Nibbly

#51 Visit North Shore literary locations

Completed this morning. LoM came over to Devonport on the ferry. We wandered around the Stanley Bay and Devonport literary walks for about an hour and a half and then had a delicious breakfast at a cafe on Church St. Although we didn't know all of the literary personages it was interesting just walking around and looking at houses. A nice young gentleman helped us when we were a bit lost so that was nice too. The cafe was a real neighbourhood cafe. It was well patronised and every person who arrived after us seemed to know someone who was already there. About 5 dogs were attached to various people. They were well behaved and looked as if this occurance was a regular Saturday morning thang.

#7 Visit all Auckland Regional parks

After finishing at Devonport we drove up to Long Bay. And it is looong. It took a crazy amount of time to wander around the park. It took an even longer time to realise that the land I was looking at over the water was the Whangaparaoa Peninsula. Felt like a complete egg especially after taking a careful look and identifying bays and individual buildings. Stopped looking at the buildings on the way back to the car. See, the sun was out and the birds were singing but the mud was deep in places. So on the way back we came back along the beach.

The rocky, slippery, twisty, shelly, tricksy beach. I fell over a couple of times. My shiny white shoes are no longer so shiny. I am sunburnt. I almost had to claw my eyes out because of the nude sunbathers but luckily remembered to be distracted in time and babbled on about walking Shakespear Park. (At the end of the aforementioned Peninsula.)

One of the best ARCparks. Good parking, well patronised (lots of teens flexing) (not that I was interested in them!), good facilites for BBQ etc, nice beach. Highlight - it's close to suburbia but unlike some of the others, doesn't feel like it.

It's got the x-factor...