Kiwi XMas

Merry Christmas!

We just had our second Xmas in New Zealand this time with a little baby. Leading up to the big day we spent some time at the beach soaking up the beautiful summer sunshine. The sun is really strong due to a battered ozone layer, so be sure to bring your sunscreen!

Tent for baby.

Nice "Posi" at Bethell's Beach

My man wasn't in the best of moods come Christmas time. Mostly because all 8 of his teeth decided to come on in at what seems like the same time. This led to irritable, cranky baby...

You gots to have teef! (you can just see the bottom two in this blurry pic)

Since Kim and I have been together we have never done a proper Christmas at our place. Not because we are Jewish, but we just always traveled to family's place for Christmas. Ella would not have cared anyways.

But THIS year it was time to get the spirit going. I proudly picked up a nice tree and Kim and I decorated it up....not bad for first timers.

Beau doesn't know what it means either. He DOES know how to start off Xmas at 5AM, however...

Ahhhh. Christmas morning. I've always loved it. And of course we were to follow STRICT Stewart family Christmas morning rules:

• Rule# 1 - NO opening gifts on Christmas Eve....you have to learn to wait..."le pause"
• Rule# 2 - We open gifts ONE at a time from youngest to oldest...oldest looking...so I went last.

Mocka truck. Thanks Pa-Pa

• Rule# 3 - Mimosas for Mom and Dad. Go easy on the OJ....

Fortified on Mimosa at 530AM, presents unwrapped...time for a nap...whole family...

Santa brought us some sweet panoramic prints we have been meaning to get done for a while. Two of our favorites below. Bethell's Beach (the big one) and The 12 Apostles (Australia).

Then it was off to friends house for XMas lunch. It was Ham and Lamb all around....delicious.

Mommy needs a refill....

 The rest of the holiday season so far has been spent House Hunting. Our rental is up in February and we are on the lookout for a new spot....the pic below should give you a hint of what we are after...

El Jeep-o for the Peep-le

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date"

Long lost love.

On November 20th, 2011 my darling Jeep was packed up into a container in Atlanta and, alone, made the long journey to New Zealand. The journey was not without peril. As any lad with google knows, New Zealand is most unkind to importation of older vehicles. They have strict vehicle standards which must be met to allow one to drive on their roads. To give you an idea of what it took to get fair-Jeepo over here allow me to outline:

1. Cost to transport in container
2. Concession fees in L.A. and Auckland ports to remove Jeep from container and "inspect"
3. MAF (Ministry for Biosecurity protection) fees to fumigate Jeep to eliminate any critters
4. Jeep inspected at importers location and deemed rusty = charge to sandblast and paint underside of jeep
5. Jeep still rusty, one month of Panel Beater work to cut out rust, replace steal, and have an "Engineer" certify that it was done properly....this took 1.5 months....
6. Significant monies to repoint headlamps, new driver-side seatbelt, new front brakes, grind rotors, patch small chip in windscreen, etc.
7. Compliance fees. You MUST receive a compliance certificate before you may register your vehicle to drive on their roads. After compliance for general import health, a WOF (Warrant of Fitness) must be obtained. You must get a new WOF every 6 months to drive. Luckily you must comply only once. 
8. Rego fees which gets us, finally, the tags....

My precious Jeep entered the container Nov 20, 2011, allowed to drive in NZ April 20, 2012.

Absence does make the heart grow fonder...

Jeep was, of course, taken straight to Muriwai Beach

Never again....never.

All that trouble to allow to drive on the roads.....nah..

Li'l Ella missed it too.

Bottom line is DO NOT try to bring any car to this country. They have plenty of suitable off-road vehicles for you to choose from with air conditioning, navigation, and heated seats. Try to figure out how to get the doors off of your CR-V!

Unfortunately Jeep did not get to enjoy a brights Summer's day... this year....

Musick Point

21-Jan -- One of the best things about living in Auckland is the ability to make a day trip and explore tons of areas. Depending on the mood of the day, you can choose a lazy beach day, a tramp along a mountain track, or some sightseeing and market purchases.  Just about any activity you could want to do is within 30 min to an hour of our home.  Even snow skiing is only a few hours away!

After our hunt for sea glass on the east coast, we decided to venture to some of the more southern east coast beach areas just to see what was there.  We picked Bucklands Beach as it looked like an interesting peninsula of land.

musick point

At the very tip of Bucklands is Musick Point.  There is an old radio station - very art deco style - and really, really steep "stairs" leading down to a beautiful little rocky beach on the point.  Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your point of view, there was a plethora of sea glass hidden amongst the rocks.  We found some larger pieces that had been polished by the sand and salt water that were pretty amazing.

panorama from tip of musick point

The big flat rock out in the middle of the water just begged for Lee to climb up on top of it - just figuring out how to get through the water without getting non-swimming trunks wet was a bit challenging :)  Ella of course had to follow!

traversing low tide

Once out there, the formations on the big table top rock were really amazing...

hey!  how'd you get up there?!?!

The water had carved out a beautiful landscape...

 

It was definitely another perfect day for exploring in Auckland!

