Another walk- Motukiore Isaland

This walk was in the Whangarei Harbour.  The island is in the middle distance in this photo. The walk starts at Parua Bay and the first part is through a muddy area of mangroves...

...we brought our gumboots.

After the muddy bit the path followed the edge of the mangroves on a sandy, shelly track.

The island is only accessible at low tide when you walk across this shelly spit of land.

There were houses on the island in the past and flowers still bloom in what were the gardens...

This is a panorama from the hilltop, a pa site.

Me walking up the pa (for non-NZers a pa was a fortified hill used by Maori)

Malcolm looking back across the spit of land uncovered by the tide.

Views from the other end of the island, in another old garden.

Another part of the island.  The walk was 2 hours and 10 minutes return.  Worth doing despite the mud.

Whananaki Coastal Walkway

Today 4 of us walked the Whananaki Coasta Walkway which starts at Sandy Bay.  We went with Elaine and Katherine.

View at the start, the track winds around hills through farmland and along beside the coast.

Malcolm and Katherine were faster walkers

Zoomed in on Elaine and Malcolm along the track which went through areas of native bush.  We had a break (coffee and muffin for me) beside some kauri

We took a side trail to see the Capitaine Bougainville Monument.  The ship was wrecked on the coast here with loss of life.  Very tranquil and peaceful today though.

At the monument

Rather than retrace our steps we went down to the beach and had lunch under some pohutukawa trees

Then it was on to Whananaki.  Behind us is the longest footbridge in the Southern Hemisphere.  We went across into the village and had an ice cream before setting off on the return journey.

Coastal views on the way back

Zoom in on the dots, that's Malcolm and Katherine.  Total distance was nearly 17km.  A good day's walk on a hot day.  We got into the car and headed to Matapouri for another ice cream :-)

Mt Lion

Today we did the Mt Lion walk, the red dotted line on the map, with our friend Elaine.  it started on the track to Smugglers at Urquharts Bay...

...then went up steps for 1 hour

We had a short break at the top then followed the track...

...which was rocky in places but also had lots of steps (up and down)

We climbed a rock to eat lunch with this view

...and we ARE still having fun :-)

Malcolm climbed the Pinnacle for more view

...but we decided to wait at this point.

The last hour was downhill...to the carpark, then off for ice cream!