Eyes Above The Waves

One of the great things about living in New Zealand is having easy access to a variety of astonishing landscapes. I took a day off today and we decided to go on a bit of a road trip. On the spur of the moment I decided to go to Port Waikato, where the Waikato River (NZ's largest) meets the sea.

It's less than 1.5 hour's drive from Auckland city. Along the way you see plenty of amazing, yet typically NZ, green, rugged farmland mixed with bush. There's a point on the motorway as you come over the Bombay Hills where the plains and hills of the Waikato region open up before you which is quite breathtaking. I was tempted to keep on going for a few hours, to cross the plains and ascend the far side of those hills to the central volcanic plateau, and see again the magnificent Lake Taupo and the great volcanoes, but that will have to wait. We turned west and followed the river out to the coast.

We missed the turnoff to the town of Port Waikato and drove on for a while mesmerized by the limestone country. The location used for "Weathertop" in The Fellowship Of The Ring is around here.

Along the way we encountered a flock of sheep being driven along the road. The farmer whistled his dog to move the sheep away from our car so we could drive on. It was brilliant.

We eventually got back to Port Waikato. The beach is much like the west coast beaches closer to Auckland --- ironsand, sea spray, chaotic surf and a distinctly wild feel. Behind, there's a huge expanse of picturesque sand dunes. We entered them from the other side away from the beach and headed towards the beach, but we eventually had to turn back not knowing how far from the beach we were. In that forbidding place, and carrying two kids much of the time, I wasn't in the mood to push our luck.

On the way home we diverted to Somerville Shopping Court in Howick, a complex of a few dozen Asian shops and restaurants. We've been working our way through the restaurants gradually over the last year. This time we went to a Taiwanese cafe which served cheap, tasty and slightly odd food ... unfortunately I didn't catch the name! All in all, a wonderful day. We are very blessed.