Tiritiri Matangi Island

A group of us went over to Tiritiri Matangi Island, a wildlife sanctuary in the Hauraki Gulf. Although it's autumn we had a lovely sunny, warm day. We caught the ferry from Gulf Harbour - it's about 20 minutes from there to Tiri.

The island is covered by native bush, except at the hilltop where there is a lighthouse and the old keepers houses. There's a shop here and an area to eat picnic lunch.

We took the guided tour, along a track from the jetty to the lighthouse area. After lunch we walked another track back to the beach. Along the way there were bird feeding stations and we also saw birds in the bush. Above is a bellbird.

Views across the Hauraki Gulf towards Auckland.

A tui feeding

Malcolm bird spotting

More bellbirds

A hihi

A bellbird singing

Malcolm and Allister on the track

Some of the group relaxing on the beach

A little blue penguin

Our group, plus a young guide

Drinks and dinner on the way home.

 

Final Days on Waiheke

Onetangi Beach...

...where we had coffee, and later lunch at Charley Farley's

We had a few games of croquet

On Saturday we went to Onetangi Market...

checked out Ostend...

...had lunch at Te Motu

... and more wine at Stony Ridge.

Faith and Quentin parked here on their last night.

Before leaving Waiheke, Malcolm and I visited the museum and did a walk in the nearby wetlands.

 

More on Waiheke Island

Here's some of the sculpture at Dead Dog Bay Sculpture Gardens.

Then we went out to the WW2 tunnels at Stony Batter...

The tunnels are under these hills...

Our tour guide is archaeologist Tim Moon, who has got the tunnels open and operating.

Then we had to go to another winery. This is Man O' War.

 

Waiheke Island

We took the ferry to Waiheke Island in the Hauraki Gulf. First time we've had to use masks.

Dinner at the Oyster Inn

Malcolm and I did one of the many beach, bush and clifftop walks on the island

...and found this quirkiness.

Later we all went to Wild on Waiheke for laser clay pigeon shooting, archery and wine/beer tasting.

 

Autumn Activities

The good weather continued into autumn. When Faith and Quentin got out of quarantine we went out and about. This is on the Whangarei Heads Art Trail.

Lunch by the water at the Parua Bay pub

Faith and Quentin bought a campervan :-)

At Whangarei Falls

Some of us oldies went for a walk to Smugglers Bay.

This is at Kiwi North in Whangarei - a museum, kiwi house and heritage park.

Below - a visit to our friends property at Sandy Bay. They have reinstated the track that was carried away in a slip when we had the floods a few months ago.

At Sandy Bay