Mangawahi and Omaha Beaches

Now this was a pretty good weekend

I'm slowly expanding my horizons in and around Auckland now. In other words, I'm getting to know Auckland better in the sense that I'm checking out a few of the bars (surprisingly salsa-rrific some of them) and also that I'm travelling a bit beyond the city.

This weekend I went on a bit of a surfing trip around some of the beaches to the north of Auckland with some guys from my halls. And I've got to say that even though surfing is harder than people make it look, and regardless of swallowing endless amounds of salt water, I still managed to have a great time!

First off we went over to Mangawahi beach, which was pretty awesome. Rented some surf boards and wetsuits and jumped in! The water was surprisingly warm, considering autumn is pressing on and winter is just around the corner here.



Great fun, and some of the surrounding rocks and hills made for some cool expeditions as well!

The next day, after a stopover at a ridiculously cheap hostel, and because the surf was pretty low (erm... apparently) we went to check out Omaha beach another good surfing spot, which also looked pretty good.


So yeah, had a cool time and managed to not get completely sucked into the sea! Definately need some practice before I can actually claim I went "surfing" tho...

Islands of the Gulf- Rangitoto Island

Wowowo

Now this is one cool place! A proper volcanic island, almost perfectly circular, the result of a farly recent volcanic explostion, which took place only 600 years ago. This might not sound like a lot, but the whole island is still a pile of volcanic rubble, with all the rocks not having had the chance to properly turn into soil yet.


Rangitoto, meaning "blood red sky" apparently, is a short ferry ride from the Auckland shore and is another one of the Hauraki Gulf islands. I actually got up in time and managed to make it to the ferry.

On approaching the island one just feels pretty awed by the size of the volcano and the state of the vegetation. It's a conserved natural park, so unlike waiheke island, there are no houses here and altough it's still pretty touristy, it still feels like being out in a jungle at times. Specially a couple of times, when I lost my way in a couple of trails and found meself literally in the middle of the pretty thick forest...


The view from the summit is as awesome as can be expected from a height of 260m, and you can literally walk around the rim of the volcano's crater, which is still relatively intact, giving one an idea of the size of the mofo!!

There's some pretty cool lava caves as well, basically weathered channels that you can trek through, and which do add to the adventure feeling of the whole place, that and the scattered ruins of the old settlements, which randomly one comes accross


All in all, a great day, glad i slept in yesterday cos the weather was so much better today and even managed to meet some spanish people, so I guess laziness does pay!

There are 50 million sheep in New Zealand...

...and they're pissed off!




>*Shudder*

The One Tree Hill Domain

The One Tree Hill domain and its neighbouring Cornwall park make up the biggest area of parkland in Auckland, so I thought I'd go and check it out.

In actual fact, my plan for today was orgininally to head over to Rangatoto, but in the end I got up a bit too late and missed the ferry, so, after a long series of "damn!" and "d'oh"s I thought I should do something else with myself.
I'd heard of the one tree hill domain, so i thought i'd go and check it out.

The domain and the cornwall park are basically side by side to each other, similar to hyde park and prince albert park.

The One Tree Hill is a 182 metre volcanic peak, it turns out that Auckland is actually a beehive for volcanoes and this domain was of particularly strong volvanic activity a few (thousand) years ago.

There'a a huge obelisk at the summit in honor of the Maori people (the Maori being the new zealand aborigines).


The view from the summit is awesome, you can actually make out all the volcanic cones and craters around ackland, as well as catching a view of both shores (auckland is an istmus, so you can catch the sea both on the north east and south west).



The park itself is also really cool, with plenty of random sculptures to commemorate that the one tree hill was once a main Maori fortress. Because of the volcanic soil being very fertile and the excellent defensive position, the one tree hill became a massive settlement (till the europeans came and took over, basically).

Hopefully tomorrow I will get up in time and catch the ferry! For now, I´m a gonna chill, was a bit of a walk!

BackLOG

Every now and then I get a bit nostalgic just browsing thru some of the pictures in my computer. Theres been some good times in spain and good ol' blighty! I guess I do miss home sometimes, but then I remember that I've only got a few months to make the most of my time here and that thought alone makes me get my ass in gear!

