Over the last few months there has been quite a lot of discussion on the NZMCA forum on the changes to the Free camping area at Gulf Harbour.
Nice spot for overnighting with a great view
We were going to spend a night with my brother in law John and his other half Marnie at Silverdale and as we were a bit early, we decided to check it out and stop for a cup of tea. The weather wasn’t playing the game so it wasn’t looking its best as the nice overnighting spot that it is.
Nice for a cup of tea, Great outlook right back to the City
I think the council have done quite a good job of separating the boat trailer car parking, the Motorhome parking and the ferry parkers.
The sign writing is nice and clear and allows plenty of room for everyone.
On the northern sideA great spot with good facilities including a dump station
My only comment for improvements would be to take a leaf out of Taupo councils book and paint the 3m fire safety gap, as No Parking between each park, so the tourists and those not aware, don’t try to jam in late at night.
Oops, maybe just stopping for a moment.. Nice long trailer parking for the boaties.
We only stopped for a look and moved on to Silverdale but a big improvement.
Anniversary Day on the Waitemata Harbour (Auckland Harbour for our off shore friends) is always a spectacle. Especially for those of us that like to smell some diesel and hear some noise 🙂
Oh and by the way – this is still a motorhoming blog 🙂 .. apologies for all the marine things but its that time of the year !
After the start. Auckland City behindSterling
The Tug Race is now open to all Work boats and its always nice to see some of the Classic old timers mix it up with the new machines on the water.
Lots of pictures.. click on the images to see them in there full glory.
I used to think that going to the local boat ramp for a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon was great entertainment.
Fiona and I walked down to Milford beach to watch some of the returning long weekend launches come back into Milford Marina in a 20 knot easterly coming up your backside. This is a real challenge as the entrance is quite narrow and with the surf, you can easily broach and head onto the rocks on either side of the entrance. Its not for the faint hearted.
Coastguard Arriving
As we crossed the bridge and walked down to the sand, I mentioned to Fiona that the mast we could see and the way it was bobbing around looked as though it was on the beach. As we got closer, there it was. I immediately rang Coastguard but they already knew about it and help was coming. It seems the poor chap misjudged the tide completely and was forced to turn around in the channel (almost impossible) and lost control and ended up on the beach. There were lost of volleyball players who volunteered to help in the water. Coastguard arrived and towed them off with a jet powered rubber boat. A very lucky fellow and what a long day he had!
Time Piece
Time Piece
Florence Rose
Florence Rose
Geoff Bagnall
Geoff Bagnall
Lance and Karen Jones
Rorqual
Rorqual
Rorqual
Ferro
Ferro
After that, we sat back and watched the boats come in on the easterly.. Everyone I saw did the return to Milford pretty well but what an afternoon of drama and action.
With the heatwave, if you can call it that, we set off for a park beside a beach where we could swim.
Our friends Rob and Helen have stayed regularly and highly recommended Wenderholm Self Contained parks. The park is well setup with a boat ramp (tidal), Electric BBQ’s and Picnic Tables that are free to use and nice new toilets too.
Remember to click on the images for Hi Res
Our parking area with the BBQ and table in the foreground
We arrived in the early afternoon, settled down Rafe and headed straight for the beach. A really nice beach with views across to Whangaparoa and you can even see Rangitoto Island.
Wenderholm BeachPeople enjoying the sunThe Beach
I was surprised it was so busy for a Monday but it was hot and it is still holiday time. As the day went on, more motorhomes arrived and while we had a glass of wine before tea, a visitor from Wellington was out entertaining us with his metal detector looking for treasure.
He found a house key, several coins and said he’d previously found an expensive ring!
With the Waikato Buses
Behind the beach picnic areas
People enjoying the Estuary
The Toilet Block
The Boat Ramp
At Dusk
Late arrivals at the ramp
I’m think that I would prefer to park in a fenced off parking area like Sullivans Bay, another Auckland City Park further north. In saying that, where we were and because there were a few of us, it gave the impression that it was a motorhome area and cars didn’t park near us.
The Beach at Dusk
We have had a situation where we’ve been at beachs where the day trippers have been quietly drinking all day and leave to drive home where they can barely walk.(Not this one)
All in all, a nice place to stay, nice beach and things to cook on too.
What a great weekend! The weather was great and we had things to do.
After Fiona had finished work, we headed out to one of our favorite spots, the NZMCA park at Ardmore, a hop skip and a jump from Alex, Sarah and the Grandkids.
As always, remember to click on the images to see Hi Res.
Rob & Helens Autotrail and Rafe
Our friends, Rob & Helen and their daughter Chloe were heading off for a week or so to Napier and Gisborne so it was great we could pop in to Ardmore to see them off. When we arrived at about 7:30pm, they were off on a walk so they were a bit surprised to see us there when they returned as we hadn’t confirmed that we would be there.
