Makara with Emma!

We also took our friend Emma to Makara beach. This is a very rocky beach with lots and lots of wind. I sometimes am underwhelmed by it, and then when I look at the photos I remember how much I love it.
We walked up along int he interior track this time... as many trails are here, it was rather steep!


A new wind farm is installed now... this was the only one we could see from the trail...View back to the beach/car park.


The top of the headland...A perfect place to talk math while checking out the Cook Straight and the South Island just beyond that.

sick sick sick

As if the swine flu wasn't enough. Nor was the second flu I had. No I had to get another virus, one that sent me to bed for nearly 3 weeks, and then reduced me to a fatigued pile of tears after four hours of work each day. Two weeks of 4 hour days four days a week, and I could just barely manage to go back to full time work.
One day in there I took a vacation from my bed and went for a ten minute walk on the beach at the bottom of our hill. There was a wee fort someone had built and I just wanted to curl in and hid away for a bit.



And a tree that I even stopped to photograph... too bad I didn't remember it when we were racing the pair along the beach and we nearly SMASHED into it a few weeks later. Oops. Driving backwards in a boat is not my forte.

I was one sick girl. Fever, infection, glassy eyes, but I was most impressed with my neck. Do notice the swollen neck. My lymph nodes took almost 5 weeks to return to normal!

Beach days

We drove through the amazingly tall trees to the enormous Cannon beach that was covered in people. Okay most of the world would think that the beach was fairly sparsely populated, but it now feels rather full of people compared to the beaches I hang out on in New Zealand - granted that beaches are wintry cold at the moment there:)

Run away with me

Last week I ran away with my lover... I can't remember the last time Traveler and I ran away together. And then we FLEW back together ON THE SAME plane. Traveler and I have piloted planes. We've traveled. We've even been in the same small plane together. But I can't think of the last time we flew on the same jet and sat next to each other - we have this habit of flying separately and going our separate ways until we reunite.

Anyway, the coromandel is an amazing place.
This is at least my 3rd trip and if I lived closer I'd go every month.
I just love walking the beaches and seeing the views and exploring the bits that are forest.


THE DRIVE:
NEARBY BEACH



with a lady walking her dog and using the leash as a way to drag her sandals behind her!

Then we walked up a hill in a town which I think started with a T. Yes, it was that kind of weekend. We just drove around chatting until it was decided that we should stop to explore. I have next to no idea where I was most of the time.



And of course more driving
And the obligatory trip down to cathedral cove

Waiheke Island - part 2: the island

The island was lovely. I took the bus down to this lovely beach. I even tried to take a nice nap, but the construction crew seemed to start packing the dirt on the shoreline road where ever I tried to sleep. Even though my bed of sand was a ways from it, the pounding and vibration was intense. I began to wonder about the impact on any sand life forms..... when I notice that sand fleas were biting me all over. I guess I was nicer than the trama of the sand vibrations.
Here is a friendly sign reminding drivers "cement splashes, wash car today"
I just loved this wall... but fear that my mother will try to create one if I show it to her:)

This is the second beach I went to and had a very lovely coffee on that very bench. Ah, it was a nice moment.
I ended up walking back to the ferry from town through the Atawhai Whenua Reserve. It is slowly regenerating. It was quiet though and not too hard on my weak ankles.

I did find this sign amusing... Perhaps this bridge is unsafe, but the small creak was very leapable.

Regardless I made my way down the path to the 'safer' bridge, which turned out to be a sticked laid across the stream!But my very favourite part was getting off the ferry and watching this man roll his semi-portable heater down the city streets... I can only wonder where he was planning to take it!
And my favourite accidental shot of the day while I was out exploring the city streets of Auckland!