Starting Work and Tree Hugging

So, I officially start work on Tuesday. Having said that, I have already done 3 days (and that means an extra week of holiday!) It's all going pretty well so far. I am still distracted by the sparkley water of the harbour, but it's getting better.

Last weekend was a 3 day one (to celebrate the Queen's Birthday - how civilised!) and we took the opportunity to get out of town on the Sunday and explore some of the countryside east of Auckland. We drove out through the Eastern Suburbs in the mist and stopped off at an Auckland Regional Council (ARC) reserve at Omana Beach and had a nice long walk through farmland and forest. We met three nanny goats - Pixie, Trixie and Dixie and a very happy, very free-range pig!

After our walk we decided to find lunch at Maretai. We had a lovely lunch outside, looking over the water to the south side of Waiheke Island. The sun was out and paddling was very tempting.

We carried on along the coast to Duder Regional Park - a peninsular with a working farm and lovely beaches. We took a walk along the beach and were rewarded with plenty of wildlife - particularly two kingfishers fishing from the rocks. And then back in to Auckland past a vineyard or two (sadly we were too late for a tasting!)

This weekend we decided that we'd get involved with some ARC tree planting volunteering. We drove out west to Piha (one of our favourite places) and headed up the headland instead of our usual beach time. The top of the headland was burnt during an arson attack about 5 years ago. Unlike some Australian ecosystems, the NZ coastal areas don't cope well with fire - with a 20 year regeneration time.

Our task for the day was to plant 50 pohutakawa trees on the headland. These are very hardy trees that bloom with red starbursts at Christmas.

There were about 25 of us, so just 2 trees each. We were lucky that a lot of the hard work had already been done by some of the local crims on community services - they carried the trees and compost onto the headland and had already dug the holes. All that was left for us was to actually plant the trees. The weather was fantastic. Sunny and windy and warm out of the wind. We've had some pretty wild weather, so the Tasman was very boisterous and giving a good show breaking on the rocks.



There were about 20 people from an Auckland company who were involved as part of their 'carbon neutral' efforts. They kindly invited us to join them for a barbie at the MD's bach (holiday house) just next to the beach. We joined them and had lots of fun. And hopefully we've made a new friend or two :)


We've bought tickets to see England vs the All Blacks next weekend - the kind of game we couldn't hope to get tickets for in London! Very excited. The ABs had a horrible game against Ireland yesterday with sleet and driving winds! There is a good reason that we live in the subtropical north!

Apparently we're off to Raglan (further down the Wild West Coast) for a weekend of winter surfing at the start of July. Hmm, I'm thinking that I'm not even going to get my toes wet - plenty of walking to be done instead.

Will blog again soon, but now there is Sunday Dinner to be attended to.
Kx