Our final period in New Zealand was spent in Auckland with our friends Clive and Annie Couldwell. Their amazing new house had what to us is a typical New Zealand construction, perched down the side of one of the steep-sided gullies so common in this terrain. To reach it, one turns the car down a steep lane leading between two houses that face the road. There is a landing half-way where the gradient eases somewhat and then one pitches down even more steeply to a yard just big enough to turn round. (Fortunately, they don't have snow and ice in the average winter!) One enters the house by the garage which is the highest point, goes down a flight of stairs to the kitchen and living room and then down another to the bedrooms. There is space below the bedrooms for storage. Their "garden" descends the bank to the stream at the bottom of the gulley and the patio depicted above has been carved from the hillside.
Each floor has its own balcony from which one can observe the native vegetation in the gulley. There is plenty of wildlife about, too.
We were pleased to have dinner with them, Clive's two daughters Philippa and Caroline and their mother Sue, allowing us to catch up with all the news.
This trip we were introduced to the islands off Auckland. The first we visited, Waiheke, is large, well inhabited and has nice wineries (we visited this one here) and beaches. There is a regular ferry service from the harbour in Auckland and a lot of the inhabitants commute.
This is a native swamp-hen (Pukeko) foraging in Clives garden.
The next day we were taken to Tiritiri Matangi, a much smaller island, on this ferry. The island is a nature reserve and only organised parties are allowed to land. Volunteer guides monitor the visitors- a wide range of disruptive activities is discouraged, including, to my delight, the use of mobile phones. Non-native trees have been eradicated with the exception of a few Australian bottle-brushes that provide a reliable source of nectar for the hummingbirds. There is a lot of rare native bird-life in the bush, but they move too rapidly, and live too deep in the dense vegetation, to be photographed by someone with my level of skill. The island has a colony of Takahes, a rare large ground-living rail that had been thought to be extinct for over a century until a few were found deep in fjordland in the 1950s. They are said to be so tame that they will pinch your packed lunch, but it was just our luck that they were breeding and must have been sitting on their nests, so we didn't see them. This is the second time that I've missed a takahe- the one at Mount Bruce bird sanctuary had died just before I went to see it in the 1970s.
The ridge of the island still has open areas of grassland, which give a good view over the sea.
Further down there are a lot of walks along well-tended paths that give a good chance of seeing the plant and wild life.
This one leads down to Hobb's Beach, where some of the party went swimming. It really is very attractive around here.
And here we are on the beach, standing under a Pohutukawa tree. This flowers only at Christmas and is hence known as the New Zealand Christmas Tree. So- a belated very happy Christmas and prosperous New Year to all our readers.........if there are any left by this time!
Our final period in New Zealand was spent in Auckland with our friends Clive and Annie Couldwell. Their amazing new house had what to us is a typical New Zealand construction, perched down the side of one of the steep-sided gullies so common in this terrain. To reach it, one turns the car down a steep lane leading between two houses that face the road. There is a landing half-way where the gradient eases somewhat and then one pitches down even more steeply to a yard just big enough to turn round. (Fortunately, they don't have snow and ice in the average winter!) One enters the house by the garage which is the highest point, goes down a flight of stairs to the kitchen and living room and then down another to the bedrooms. There is space below the bedrooms for storage. Their "garden" descends the bank to the stream at the bottom of the gulley and the patio depicted above has been carved from the hillside.
Each floor has its own balcony from which one can observe the native vegetation in the gulley. There is plenty of wildlife about, too.
We were pleased to have dinner with them, Clive's two daughters Philippa and Caroline and their mother Sue, allowing us to catch up with all the news.
This trip we were introduced to the islands off Auckland. The first we visited, Waiheke, is large, well inhabited and has nice wineries (we visited this one here) and beaches. There is a regular ferry service from the harbour in Auckland and a lot of the inhabitants commute.
This is a native swamp-hen (Pukeko) foraging in Clives garden.
The next day we were taken to Tiritiri Matangi, a much smaller island, on this ferry. The island is a nature reserve and only organised parties are allowed to land. Volunteer guides monitor the visitors- a wide range of disruptive activities is discouraged, including, to my delight, the use of mobile phones. Non-native trees have been eradicated with the exception of a few Australian bottle-brushes that provide a reliable source of nectar for the hummingbirds. There is a lot of rare native bird-life in the bush, but they move too rapidly, and live too deep in the dense vegetation, to be photographed by someone with my level of skill. The island has a colony of Takahes, a rare large ground-living rail that had been thought to be extinct for over a century until a few were found deep in fjordland in the 1950s. They are said to be so tame that they will pinch your packed lunch, but it was just our luck that they were breeding and must have been sitting on their nests, so we didn't see them. This is the second time that I've missed a takahe- the one at Mount Bruce bird sanctuary had died just before I went to see it in the 1970s.
The ridge of the island still has open areas of grassland, which give a good view over the sea.
Further down there are a lot of walks along well-tended paths that give a good chance of seeing the plant and wild life.
This one leads down to Hobb's Beach, where some of the party went swimming. It really is very attractive around here.
And here we are on the beach, standing under a Pohutukawa tree. This flowers only at Christmas and is hence known as the New Zealand Christmas Tree. So- a belated very happy Christmas and prosperous New Year to all our readers.........if there are any left by this time!
Terrific photos, delighted you got around so much. Must seem like a dream now. Really interesting, thank you.
ReplyDelete