Hunt for Sea Glass

14-Jan -- We decided to go east coast style today and head over toward the North Shore on a "Hunt for Sea Glass"

One of our good Atlanta friends, Kia, has an obsession? fixation? mania? for sea glass.  I'm not sure which most adequately describes her love of this "garbage" that the ocean has tumbled into smooth, colorful, beautiful, gem-like stones.  Before she goes to any shoreline, she researches a database to find out where the best sea glass can be found!  She has been making amazing jewelry for a while now and wants to incorporate some sea glass into a project for a jewelry class she is currently taking.  

kia

After checking her database for NZ, she directed us to Thorne Bay near Takapuna on the North Shore of Auckland.  The beach is full of volcanic pools and rocks with some creamy golden sand.  The differences between east and west coast beaches are very striking.  West coast here is very similar to the black sand beaches in Hawaii and the waves are very Pacific-like.  East coast here is more reminiscent of the Gulf of Mexico - golden sand, calm seas, few waves.

Across the water you have views of Rangitoto - a volcanic island.  It's a wildlife preserve with minimal human habitation.  You can see tons of lava slides and tunnels on the hike to the top.

views of rangitoto

thorne bay

The sea glass pickins were slim to none although we thoroughly enjoyed the day.  Only came away with two frosty white gems to send back to the US of A.  As Kia pointed out, it is nice to live in such a clean, litterbug free country unless you are looking for sea glass!!

two lonely sea glass gems

Of course Li'l Ella made the jaunt to Thorne Bay as well and had fun swimming in the calm clear east coast waters.

frisbee tossing at thorne bay beach

doggie paddle

West Coast is the Best Coast

The weekend before Lee's birthday we went a bit further past Huia. You drive through Huia-proper, cross a stream which runs off of the Waitakeres and across the road (need Jeep).  After the stream the road turns into gravel all the way out to the Whatipu scientific reserve (NEED JEEP!). It's a somewhat treacherous ride that takes about 20 minutes on the gravel.....but once you get there the reserve is not to be missed. The beach is a neat little "Crescent". Take a left and have a look at the fishing dudes tossing line into the Manukau Harbour side of the pass which goes to the Tasman Sea. You can climb up a hill and get a brilliant view of the Tasman and Manukau all at once....Ella and Lee took a breather here...

Like with all the west coast beaches, we are always amazed at how private the beaches are - it really feels like you are on the other side of the world.

left end of crescent beach

and the right side..

view of entire crescent beach from the hill

....turn around and BAM, there is manukau harbour...

...as promised...fishing dudes...

some sort of science-fiction happening out in the reserve

li'l ella needed a break

panorama of the whatipu crescent beach

The day after Whatipu we went to check out Karekare. A lot of the westies we met have family out here. It's a very small community that sounds the alarm when the surf is up. We were told that you can tell when the surf is good from all the trousers in front yards! The boys drop them off and head to the beach in the middle of whatever they are doing leaving the women drinking NZ wine on the patios!

The beach is again impressive with high cliffs and an interesting walk through some muck and streams to get out there.  The stream is more like a river as you get back to the parking lot and you nearly have to swim across it after a nice rain.

A pleasant surprise was a waterfall just 10 mins from the parking lot. Stunning.

waterfall near karekare

karekare beach

Trip to Huia

We had a beautiful start to the day today and decided to go explore some of the beaches on Manukau Harbour and the cute little "town"of Huia (pronounce who-ee-yah -- we think).  The road to Huia goes through the Waitakere Ranges (Why-tack-er-ree) which is HUGE national park right in our backyard. The Waitakere ranges look like something from a movie set - huge peaks rising straight up from deep valleys covered in tree ferns and tropical foliage.

waitakere map

Along the road to Huia there are multiple bays and beaches to stop and check out.  One of the larger ones is Cornwallis Beach & Wharf.  The wharf has been recently restored and is the last of the existing ferry wharfs in Manukau Harbour.  There's no ferry service within the harbour any more, but tons of fishing to be had off the wharf.

The beaches in Manukau Harbour are very tidal and similar to bay-side beaches in Florida.  The sand is pretty sticky and you can sink over your ankles in some places or take a slide onto your behind if you're not careful!

cornwallis beach, manukau harbour

Getting over the ranges was a bit challenging for the Chancellor - especially loaded down with the two of us, Ella, and a backpack :)  Watching the speedometer drop from 70 kmh to 30 kmh as you are going up a hill and downshifting to 2nd gear can be a bit emasculating even for a female!

After Cornwallis and the hills, you come up to Huia Point.  It's a scenic lookout where you can see nearly all of Manukau Harbour out to the Tasman Sea and a beautiful view of Huia Bay.

huia point panoramic

huia bay

The little town of Huia consists of one general store that has a great cafe and is known for their fish & chips.  All the fish is fresh caught that day and it seems like everyone knows everyone there!  We opted to snack on some chips which are french fries.  You have to ask for "sauce" if you want ketchup.  The chips were awesome and the view of Huia bay from the store is breathtaking.  We sat outside on one of their picnic benches and just chilled for a while.

huia store