Alex, Sarah and the boys came over after their tea and we all caught up in Rafe. Lots of fun.
The Ardmore NZMCA park is in an airfield precinct so a little noise comes with the territory, usually small planes and sometimes Helicopters.
Ardmore Park with Rob & Helens Autotrail and Rafe next door. The Cadet hall behind.
That morning, things were different. At 8am, we heard the repetitive bark of a Sergeant Major type next door in the cadet parade ground teaching St John Juniors how to march. It was quite interesting to watch too as some didn’t know the left from the right so there were some interesting moves happening.
They were all togged up in their black uniforms and looked good, some even wearing their medals. There was one trainer who forgot his black clobber and was doing it all in his Red shorts.
St Johns Juniors marching
As Fiona said, good on him for volunteering his time on a Saturday morning but it did sort of spoil the overall look.
About 9:30, we said goodbye to Rob, Helen and Chloe and they headed off to Taupo for their trip to Hawkes Bay and beyond. We left as well and went around to Alex, Sarahs and the Grandkids for the morning and around lunchtime, headed towards one of our other favorite places, Rays Rest at Miranda. We were catching up our friends Gary and Chris who were helping other friends Mark and Tina with their first trip out in their new, second hand Motorhome.
Rays Rest is a great spot and the weather was behaving as well.
Rays Rest
After arriving early in the afternoon, we caught up for cups of tea and later a couple of drinks and then headed off in Gary’s van down to get the fish and chips for tea from the famous Kaiaua fish and chips shop. Gary wasn’t drinking so that worked well. It was nice to see how much progress Mark had made on his motorhome as when he got it, it leaked and had quite a lot of dampness in its linings. .. now all gone. More on this in another post soon.
We had a great night together and called it quits and hit the hay.
At Rays Rest
The next morning was nice in diffused sunshine with little wind. We sat on the foreshore watching people fish and just soaked up the atmosphere.
At Rays Rest, Gary, Fiona, Tina, Chris and Mark
Gary, Chris, Tina and Mark were going to carry on to Thames and Coromandel so after lunch, we left them and headed home. A nice weekend.
On Christmas eve, we stayed in my sons family’s driveway and early Christmas day was spent opening pressies with Alex, Sarah, the two grandsons, Ayden and Liam and with Sarah’s parents and brother Andrew. The hard part was keeping Liam on task opening all his presents as he wanted to stop and play along the way. All part of being a 3 yr old.
Waiting for the ferry at Half Moon Bay. Liam with Fiona and Ayden with his dad Alex.Ferry Unloading
After Fiona had made croissants with Cheese and Bacon .. yum! we left to catch the ferry from Half Moon Bay to Waiheke, where were to have a great lunch with the wider family at Fiona’s sister Sara and Robs place in Onetangi.
Jessa doing the bubbly
Drew’s mate Lucas (on left), Drews cousin Merryn and my son Drew
Ayden, Dad Alex(my son) and Liam
Ayden, Fiona, Liam with cousin Jessa
Son Andrew on the Shredder
Andrew on the shredder, note the Drone
Rob showing Ayden how to pilot a drone
Rob showing Ayden how to pilot a drone in the barn
Liam with his cousin Merryn
Rob has some new toys in his toy box at the barn so after lunch we went up to the barn and he wheeled out the entertainment.
The Razor: a 4 wheel drive farm bike with roll cages but souped up mechanically. The Shredder: A track driven by a petrol motor steered by a wake board like setup.. see the piccies. Remember too to click on them for hi res.
Lots of fun mixed with some nice wine and great food with great company.
We all made it too the 7pm ferry at Kennedy point in time to get back to Half Moon Bay and to Ardmore.
It was a big day and I was literally falling into bed when I got back to Rafe.
A boxing day pic of Liam and Ayden
We’re looking forward to heading up North for the next week .. watch for some Northland posts! I hope everyone had a great Christmas.. have a good new year and if you’re on the road, be safe.
Rafe had developed a nasty little irritating rattle in what seemed to be the left front suspension. We thought given the warranty runs out in 6 months or so, we need to get straight onto to these things and get it sorted. I dropped it off last Wednesday morning and took a technician around the block so I could point out the noise. It only appeared on coarse seal but was a quiet as a mouse on smooth seal.
The awning out with our new mat down
Initially it seemed that although they could hear the noise, they couldn’t find a reason for a rattle. The suspension checked out ok and after a few hours of searching, there was nothing else.
