The leading contender was head south and as I’ve been keen to check out the lighthouse at the end of the Awhitu Peninsula which is on the western side of the Manukau Harbour from Waiuku.

It’s about 100ks from Auckland by road. It’s an interesting drive and who would believe it was on Aucklands doorstep!
We left Milford and headed for Shore City for Fiona’s new specs, then onto Countdown for a couple of days provisions. I like Countdown in Takapuna as its really easy to park Rafe in there. They have these great double length car parks.

We headed south towards Waiuku. It’s an amazing little town that gets forgotten about but it’s got so much history. I must remember too to take the grandkids to the Glenbrook historical steam railway. That is just out of town and largely run by volunteers. A great setup.
The road out from Waiuku to the lighthouse is quite windy towards the end and in parts quite narrow but Rafe did it with ease.

We parked in the carpark and when I saw the steps up the hill. I thought of my mate Alan who visited me for a cup of tea a few days ago at Milford. Our driveway there is almost vertical and Fiona still refuses to drive up it. Alan got to the front door and said “oxygen oxygen”! Im sure he was joking but one never knows 😜
The steps up to the lighthouse were a piece of cake but there were a few of them. I remember seeing someone’s blog somewhere who reckoned there were about 275 odd !

The view at the top was well worth it. The lighthouse has been moved from its original location further up the hill but is basically as it was. There was a full community built around the lighthouse keeper and his family with a complete self sustainable farm to provide food, eggs and milk.

The light

Out towards Whatipu, the bar on the left

Towards the city

The winding road to the carpark

Fiona on the lighthouse deck looking out to Whatipu

The Maunkau bar over the signal station

The lighthouse

Looking towards Auckland

Towards the heads

After an interesting hour of checking it all out we checked into the Orua bay Motorcamp about 3 k’s away on the beach opposite Cornwallis.

The Motorcamp is largely occupied by permanent caravanners. One of them wandered over for a chat about Rafe. Nice chap. It turned out that he was related to the lighthouse keepers family and had grown up in the area.
Tomorrow we’ll head to Awhitu park back down the peninsula.