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