Category Archives: Close to home

Close to home, Friends

No Floor Show

After Fiona’s very pleasant work do at The Brigham Restaurant at Hobsonville, and after showing off Rafe to her workmates who mostly hadn’t seen the inside view before, we headed for the NZMCA Ardmore park in South Auckland to meet our old friends Gary and Chris Parkes who joined us for part of our South Island trip a few months ago.

With the sudden surge of pre Christmas work from clients, we have been temporarily grounded if you like  so we’ve been making every excuse to get away. It was nice to catch up with them again and with Alex, Sarah and the Grandies just next door to the park.

Us with our very big Neighbour!
Us with our very big Neighbour!

We arrived in the middle of the afternoon and after settling Rafe down, opening some vents and a little unpacking, we walked down the road to see the Ardmore Millers to watch some trampolining, some bike riding and catch up with Alex and Sarah.

Returning back a couple of hours later around 6 ish, we had the mandatory sundowners and tried to make some sense out of where we would head over the coming weeks of holidays. This turned into dinner and some cups of tea much later. A good night and nice to see them again.

Overnight we had a really solid rain and a few puffs of wind to go with it. There were decent sized puddles everywhere in the morning although fine but still windy. Gary found a leak in his roof but we suspect it might be the vent that was open for the rain overnight.

Roger & Marion's AutoTrail with Alex and Sarah's black VW next to Gary and Chris's Mitzi Fuso at Ardmore
Roger & Marion’s AutoTrail with Alex and Sarah’s black VW next to Gary and Chris’s Mitzi Fuso at Ardmore

The morning tea bell rang from the Parkes truck and not long after that, Alex and Sarah arrived with Ayden and Liam.  We walked down to the Airport Café just in time to see the ole restored DC3 take off for a circuit but there cant have been too many customers as it landed after we arrived and taxied to its parking spot behind the tower. There was very little other plane movements which was disappointing. It must have been too windy or unpleasant for the small planes.

We walked back to the trucks and I spotted a nice pic of flowers and parked planes which summed up the day nicely. Our friends Roger and Marion’s Autotrail Delawere was at Ardmore park too and we caught up with some of the other regulars as well.

The planes all parked up. Alex and Sarah's treelines driveway behind in the distance.
The planes all parked up.
Alex and Sarah’s treelines driveway behind in the distance.

After tidying up Rafe and saying goodbye to all, we left after lunch and headed for home to more work this week.

Close to home, Great Beaches

The Dunes

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After leaving Orua Bay, we quickly checked out Graham’s Beach which looks like a great spot to stay.

As were a stones throw from Awhitu Wines, we toyed with the idea of going wine tasting but as it was only 10am (yep, we checked the time) we decided it wouldn’t be a good look🍷😳 so we went on to Awhitu park.

Fiona with Rafe at Awhitu
Fiona with Rafe at Awhitu

This was originally a huge farm run by the Brook family in the late 1800’s.
We left Rafe in the carpark and walked down and along the beach to the Brook homestead and cottage. Many generations of the family lived in these houses and there is a picture there if them enjoying Christmas dinner on the verandah in 1950.

The wharf at the Brooks homestead
The wharf at the Brooks homestead
The Awhitu beach walk to the Brooks Homestead
The Awhitu beach walk to the Brooks Homestead

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The Brooks Cottage
The Brooks Cottage

After getting lost in the golf course, yep.. We even had to consult google maps to get back to the carpark. We had lunch and then left to find Hamilton Gap in the West Coast.

The Giant Sandhills at Hamilton Gap
The Giant Sandhills at Hamilton Gap
The Sandhills at Hamilton Gap
The Sandhills at Hamilton Gap

What an an amazing place. There is a self contained Motorhome park there which is free but as it was blowing 20 knots from the west, we decided to press on.
We had a good look around at the most amazing Sandhills built up by the wind. Check out the images.

Make sure you click on them to see the hi res versions.
Fiona checked out a very trendy looking toilet and decided it wasn’t that trendy inside.

Rafe with the Trendy Loos which Fiona says aren't that trendy inside!
Rafe with the Trendy Loos which Fiona says aren’t that trendy inside!

Two days of having a look around the peninsula just on our doorstep and finding these beautiful spaces. Such a contrast.

Sandhills at Hamilton Gap
Sandhills at Hamilton Gap

After an hour or so of looking around, we headed back to Waiuku and then onto Ardmore to check in with Alex, Sarah and our grandsons.

Close to home

Where to today? North or South

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.

The lighthouse
The lighthouse

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.

At Countdown Takapuna
At Countdown Takapuna

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.

Rafe and the winding road
Rafe and the winding road

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 steps!
The steps!

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.

Our park at Orua Bay
Our park at Orua Bay

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.