Hillsborough

These are from the reserve below where I am living. It is a very nice patch of bush for a walk.

Botanic Gardens

Sunday Maria and I went to the Botanic Gardens in South Auckland. They are pretty cool and as you can see it is like Spring here.

Maria and I

Maria's daughter Amy

Cousin Ben

Aunty Grace's Birthday

Happy Birthday Grace

Waiwera

My uncle runs every Saturday and I went with him the day he went to Waiwera and walked along the beach.

Mt Eden

Bryony and I went for a walk around Mt Eden one Saturday

One tree hill from Mt Eden

The city from Mt Eden

Mt Eden crater

Bryony and I

One Tree Hill

I live about 5kms from One Tree Hill so I went for a wander there on Saturday.

One Tree Hill in the distance


A tree but not the tree

Another tree but not the tree either

The crater

The view

Tree number three

Me where the tree once was

Rarotonga

We as most of you know I spent a week in Rarotonga with Christina.. It was awesome.

Pretty beach

On our first day we biked around the island. It is 32km and with our numerous stops it took us three hours. Some interesting things about Rarotonga

• It seemed nowhere had nice individually wrapped ice-cream. Turns out they are waiting for a shipment from NZ. (Days later we found that the store 100m down the road had some...)
• Town is just slightly more built up than everywhere else and the place where there are two lanes of traffic in each direction
• Cook Islanders bury their relatives in the front lawn with ornate tombs
• Lots of families live off the tourists by having road side stores selling food, sarongs or pearls.
• Most people travel by scooter with no helmets and selt belts are not required in cars

Saturday is market day and I made a single purchase, this coconut.

Christina and piglet at Parliament

Palm trees at night at our resort

Sunday very little happens except church. We went to the local Cook Island Christian Church. The service was held in their native language, Cook Islands Maori with the sermon translated into English. Most of the adults wore white and the ladies wore fancy hats. I wore a skirt (evidence not provided).

Cocktails are essential for watching the sunset.

The needle, the highest point on the cross island walk

Me at the base of the Needle.

A view we would not have seen if we hadn't got lost in the mountains of Rarotonga. Note the steepness of the valley.

The end of the cross island walk which took us 8 hours instead of 4

Piglet spends the evening playing pool.

I look funny when snorkeling

Kinna with massive spikes

Cool fish

Inquisitive fish

Star fish

Christina relaxing on a very small island in the Muri lagoon (and getting sun burnt)

Piglet relaxing on a very small island in the Muri lagoon (and not getting sun burnt)

An awesome sunset

A happy tree

Local medicine man, Pa

Our resorts' pool