on the ground floor of a historic building. The entrance is through stable-like doors off a small street. Once inside, there’s a sky-lit, stone-paved lane that serves as a courtyard for several restaurants, all of which will bring food to these central tables. This allows customers to pick and choose courses from whatever restaurants they choose, a pretty cool idea, but the real attraction is the moody historic atmosphere. Unfortunately we never managed to eat here, but we passed through a few times and always loved it. If we ever get that cottage in Parnell, we’ll make this a regular spot for dinner when it would be even more moody and atmospheric.

Victoria Park Market

This cluster of historic buildings was saved from demolition by public protest. Now it’s been converted into an area of shops and restaurants, recently opened and rather quiet when we visited, but I imagine it’s fairly lively now with over 40 shops and restaurants. When we checked it out, we found a great gelato shop and were charmed by the butterfly garden planted along the outer wall of the building.

These aren’t the only pockets of charm in Auckland, but these are the ones we found that appealed to us most. Maybe someday we’ll get back there and hunt down a few more. -Cyndi

January 2014

Well worth a mention are Auckland’s beaches. They aren’t in the heart of the city but instead front the hilly suburban area that stretches off its east end. The best way to see the beach areas is to go along the coastal and very lovely Tamaki Drive. Its accompanying bike and pedestrian lanes attract the city’s runners, skaters, and cyclists; so it gives a good feeling for the way many residents like to spend their free time. Below, a map of this coastal area.

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Tamaki Drive is prettiest in the area near the Orakei Marina where it’s heavily lined with pohutukawa trees.  After that it opens up to coastal views, first going by the aquarium before continuing past the city’s favored beaches. Below, a few photos of Tamaki Drive (you can click to enlarge/scroll though any photo galleries in this post).

At first glance the beaches seem very much alike, but each has its own character that can be summed up by comparing them with human age groups.

Mission Bay Beach

This is the most popular and festive beach, the youngest at heart, and the “child” of the group because it has so much for families and those who like to play. I think this is best symbolized by the large fountain here. Supposedly this fountain has a “no swimming” sign, but everyone ignores it and if they feel like it, jump right in. On hot days there are quite a few people in the fountain, a great way to entertain their children or inner child.

Behind the beach is a grassy area with trees, and on the inland side of the street are plenty of places to grab lunch and refuel oneself for more swimming, volleyball, sunbathing, frisbee, fountain cavorting, skating, or just lounging under the shade of a pohutukawa tree. Below, a few photos of Mission Bay Beach.

Kohimarama Beach

Continuing down Tamaki Drive and around the next headland is a more subdued area, Kohimarama Beach. This beach has a more suburban feeling, with houses instead of cafes in the inland side of the street. It has nice trees and a strip of park, and it’s attractive, but it lacks the playful feeling of Mission Bay Beach. Thus, I’d call it the “adult” of the group. This is a great place for those who want to get down to some serious sunbathing and relaxing in a more quiet atmosphere. For reasons I can’t imagine, it seems I only took one photo of this area; so here it is.

St Heliers Beach

This seems like it could be the oldest of the suburban areas with the most retirees, and thus I’d call this the “elder” member of the group. The beach is nice and less populated than the others. Across from the waterfront is a seaside village with rather dated shops and some cafes. In all this is a pleasant place but has a bit of a “God’s waiting room,” feeling to it. Below, a photo of the beach along with it’s most attractive bistro which I hope conveys the feeling of this place.

All these beaches are long and somewhat narrow. They’re well protected by the Hauraki Gulf and its islands and generally have flat water. (People who want to swim or surf in waves need to head for the west coast of New Zealand.) Not far offshore are islands which add some scenic interest. None of these beaches are must-sees in and of themselves, but we’d highly recommend taking ride down Tamaki Drive as a way to get a feeling for Auckland in general.–Cyndi

February 24, 2020

Cyndi came up with a new term that I really love and want to share: Invest Window. An invest in meteorological terms, is an area of weather that’s deemed worth investigating. Here’s the Wikipedia article. We follow a website called Tropical Tidbits that lists invests in our area. These often turn into cyclones, or at least tropical storms.

