Waiheke Island

For Auckland anniversary weekend we went over to Waiheke Island to stay with Mike for a few days...we had amazing weather, good company, nice food and wine and fishing what more could we ask for!
Palm Beach lookout... 'Special forces on patrol'...our favourite of one of the many interesting sculptures on the 'Sculpture on the Gulf" exhibition/walk on the side of a hill on the island.

sunset fishing on the secret spot by Mikes house...

my first ever snapper catch...such a kiwi now!

Michael with his snapper too...it was very exciting. The snapper lived to see another day as they were a little small to keep.

roadsign on

the unsealed road to

Man o' War bay...

enjoying the food and wine at Passage Rock vineyard...

views from the top of Trig rd across the gulf towards Auckland city...

the rare Dotterill shorebird on the beach...

these are lovely delicate highly protected NZ birds...

Mike's very own beach at the end of his drive...

Otakawhe Bay

The two Mikes at Man 0' War Bay...

Best left hand break in the world!

This weekend we went to Raglan about 2hrs away, south of us on the Waikato west coast. Raglan is famous for its surfing spots...reputedly having the longest/best left hand point break in the world!

we stayed in a holiday home with Trevor and Metta...were very sad as Metta (we call her Mayday) is our new friend who leaves NZ next week to return to her native Denmark to complete her masters degree, we hope she decides to come back soon...

Mike contemplates risking his life at Manu Bay's famous left hand break...(as seen in the 1968 cult surf movie 'Endless Summer')...its a great wave but very close to a very rocky shore...

Mike wisely decides to give it a miss until he is a little bit better on his board but Trev got straight in and caught some awesome waves...without any injury whatsoever.

Mike & Metta watching the surf...

It was a great little trip for the weekend even though we had a bit of rain we had 3 surf's in one day (body boarding for Jo) at Ngaranui Beach (its sandy not rocky) on Sunday.

nye events

without much planning Trev, Metta, Michael and I decided to go camping on the beach for NYE...

we found a great spot, Trev did some dune riding...

we all tried our hand at sea fishing...

however, we got evicted from the beach by the mean forrestry people so had to de-camp and saw the new year in on our deck at home...

so we did get to see the fireworks off the sky tower in the city...happy new year everyone x