I ♥ Auckland - Maraetai ( pron: my - right - eye )

For the last few months I have been wanting to take photos of a sunrise, which means of course that I would need to be facing East.   You know how it goes : "Sunrises in the East and sets in the West". There is no shortage of sunsets where I live, after all our district is known as the "sunset coast".
 
Last Saturday was my birthday, and of course, I got to decide what I wanted to do. Conversation between hubby and I on Friday night:  Me, " Hon, do you know what time the sunrise is tomorrow?"
Hubby: " No, but I can soon find out, I'll google the weather." Few minutes later..." Sunrise is at 7.00am tomorrow, why?" Me: "Well, I would really like to go and watch the sunrise at Maraetai, and take photos, what do you think?"  Hubby:  "We would have to get up at 5.45am, it's about a 50minute drive, do you really want to do this?"  At this point I think he was really hoping I would say no, and that we could go another time. But no it wasn't to be, so at 6.00am we left and started the 50 minute drive to Maraetai. It was pitch black, cloudy and quite honestly I was starting to doubt whether there would be a sunrise.

And guess what,  there was no sunrise, plenty of showers, Nor'easterly wind blowing, this combined with a high tide gave for some very exciting waves and some great photos....
Maraetai is a lovely part of Auckland, with houses sitting on a hill right across the road from the beach. It is very popular in the Summer with boaties, fisherman and families out for a day at the beach.

Looking at the wharf from the road. 7am no sunrise.....

Sitting on the steps at the wharf, as the waves came in under the steps the steps would move. Made for exciting photography

Taken looking down from the side of the wharf..

Around from the houses there is a small sea wall, the waves pounded against the wall, lots of sea spray.

This is taken from the beach with the coastal road to the right..

The name Maraetai, always caused lots of humour in our house. When I was young my Dad used to play this game with us, asking us where different suburbs in Auckland were. Once he had got us going, and all wound up with excitement because we got all his questions answered he would come up with the classic line:  " Where is Maraetai" and of course we would tell him what suburb it was next to. He would look at us with a sly grin and tell us we were wrong., look at us and say " No , Maraetai ( my-right-eye) is next to my left eye", and we fell for it everytime.....

One of my favourites, this was taken looking down from the road onto the rocks below.

Challenge #28 - Old vs New

My husband has these very, very old sneakers that he uses around the garden. I love how tatty, and well worn they are and decided to photograph them with a pair of baby shoes for the Old vs New challenge..

And then the other day, after he had mowed the lawn wearing the shoes, they appeared at the back door with this dandelion stuck in them..

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May the Fourth be with me......

In just two days time I will be celebrating another birthday. And over the past few weeks I have been thinking to myself "what does that mean? "After all, this year I am 59, yes that's right people, I am going to be  FIFTY-NINE!!! and all I keep thinking about is, "where the hell has all the time gone?? "

Okay, so I don't remember being born, and I mean who does, or a lot of my childhood. I certainly don't remember being flower girl at this wedding....

But, what I do remember the most is my teenage years, and the time spent being involved in athletics, I loved that time . It was an outlet for me to use up energy, and a coping mechanism for the hard time I got from other kids at high school.... That's me in the front taking the baton in a relay race... aged 15years.

Okay, so enough of childhood memories, what I have really been thinking about is how I feel about being one year closer to sixty. You see, I have been waiting and waiting for the sign........You know...the sign!!  That sign that I always thought I would get as I got older.

" What sign?" I hear you say. "" What is she talking about" you mutter to yourself.

Well, you see, I always thought that as I got older, as each year passed me by that I would have this "sign", that I would experience something, some sort of feeling that would tell me that I was old.

But guess what? Nothing has happened, there is No Sign . There is no one staring back at me in the mirror in the morning telling me that " today is the day to be old." There is no neon sign above my head, with a big arrow pointing at me and the words "old lady" flashing away in bright colours.

Instead, there is me.  Wife, mother, nana, 59 years young....  Bring on sixty I say.

I ♥ Auckland - Awhitu Regional Park..

Just 20minutes drive from our house is the Awhitu Regional Park, run by the Auckland Regional Council with a white sandy beach, acres of bush walks, native birds for bird watching, camping ground for tents and caravans, a great spot for fishing and a working farm with sheep and calves. It is so quite at this time of year, and is a wonderful place to drive to for a picnic and to enjoy nature. For some reason we always seem to go when the tide is out, but it doesn't matter because it is a beautiful place with the tide in or out. Check out the website after my photos if you want to get a sense of the history of this gorgeous spot, or just scroll through my photos for a sense of the beauty that is the Awhitu Regional Park..

Arriving at the beach, looking to the left there is the bay, this is a great fishing spot, off the rock...

Arriving at the beach, looking to the right you walk down to the end of the beach, and start the bush walk..

Just through the trees is the climb to the bush..

Being a tidal beach you get all sorts of wonderful shells and drift wood wash up on the beach..

This Island is a real landmark, when the tide is in it is safe enough to swim over to the island, in the distance is Auckland City..

Looking through the native bush to the beach.....

Once you get through the bush, about 5 minutes easy walking you come upon the Brook Homestead, the original farm house..

The Autumn leaves make for a beautiful scene...

The park has a working farm within it's land, you walk along the road and have bush on one side and cows on the other side..

 

 

http://www.arc.govt.nz/parks/our-parks/parks-in-the-region/awhitu/