Nonetheless, I thought I'd share some of the pix that I've been hogging all to myself, just in case there's someone out there who fancies taking a trip through the past few months and years!

Here's some of the most recent ones of london in the few days before I set off. The few weeks in between coming back from revision "holidays" in Spain, and setting off to Auckland were pretty packed in a mix of revision, packing and saying my "cheers, I'll be off now" to most people



These were my last few days of hanging out at good ol 39 rowena, failed attempts at making something remotely empanada like, and just generally hanging out with the crowd

Auckland district and War museum

Decidedly, some parts of NZ do look like part of a set to the Lord of the Rings, or any movie with photography worth mentioning. I've just been for a walk around the oldest park in New Zealand, which is also humongous, nothing to do with Hyde Park or the Retiro, they both seem pretty piddly in comparison.

In this place you're properly surrounded by wilderness, so that is it wasnt for the nice trails and constant signs, you'd think you were lost in some forest in the hills of lorothien or something



Anyhoo, and in the centre of the distric is the Auckland Museum, which is a war museum and a natural history AND oceanic culture museum all in one. Pretty funky all in all, with some wicked exhibitions and definately worth a visit. Specially in a day like today, when the weather is getting pretty crappy around here!



sexy!!

Islands of the Gulf 2 - Waiheke Island

The first of the islands that I visited was Waihele island (more on the rest soon enough), which is a short ferry ride from the Auckland harbour. With a permanent population of about 7000 people, you can say that its got a proper community going, mainly comuters that work in auckland or islanders that live off the tourism.




The weather is warmer than the rest of auckland, so it's got a fair share of vineyards. Great for a wine tasting session! I have to say, the whites are good, although i still prefer spanish reds!



Funkily enough, and because the island is so hilly, there isn't a porper infrastructure in terms of water supply (i.e. no pipes) so everyone collects rainwater from the roof of their house using clever collection channels.

Interesting, but before you rush off to buy a little villa in Waiheke be warned that they get purty expensive over 1mill NZD (around the same price as a house in cambridge, or a one bedroom flat in central london, come to think of it, might be a worthwile investment!)

The islands of the Gulf- Part 1

As you may or may not know, auckland is kinda split into two by the Hauraki gulf. The two parts of the city are connected by the infamous harbour bridge, one of the landmarks of the city. As the gulf becomes the ocean, you can find a whole set of little islands that dot about the seafront near Auckland. In a monstrous demonstration of imagination, these are known as the Gulf islands, and make up a maritime national park.


The cool thing about these islands is that they are all withing a short ferry ride from Auckland's Waitemeta harbour, which is next to the city centre and conveniently near to my house :)

So I'll be touring these islands when the weather is good enough and post some pictures! wohoo!

Settling down

The first few days were a combination of over the top jet-lag and walks around the city centre. Auckland is definately worth a visit. It's hard to describe, you can tell the difference with respect to european cities, it's blatantly fairly new, as you can tell by the proportion of sky scrapers to older/historical buildings. The streets are wide and there's a fair share of green areas and parks to hike around in (incidentally, my plan for today).





Then it all became a matter of settling down. Everyones really cool in both my work place and the campus, so it actually feels pretty good to be here. I mean, I do miss being around familiar faces, but its pretty interesting all the new people Im meeting. More on that soon.

Auckland

The rolercoaster finally made it over the apex of its course and started its swift descent, turning my belly upside down. In other words, the anticipation is finally over and done with and I am, indeed, in Auckland. My belly feels about the same, though.

I'll start at the beggining, I arrived at 6 in the morning. Caught a bus into the city, as it started pissing it down. Properly. None of that piddly british rain that lasts all day. Here it concenrates in short outbursts of tropical rainstorm. Ouch.

I've been here just over two weeks and so far my veredict is awesome. In the full meaning of the word, as I see it. Awe inspiring, definately. A mixture of amazement, excitement, estragement and, i couldnt really find another word, wow-factor.




But finally made it into my halls of res, the railway campus, where I'll be staying for the next four months. It's an awesome place, its the refurbishment of the old Auckland train staion. Right near the city centre and cheap and cheerful.




Purty cool all in all.