Back to Auckland

From Paihai we decided to travel west across to the Kauri Coast. We drove down to Dargaville, a small historic town on the west coast and had lunch. Then we drove inland again to Matakohe, home of the Kauri Museum where we spent most of the afternoon. The museum is just fabulous! It gives the history of the Kauri trees, the early settlers, the logging, the gum diggers and the emerging agriculture that occurred after the Kauri tree harvesting and land clearing occurred. The museum is very large and you can easily spend a day in here looking at the exhibits and reading all the material. They have life size displays of early settlement life and you can visit a sawmill and walk through a boarding house. The size of the Kauri trees is amazing and it was interesting to learn about the gum which is a resin similar to amber that is secreted by the trees and was dug up from the soil.

We stayed the night in Orewa which along the east coast and just 30-40 km north of Auckland. We were right by the beach and even though it is late fall-early winter here it was still warm enough for Bree to play in the surf. We relaxed on the beach for the morning and then had lunch in the town before driving into Auckland to spend the night at the Holiday Park in Manuka which is out near the airport.

The next day Mom’s flight did not leave until the evening so we went to the Howick Historical Village which shows what life was like in a Fencible settlement during the 1840 to 1880 period. Fencibles were Army and Marine pensioners who were offered immigration to New Zealand (along with one acre  of land and a 2 roomed cottage) if they would perform certain military duties for a seven year term. Mom and I had visited here back in 2005 but Bree did not remember it as she was one at the time. What I really like is that it is an actual settlement spread across seven acres and you can walk into the different cottages, schools, churches etc. and see what life was like. Bree loved it and her favourite was the building called the toy museum where kids can dress up and do some activities from the time period as well as play with some of the old toys. Bree decided to do pretend laundry using the old wash tubs and now wants her own pinafore and hat for dress-up.

We spent the afternoon at Botany Downs shopping area and then dropped mom off at the airport in the evening. We were both sad to see her go but Russ will be arriving in another day so we are looking forward to that. Bree also made a friend at the holiday park and they even had a sleepover which helped lift Bree’s spirits. Just after mom left a big storm front hit New Zealand and in Auckland we had strong winds and heavy rain. Hopefully it will clear up soon but since we have had two weeks of pretty clear weather I really can’t complain. Once Russ gets here it is back to Palmy to pack-up and then down to the South Island.