not mr right now even eow

Busy weekend.

#40 Share a meal with friends or family every two months
When I put this on the list we'd just finished a round of hanging out with friends and family and I could see a vast stretch of time without anything planned. I was afraid that if I didn't give myself a kick I might just lapse into a stay-at-home-tv-watching-isolate. However it has turned out to be no issue at all because something always comes up. for e.g. Friday - dinner with friends; Saturday - dinner with friends; Sunday - dinner with a friend. So this one is going pretty well.

#7 Visit all Auckland Regional parks
Two more parks off the list. I'm feeling a bit, uncomfortable, at my attitude re just getting the parks done and marked off. I'm enjoying wandering around but feel that I shouldn't just be focused on marking it off. Having said that I do want to go back to a couple of the parks and do some of the walks that we didn't get to do so I guess that once again it isn't really an issue.

On Saturday LoM and I went to Omana and Duder parks. They are at the southern end of Auckland. I'd often cycled past them on training rides but didn't realise it until now.

Omana is a pretty little park with views out to the islands. They feel very close - almost close enough to swim to. Or maybe kayak to. It's interesting to see the islands from the 'other side' as it were. We walked the perimeter - round past the pa site and the goats (Dixie, Trixie and Pixie), through the manuka and kanuka (soft like cashmere), past the mangroves and up over the top to the lookout. Although I think of that area as being in the country it is actually quite built up. There was a sports ground quite close and a busy road that you could hear all over the park so it didn't feel like you were away from it all. Maybe at a different time of the day? A good park to go to with the kids - there were pigs, rabbits, chickens, dinner, I mean guinea pigs, and sheep. Plus the -ixies. It's fairly small in terms of land mass and has quite diverse eco-systems to look at.

Duder is just down the road and around a few corners. They have the best board out of all the parks we've visited so far. (Oh, and theirs and Omana's pamphlet boxes are well stocked too.) They also have orienteering maps to take out with way markers to hunt out. We were on a timeline but we did as many as were on our route. By golly the wind was cold! The walk started off along a flat bit. Nice, well gravelled road. I spotted a plastic bag in the bush with a clue - maybe an orienteering clue? The frame was supposed to be in this area but damned if either of us could find it. Lots of sheep in the paddocks as we started up the hill. We went out to the pa. Amazing views out into the bay. Once again the islands looked close enough to swim out to. Now it was quite warm - get out of the wind and it was very warm! More sheep and some large Herefords which I'm afraid to say I freaked out a bit at. One of them on the way back (while we were waiting for the hang glider man to do his thing) ambled over to say "hi" and crept closer and closer while it was munching on grass. I was ready to run and leap for the fence even though LoM said they were harmless.
This is probably the park where we saw the most people. Even though it's out in the middle of nowhere it was well patronised. People were even arriving as we were leaving at 3pm. The weather was fantastic so I guess that bought lots of people (like us) out.