One beautiful Sunday back in December, Laurel and Dennis and I packed up some sunscreen and water and headed up to Puhoi, about 45 minutes north of Auckland. We paddled kayaks down a gorgeous river nestled into green sheep-covered hills and were picked up where it ended in the sea by the nice people at the canoe livery.
Puhoi is this tiny little picturesque town with a church, the canoe livery, and a community hall with an old fashioned (I'm thinking Dirty Dancing's hall where Baby performed that spectacular lift move) wooden stage where, that night anyway, there was a little band setting up to perform.
These next photos from the time on the river were taken with my little G10 in its underwater case, so I have to apologize. They're not quite up to snuff. Please, please forgive me.
On the way home we stopped in Orewa for some lunch and it was gooood. Very pretty little beach town. Another place I'd like to check out more.
Oh! And on the way there as we drove through Auckland, keep in mind -- it was December 12th, so Christmas was near. This is how some Kiwis get to experience "snow":
Also saw bridge climbers on the Auckland Harbour Bridge as we drove under them.
While I'm thinking of it -- next Tuesday at 8 on NBC is The Biggest Loser and they're in New Zealand!! My mom called on Tuesday this week to tell us to watch and it was soooo exciting to see all of the places that we'd gone and the view that we had from our house every day on TV! It's a pretty cool show too. Interesting to hear people's stories and see how far they've come.
Cheers, everyone!
I had a couple of questions about the bird, and of course I had no clue what it was, so I asked my NZ bird expert, Jenny, who said this:
ReplyDeleteBlack and white bird.....
Actually it is the pied shag....a cormorant... :)
Very common, live in colonies together
Looked huge for a cormorant! The sky is so blue in these pics! That is quite a livery!! So many boats! I forget how outdoorsy Kiwis are. I still think your arm looks buff in that picture, Where was Trey?
ReplyDeleteThe sky is sooooo much more blue there. Possibly just the location in relation to the sun, or there is also talk of holes in the ozone over that part of the world. I look every day here and think, gosh that sky is a pale, pale blue.
ReplyDeleteOh! And Trey was at his buddy Cam's bday party, jumping off of buoys out in the harbour and stuff like that! :o) My arm is SO not buff!!! Lol!!!
ReplyDeleteFrom Trey's teacher, Miss Collins:
ReplyDeleteIt's in the cormorant family and is called a shag. They dive under the
water to catch fish and are common in seas, rivers, estuaries. Often
found perched high in trees above the water, on rocks or on raised
trunks as shown.