|
| 7:27am |
I was most rudely awakened by the
sound of bathroom based activities. After a quick splash about in
the kitchenette sink, I was ready to greet the day. But no one else
was, so I tried a lovely game of computer-based Solitaire (so much
easier than trying to shuffle cards, mind you). |
| 8:01am |
With only marginal effort, I was able to
defeat this simpleton's game. |
| 8:06am |
We're off to market, and to the discovery
that it rained overnight. |
| 8:12am |
Correction, rained overnight, is still a bit sprinkling. And traffic
is still not lovely. |
| 8:21am |
Today's discovery is the cereal
No Problem-Os, also of Simpson's fame. But at NZ$7.15 a box, I'd
have to lump it in the outrageously priced. (That works out to about
US$4.80.) |
| 8:28am |
Today's
haul was enough to cause the clerk to ask if we were on holiday...
must have been the bag of M&Ms. |
| 8:30am |
It's dueling
bakeries. If one place is out of cheese scones, you can always
go next door. The good news is, none of the other
shops here were selling baked goods, or we could have ended up
with some sort of Greek tragedy on our wings hands. |
| 8:49am |
And, we're back. A breakfast of milk, less-than-super donuts and
sandwiches, and we are out the door en route to the coast. |
| 8:57am |
On our way out, our hosts (aka the
hotel owners) Karene and Phil, chatted us up about our trip plans.
After mentioning we were planning to take Highway 16 north in search
for beaches, and being told that wasn't the best course of action,
Phil took one of the numerous brochures from the rack and drew us
an alternate path along 1 North along the east coast. (And given the
two coasts are as few as 20 km -- 13 miles or so -- apart in places,
we figured one's as good as the other, and they are the local experts.) |
| 10:18am |
After shoving off and heading north along Highway 1, we first found
ourselves in Orewa.
|
| 10:41am |
We departed Orewa, and motored along
until we bumped into Waiwera.
|
| 11:00am |
A wander down Highway 1 and in a bit is Puhoi,
which claims to be the first Bohemian settlement in New Zealand. (Apparently,
that "bohemian" moniker means Czechoslovakian.) It was here
we began seeing sheep like they keep mentioning in all those New Zealand
travel brochures. |
| 11:30am |
We arrived in Warkworth,
and found for a place of 2,500 people, it seemed huge, yet very warm.
Of all the places we visited today, this would be my first (and probably
only) choice of places I'd want to relocate. (At least in New Zealand,
so far.) |
| 12:01pm |
Alas, we had to leave Warkworth to keep the adventure on track,
so we made our way up along the highway further. |
| 12:16pm |
Sandspit.
I regret to say it wasn't quite the impressive turn-off from the highway
I was hoping for. |
| 12:38pm |
At the plum end of the road whose name escapes me, we bumped into
Martins Bay,
which had every appearance of a holiday resort area in the summer
months. In the winter months such as these, it was little more than
a shell of itself. |
| 12:50pm |
Figuring that was enough of Martins
Bay, we stopped into the two places we blew right past on our way
to the end of the road. The first of them was Algies
Bay, and by every clue I had available to me, seemed to be a bedroom
community with a hotel. For market or the fire brigade, you'd have
to move back up the road. |
| 1:04pm |
And where is this illustrious fire brigade, you ask? Why, Snells
Beach, of course. |
| 1:23pm |
We drove out of town in an outpouring
of emotion... well, no, mostly just rain. It seemed to subside, however,
a few miles out of town, but not before we went to the trouble of
suffering the excessive dampening of running in the rain for a photo.
Darn, but we were drying slowly as we transferred the wetness from
ourselves onto the seats of the rental car. I love rentals. |
| 1:49pm |
We arrived and passed through Wellsford,
and after a wander a bit through town (we found there was less to
wander through than we thought), we began a casual drive down Highway
16 back to town. |
| 2:11pm |
For all you sheep lovers out there,
these two photos are for ewe (camera
1 and camera
2). |
| 2:24pm |
Random
greenery photo that make you question what other hills are alive.
|
| 2:33pm |
More annoying, lush
countryside. But after enduring all the rain today, I think we
were entitled to some lush. |
| 2:35pm |
Can you just hear Kermit the Frog singing "Rainbow
Connection" right now? |
| 2:52pm |
We passed through Kaukapakapa
almost too fast for words, so we stopped, turned around, and did it
again at a decent pace. Good thing, too... those railroad crossing
signs were pretty darn cute. |
| 3:07pm |
Helensville
stood square on our path along Highway 16, so we wandered thorough
town, took a few pictures, and drove away wondering if we really captured
the essence of the place, or just some scraps left along the path...
only time will tell, but I didn't get a warm, fulfilled feeling from
the place. It was just sort of, y'know, there. |
| 4:04pm |
On the final approach to the hotel,
we were paused at a traffic light behind one of the few personalized
vehicle license plates we've seen. It could just be me, but I
would swear that when you get the plate, you can also order up text
to be printed above and below the tag number, since I've seen such
things on other plates, too. |
| 4:16pm |
We arrived, safe, sound and relative dry, back in our room at the
hotel. That left the girl to read and watch the tele, and Tubby to
do whatever it is he does to make him so darn invaluable to the human
race. I figured I'd do some updates to the web pages. |
| 4:49pm |
It seems you can't swing a stick without
hitting a rainbow here
or there
today. Silly rainstorms. |
| 7:44pm |
Updates done, posting beginning. Yes, by far the longer of the daily
activities, although it is sharing, and I'm quite partial to the sharing,
after all. |
| 8:33pm |
The updates are done, and I'm going
to wander down the street to the local cinema-plex to see Kill
Bill Vol. 2 again... but now I know how it ends. |
| 11:03pm |
Still fabulous as films go, this second time around. Oh yeah, we're
back in the hotel. |
| 11:14pm |
Nuts to listening to CNN political
programming and some discussion from England's Prime Minster Blair's
press conference in Britain in response to President Bush's speech
about Iraq (again), despite it being curious to see how the rest of
the world perceives America. Alas, maybe I can just pretend to be
a Canadian goose for a few more weeks... |
| |
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