Category Archives: Uncategorized

August 21, 2024 We are renting a home in Belmont Heights for a month. It is very pleasant area with a wide variety of homes and small apartment buildings. Our favorites tend to be the Spanish style homes that are predominant in the neighborhood. Classic car of the day was this white pick up truckContinue reading “Belmont Heights, Long Beach, California, USA”

April 23, 2024 Our dear friend, Louise, led us on a short hike through the Alice Eaves Scenic Reserve. The Reserve was owned by Alice and Edward Eaves and was cared for by Alice until her death in 1955. It was then gifted to the New Zealand public in 1960 and is free and accessibleContinue reading “Orewa, New Zealand”

April 15, 2024 When you mention Western Springs to Aucklanders, they will most likely think of three places: the Auckland Zoo; the Museum of Transport and Technology (known locally as MOTAT); or Western Springs Stadium, all of which sit within the Western Springs neighborhood. But there is one lesser known attraction, the Western Springs Reserve,Continue reading “Western Springs, Auckland, New Zealand”

March 31, 2024 Finding ourselves in St. Heliers, we decided to go for a walk and visit another of Auckland’s volcanoes, Glover Park. We started out down in St. Heliers and made our way up and along Cliff Road which follows, unsurprisingly, a cliff that rises east of the beach. Just around the point fromContinue reading “St. Heliers and Glendowie, Auckland, New Zealand”

March 27, 2024 Orakei Basin is a large explosion crater that erupted on the side of Purewa Creek that runs into Hobson Bay. In the 1920s, an embankment was built for a railway line that cut off the crater from the creek. The embankment created a shallow, artificial saltwater lake with control gates under theContinue reading “Remuera, Auckland, New Zealand”

March 20, 2024 The central business district of Auckland is not particularly attractive. However, there are some interesting buildings scattered throughout the downtown area. Here are some we passed during our walk. The St. John Ambulance National Office was built in 1912 and was used for much of its life as the Central Fire Station.Continue reading “Auckland City, New Zealand”

March 16, 2024 If you are a regular follower of our blog, you will know by now that Auckland is built on a volcanic plain. A few weeks back we climbed Rangitoto, Auckland’s youngest volcano, which erupted and sprung up out of the ocean only 600 years ago. Today, we visited Pupuke Moana (‘overflowing lake’Continue reading “Milford, Takapuna, Auckland, New Zealand”

March 14, 2024 After a couple of months and numerous sidetracks, we returned to Point Chevalier with its state homes and infill housing. We started out at the Point Chev shops that line Great North Road before heading back into the neighborhood. We’ve mentioned before how fond New Zealanders are of their native birds. WeContinue reading “Point Chevalier, Auckland, New Zealand”

February 23, 2024 Today we returned to our old suburb of Remuera. This time we stuck to the south side of Remuera Road which is less hilly and made for a less strenuous walk. Like much of Auckland’s eastern suburbs, there was a lot of new infill housing tucked in behind the original homes. HereContinue reading “Remuera, Auckland”

February 20, 2024 Auckland is built on a volcanic field and there are approximately 53 volcanoes in the area. Fortunately, they are all dormant. Many have now been built over and are now undetectable. However, there are still over a dozen that can clearly be seen, as they rise above the city and surrounding suburbs.Continue reading “Rangitoto, New Zealand”