Taking the ferry from central Auckland to Waiheke Island for Richard and Noelles wedding

Simon and Simon

Richard and Alistair

Here comes the bride

Just Married

The Reception

Simon, Richard and Andrew

Simon, Noelle, Richard and Andrew

The view from the hotel on Waiheke Island

Flying Home

A new blog

James has created a blog also. This seems to be a bit of a trend. I am off to Waiheke Island for the weekend. There will be some new photos posted next week

Cave Stream

After hearing stories for years about how wonderful cave stream is, I have finally got the chance to experience it for myself. After setting off at 8 o'clock Saturday morning, we headed up to Castle Hill. I changed into my wetsuit wondering how cold it would be. We entered the entrance (heading upstream) into the deepest pool of water (only waist deep), and it was sightly chilly. After the initial shock of the water, we wander up stream for 35 minutes through the limestone caves, occasionally clambering up and over rocks in the way. I failed to see the rumoured eels and spiders about, but plent of darkness we when turned off our lights. A final climb up a water and we were out into the warm February day, wanting to do it all again!

The Wharfedale Track

I went on a pleasant tramp on the Wharfedale track. This is an easy but long walk that covers reasonably flat terrain on a well formed track. It wanders around the side of Mount Oxford, over a modest saddle, into the Lees Valley. It is well sheltered, under a canopy of beech forest that on a warm day, provides a bit of protection from the harsh sun.

There was a complete failure to spot any Kiwis or Moa, but plenty of bell birds and other bird life. It is about three hours walk to the Wharfedale Hut. This is a pleasant spot, with a nice ward looking hut. There were plenty of wasps and just a few sandflies found us, when we reached the hut.