Saturday
15th March 2008
The weather forecast continued to say fine in
the west so we drove, via the scenic route, south of Aukland to the west
coast. We took on provisions at
Waiuku as there were no supplies on the Awhitu Peninsular. This peninsular creates a huge inland
sea call Manukau Harbour which serves Aukland’s south and west side saving
shipping from Australia and the west going all round the north - ninety mile
beach and beyond!
We camped at
Big Bay about midday when the sun came out so we walked and swam
and did the beach holiday thing.
One point of interest; the local riding club were swimming on the beach
with their horses and were camped nearby.
They were going to ride and swim at all the five beaches along the top of
The Peninsular over the weekend - a bit like Pony Club
Camp.
Sunday
16th March 2008
The weather was bright and sunny but Big Bay
Motor Camp was not the best and we had learnt that there were better places
further along the peninsular so we moved on still looking for a quiet place to
settle for our last few days. At
the top of The Peninsular there is a manned lighthouse on the headland over
looking the narrow strait, called Manukau Entrance, which is the only way into
Manukau Harbour. This looked worth a visit and so it was!
On Manukau Heads they had reconstructed the old
1873 wooden lighthouse but below it was the modern manned coast guard
station. From the top you could see
why they still manned the station.
There was a strong westerly blowing straight into the entrance and it was
about half tide. The bar across the
harbour extended far out to sea and the whole entrance was surrounded by
breakers. In 1863 the British
frigate HMS Orpheus made a fatal run for the entrance, struck The Bar with the
loss of 189 lives including the Admiral and the Captain,
New
Zealand’s worst sea disaster. From our vantage point we could see that
once committed, if the ship got the channel wrong there was no way she could
beat out again against wind and tide.
A very dangerous place where I certainly would not fancy navigating the
entrance although on average four a week regularly run the gauntlet bringing
cement from Westport.
After lunch we cruised around this wonderful
Peninsular which has the odd farmhouse nestled in one of the numerous
valleys. The landscape is hills,
all stacked very close together like a heaps of sand, but grazed by cattle from
top to bottom. Because they are so steep the animals go around the hills grazing
and over the years have created very narrow terraces one cow high. So the whole countryside is heaps of
hills with horizontal stripes like ripples all over them.
We camped at
Orua Bay and have not moved since, it is now
Tuesday 18th. The
weather has been wall to wall sunshine but not too hot. We have walked, swum at
least twice a day (including skinny dipping – we are the only ones here) and
using up the last of our stores.
One of our walks was in an Aukland Regional Park where, if we hadn’t found
Orua Bay, we would have stayed at one third
of the price!
Sadly tomorrow we will go to central Aukland to
finalise our affairs in New
Zealand and then off on a new adventure in
Tasmania.
Roger & Mags; Mum &
Dad