An “Invest Window,” by Cyndi’s definition is a weather window that, while it’s still quite a long time away, appears like it might be good for getting where we want to go. Here’s the invest window we’ve been watching for a few days now.

Above is a routing on PredictWind. Today, it’s not looking great as there may be a low that forms and comes down into our path. We’ll keep watching. -Rich

January 2014

Looking at Auckland as a whole, there are several things that stand out. The first thing the eye notices is the Skytower: well-designed, distinctly beautiful, and the tallest structure in Auckland. The second thing about Auckland is that it’s a port city and very much embraces the sea, its downtown shoreline devoted to all things shipping and boating related, especially sailboats. I’d say sailing is the theme of this city, its heart, and even those who don’t care for sailing can enjoy looking at sailboats from the comfort of a steady shore.

While boats are scattered about in marinas and on the water, the most interesting concentration of them is in Viaduct Harbour. Full of restaurants that spill out onto walkways overlooking the water, boating supply stores, a boating museum, the headquarters of Emirates Team New Zealand (of America’s Cup fame), and berthed superyachts from all over the world, it is quite the yachtie kind of place! People have differing tastes as to what they like to do when visiting a city, but I can’t imagine anyone has ever visited Auckland and not walked around the Viaduct.

Still, there’s another interesting feature to appreciate about this city: the individual hills that dot the landscape, remnants of old volcanoes. These volcanoes are one of the things that make Auckland unique. There are about 50 of them scattered throughout the central area of the North Island, but the few mentioned below are special and featured sights in Auckland.

Auckland Domain (Pukekawa)

Many of the world’s great cities have a large central park, often with a museum, flower beds, expansive green lawns and large trees. This area in Auckland is called Auckland Domain and sits on the remnants of Pukekawa, one of Auckland’s oldest volcanoes. The Auckland Museum sits at the highest point, on top of the hill, while beautiful stretches of lawn and grand old trees cover the rest of it.

Auckland Domain has many walking paths, and walking around here is always enjoyable. Our favorite was a path called Lover’s Lane that meandered through a gully lush with subtropical vegetation. We also loved the area’s giant trees.

Unfortunately with all the walking it took to get to and enjoy the Auckland Domain, we never had the energy to tackle the museum, but we’ve heard good things about it. Below, some photos of Auckland Domain (you can click to enlarge and scroll through photo galleries in this post.)

Mt Eden

This was the first volcano we visited in Auckland, and we found it pretty astonishing. It’s the tallest of the old volcanoes and still has its crater, now a big grassy bowl. Like the other volcanoes in Auckland, one can choose to walk up, bike up, or drive up through beautiful parkland to incredible views from the top. We’ve already done a blog post about our first visit, but coming back this year we found it just as amazing. Below, a couple of photos, one showing the third of Auckland’s great volcanoes: One Tree Hill.

One Tree Hill (Maungakiekie)

While Mount Eden is the highest, One Tree Hill is among Auckland’s largest volcanoes with huge areas of parkland, historic sites, and even a planetarium. There are also sheep, many many sheep, that graze on the extensive lawns and grassy areas. The entire area is called Cornwall Park, and it’s Auckland’s largest park.

One Tree Hill is another volcano we visited last year, making the drive to the top to see the obelisk and views. This year we came to walk around the park at the base of the volcano, but one of the most striking things was driving though it. The streets were thickly lined with magnificent trees! Near the front gate where pohutukawas, followed by huge specimens of other trees as we drove along. We parked at the information center and cafe, perched on a slope overlooking large expanses of lawn and more huge trees. This area seemed so big that it was a surprise to find we could walk all the way around the bottom of the volcano in 25-minutes.

We did just that, taking 40 minutes with photo stops. It was a beautiful walk with more huge trees, this time pine and oak, and lots of sheep. This park was definitely one of the highlights of Auckland.

Albert Park

There’s one more park of note, this one residing on an old, low-lying volcano near the center of the city: Albert Park. Compared to the other parks it’s very small, but it has a lot of pohutukawa trees and a lovely formal garden at its center. There’s also the Auckland Art Gallery, the city’s premier art museum and housed in a building that’s a work of art in itself. It’s free to the public and definitely worth a look.–Cyndi