Northland: Steam Train at Kawakawa

At Kawakawa there is a railway station. It is the home of the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway (there is a video on their website) about which I blogged around this time last year in the post First Stop Kawakawa where you can find more informtion about the railways and the steam engine Gabriel.  This year we arrived at a convenient time and on a day when the train was running.  So we went for a ride.  And we had a very enjoyable hour or so doing it before Pauline drove me down to Whangarei for my afternoon flight home to Napier.

Awaiting restoration

Gabriel

Ready to roll

 Kawakawa's Star Hotel opened in 1879.

A bit of detail for Mark

The end of the line and the change over

 The Long Bridge - the longest wooden curved bridge in the Southern Hemisphere apparently.

 The restoration work is under way in conjunction with the cycling organisations who will share it.

A long shot to the final curve on the far side from where the train journey ends at the moment

Slightly spooky looking right at the engine (which is, of course, going backwards at this stage).

 I think the driver should be looking where he's going!

The train shares the High Street with the traffic

Northland: The Beaches of Doubtless Bay

My annual visit to Pauline and Northland seems a long time past.  In fact it started two weeks ago tomorrow and ended the following Saturday.  It's just over a week ago but it seems like a decade.  Pauline has already posted on many of our visits one her blog The Paddock.   Some of my photos will be of the same areas because I'm not only posting for my readers (many of whom read Pauline's blog too) but also for my blog in it's role as my diary.  

Pampas Grass (imported) or Toetoe (indigenous) at the time I didn't know how to distinguish the two.  It is supposed to grow to a maximum of 3m high.  I would say that's at least 6m even allowing for the fact that Pauline's well below its base.

 A beautiful area at the northern end of Waikato Bay

 and again but taken from half way down the bay

 Out in a 'tinnie' doing what Kiwi's do

 Waikato Bay beach looking in a southerly direction

Tokerau Beach looking in a southerly direction across Doubtless Bay to Cable Bay and  down to  Mangonui probably about 16 k away as a theoretical crow would fly across the bay.

and looking back to Whatuwhiwhi (pron Fatufifi) where we had just spent the night

 Tiny Parakerake Bay within Doubtless Bay at Whatuwhiwhi

Parakerake Bay at Whatuwhiwhi looking down over Doubtless Bay to Monganui

Taipa Bay looking north over Doubtless Bay to Whatuwhiwhi

 Taipa Bay looking north over Doubtless Bay to Whatuwhiwhi

 Taipa Bay Beach

Going for a walk

Sunday

It's been a rather strange day.  Our clocks went back last night.  [Spring forward and fall back].  It's fall here in the southern hemisphere.   It's spring with the rest of you.  So in relation to the UK I’ve gone from being 13 hours in front a few weeks ago to being 12 hours in front when the UK's clocks went forward to 11 hours in front today now that ours have gone back.   To confuse me even more in a few weeks I’ll be 11 hours behind the ‘other half’ of my life and friends instead of ahead.

I was up at 6am and my priority for this morning was emails and a blog post. 

Out forecast this morning was drizzle all morning and solid rain for the rest of the day (and week).  That was a nuisance as I had a match to play this afternoon.  At noon it was pouring at The Cottage but my opponent lies about 5 ks away as the crow flies (actually crows don't fly in a straight line but I'll ignore that) and it wasn't raining where he lives.  The match was at 1pm.  We both turned up at the lawns and the sun shone.  It kept shining and the temperature soared for the next four hours whilst we played.  [I wasn't going to mention it but, seeing as you asked, I won.]

By the time I'd got home, watched the news, made dinner, sorted out the week's diaries with Wendy and Martin and had long chats to Anna and Gaz in Scotland and Holland respectively it was nearly 11pm.

I did the emails this morning but I still haven't done a blog post and it doesn't look as if I'll get one done either. How can one be so very busy and achieve so very little?

 

Oh well.  There's always tomorrow.  Leastways I hope there will be a tomorrow.  I'll be mightily pissed off if there isn't.

 Just walkin'

Australia: Last but not Least - The Birds

Within hours of arriving in Australia I had seen birds that I had never seen before and over the holiday I saw many that I had never photographed before.  So far as I am aware only a few of the birds (The Darter, the Little Pied Cormorant and the Crimson Rosella) appear in New Zealand. 

 Red Wattle Bird

 Pied Currawong

 Darter

 Yellow Crested Cockatoo

 Ibis

                                  Little Pied Cormorant, Little Shag or Kawaupaka 

 Noisy Miner

 Currawong

 Kookuburra

 Magpie Lark (Peewit or Peewee)

 Australian Pale-Yellow Robin

Crimson Rosella

 Australian King Parrot

 Lyre Bird

 Black Cockatoo

 Australian Rainbow Lorikeet

Australian Honeyeater

Being a Tourist in Sydney: The Last Day

The last full day that I spent in Sydney was a Sunday.  We didn't venture very far from Fiona's pad in Coogee in that we just motored and walked from the apartment along Coogee, Clovelley, Bronte, Tamarama and Bondi Beaches and the intervening coastal paths.  It was a lovely, leisurely and very warm day.

Early morning (as seen from the apartment balcony at breakfast) lifeguard training

By late morning every child in the area seems to be joining in one of the training programmes for water safety and awareness and first aid and swimming.

There was an incredible family feel about the whole thing with parents watching and helping and competitions too.

Tamarama Beach

Tamarama Beach: sitting on the café deck watching volleyball and the world pass by

with a couple of pugs which everyone stopped to play with

and a last look at Bondi

with some rock fishing

and a sight I confess I have never seen when people fish from the rocks below my house in Eagleton on Lewis (after all can you imagine pink Crocs on Lewis?)

And that, folks, is probably my last Sydney and Australian post bar one.  The last one will have no beaches but will, I hope, be well worth waiting for.