Auckland - Waiheke Island

We flew up to Auckland and stayed at a hotel near Katherine and Willie's house in Panmure.  In the afternoon she took us to Cheltenham Beach on the north shore to meet-up with Matthew and his friends.   

Cheltenham Beach and Rangiototo Island

The next day we all took a ferry together to Waiheke Island.    It was nice but rather strange trip.  Hannah and Thomas played nicely together on the ferry.

We took a bus across the island to Onetangi Beach.  Matt had trouble with his bus card and missed the bus, so he had to wait an hour to catch the next one.

Onetangi Beach was idilic.   This was my first visit to Waiheke Island although of course I'd heard lots of glowing accounts of how nice it is.

Hannah and Rika enjoyed sitting on the beach and cooking in the strong sunlight.   We also did a bit of swimming with Thomas and Hannah.

After Onetangi we took the bus back to Waheke Township for lunch.   Unfortunately Kath had to pop back to Onetangi because she had left a bag at the bus stop.  

Rika ordered oysters of course.  This time Pacific Oysters not Bluff Oysters.

And I bought a cool Hawaiian shirt.  My first ever!    Then we all walked down to the beach playground to let the kids play on the swings and monkey-bars.

And soon it was time to leave Waiheke.

The twilight views of Auckland Harbour and Rangitoto Island from he ferry were magical.

Rangiototo ('Bloody Sky') Island was formed in an eruption just 550-600 years ago.  So its a reminder that Auckland is built on an active volcanic field and "future eruptions are likely"  (link).

All of which reminds us that New Zealand is geologically active and our cities are at risk from earthquakes or volcanos.    But as the display at the Auckland Museum made clear, if it wasn't for the plate tectonics and volcanos, NZ would have disappeared under the Pacific Ocean years ago.   And my ancestors would probably have emigrated to Australia instead.    So as I look at it, the destruction of Auckland by volcanos is a price worth paying to avoid being Australian!

In the evening we went to a Chinese restaurant in Panmure near Kaths place.  We ordered Peking duck and some of our regular staples like vegetables, and fried rice.    It was pretty good, although rather sweeter than we're used to in Hong Kong.

This is Willie, Kath and Matt.

And Rika with an unbelievably cool dude in a new Hawaiian shirt.