A bit of light reading by yours truly on the Fiat forum in the UK showed that they have this issue in Britain too. The Euro’s have smooth seal but they use coarse seal in Britain like NZ. On Monday, they wired it all up with microphones and went for a drive to locate the rattle. To add the sound equipment, they had to take off the tray which is a big piece of black rubber/plastic mat that covers the whole underside of the engine and gearbox area to protect it from dust. The Brits found that they were the cause of the rattle. With all the sound equipment, they couldn’t hear any noise at all so it seems the tray might be the cause here too. We picked Rafe up on Monday and the’ve left the tray off to try it over the new Year period and so far I haven’t heard a thing 🙂 I’ll head back to the engineers in January and have it put back on with some foam to stop it rattling if that’s what it turns out to be.
As always, make sure you click on these images to see them in hi res.
Fiona with Takapuna Beach in the distance
What to do last weekend instead ? We decided to walk around from Milford Bridge all the way down the beach and around the waterfront to Takapuna Beach. Its a great walk and only takes about 1/2 hour.
Milford Beach
Milford Beach
Waterfront homes at Milford
Waterfront homes at Milford
The track around the rocks
Getting close to Thornes Beach
Cable car up the hill
Thornes Beach
Nice waterfront homes at Thornes Beach
Thornes Beach
Thornes Beach half way around
Fishing off the rocks half way around. Rangitoto behind
Fiona with one of the waterfront houses near Milford
Almost Crystal clear
Foreshore houses, Takapuna in the distance
Takapuna Beach in the distance
Looking back to Milford
On the way to Takapuna
Rangitoto with the Pohutakawas
We stopped at Takapuna Beach for a while and watched the launching antics of the masses and the wayward backing attempts. Always a good hour or two’s entertainment although better at low tide 🙂
We walked up to Hurstmere Rd and had a nice lunch in a café there and then walked back towards Milford. There is a little track down to the beach right on the corner with Kitchener Rd so we headed back down along the beach and back home.
Fiona cooling off with Rangitoto behind
We’d only been home for a n hour or so when our good friends Tony and Julie popped in with a bottle of wine and some cider and then spent several hours sitting in the sun watching boats come and go in the marina.
A very pleasant day but I’m REALLY pleased to have Rafe back !
Last week, several members of the Takapuna – Devonport board did an about turn on their previously promoted position of supporting the Takapuna campground against their tussle against government and council funded Yachting NZ for yet another yotting facility on public land. The outcome was a compromise where the campground will lose about 10% of its land for a hard stand for the yotts. At least the campground gets to stay.
Takapuna Beach Campground
Takapuna Camp ground on Takapuna Beach is one of only two campgrounds on the North Shore. It is on leased land from the council. I think if my memory serves me right, it was given to the council by a local Takapuna family to be used as a campground several generations ago and many people from everywhere have enjoyed the grounds and its proximity to the beach for years.
People enjoying lunch with the campground behind
Yachting NZ were trying to build their HQ at the Strand, just down the beach but were rejected by the council. Even their past Chairman, a well known yachtie, is on record of saying, the people of the North Shore have said no to building on the campground and learn when to give up.
Auckland City, compared to some of the smaller cities around NZ, is not one of the better supporters of dump stations and Motorhoming.
Yes they have some great coastal parks which they inherited from Auckland Regional Council and various benefactors over the years and they make them available to campers and Motorhomers, but they generally charge a lot for very little so every full serviced campground we have, we need to keep.
Late last week the council had their usual 5am blessing for anything new and officially opened their new bridge across Milford Creek and I have to say, it looks pretty good. I think its a huge waste of ratepayers money but over the weekend, it was used pretty much non stop.
The Bridge with the emergency piles in the foreground
Remember to click on these to make sure you get the best of these images in Hi Res.
The entrance to the bridge
Later that day, Andrew and I walked to the Milford Cruising club for a meal and a couple of drinks. I haven’t been there for a while so it was nice to see some of the old faces including Geoff Bagnall who rebuilt our old Whalechaser Rorqual.
Below is a recent drone movie of Andrew bring Rorqual back to Milford on dusk. This was just before the bridge was operational.
Andrew was telling me a funny story, how he went out in the boat with a mate that day to the Rangitoto lighthouse and back and on returning couldn’t remember the correct radio callsign to open the bridge.
As he tells the story, it went along the lines of : Bridge dude Bridge dude, this is Rorqual calling(and his callsign). Open the bridge please mate as I’m coming in hot! His reply: Rorqual Rorqual, this is ATOC. The bridge will be open within 5 minutes. Please proceed.
You’d think the council would come up with something simple like Milford Bridge or something similar .. no, they have to have something silly that no one can remember!
The bridge ready for business
During the evening at the Cruising club, we bumped into our old friends Heather and her husband Walter who was the previous commodore who was very involved with the bridge in its early days.
“Now don’t you go using that bridge to go home” she said as we left to go home .. oops.. sorry Heather but it was the shortest way back 🙂
Fiona & Chris, two empty nesters put their dreams of doing something different into reality… Now back in a house, they were living in their Motorhome, come along for the ride.
Bugger It, we are off - www.buggeritweareoff.com 
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