Traveling the Seabird Coast to Whangaparaoa

Left Thames pretty early.  There is not much to do there.  They do, however, boast of the longest commercial street in New Zealand!  Whoopee.  We drove down the Seabird Highway and had to get out and feel the sea.  It was very calm after a night of strong winds.  The beach was filled with shells, so we poked around for a while collecting shells and some sea glass.  Decided that this might be another good place for our dear friend Jerry B.  So now he is at the North Island as well as the South.  We have just a bit more ashes that will go on our cruise in Fiji.

Driving along the coast, Geoff spotted a Maori Pa (meeting house) out of the corner of his eye.  We quickly turned around and did the tourist thing.  Fortunately no one was around and we were able to poke around and take some pictures.  It was great seeing something so meaningful that wasn't an exhibit. After that, it was the usual twist and turny scenic drive until we hit the highway for Auckland.  Based on the opinion of nearly everyone we met, we decided to skip a visit to the big city, so we cruised quickly past.  This being Sunday, helped with the traffic.  The drive was much better than we had anticipated.  The roads were great, the signs were clear, the drivers were polite and Geoff welcomed the change from careening up and down and around the cliffs.  The sky was bright blue and the skyline was great to see.  We spotted the big spire, Sky Tower, and the marina was filled with thousands of ships.  It was all very pretty, but we were happy to be moving on.  It is a very big city.

We made it to our ATC hosts house around noon.  When I spoke with them yesterday, they said they would be out and that the neighbor would let us in.  Bill, the neighbor, came down to greet us and give us the key.  The house sits out on the very end of a peninsula overlooking the sea.  Great views.  We have a nice queen bed and the whole downstairs to ourselves.  It was nice that no one was home yet.  We took a ride around the neighborhood and stopped for lunch at the marina.  Got back to the house and took a very well long deserved nap.  Roger and Raywin showed up around 5ish.  They very generously invited us to stay for dinner - grilled chicken and venison sausages with salad and potatoes, fresh fruit with fresh figs from the tree outside for dessert.  Had a lovely dinner and some great conversation. 

The weather is a bit unsettled here at the moment.  Wellington got hit pretty hard with some powerful storms last night.  It looks like we will be making our way further north to the Bay of Islands tomorrow.  We hope to spend a few days there.  Our days are numbered here in this wonderful country.  It will be very sad to leave.

Next time... Bay of Islands