Mal and Lauren

September 4, 2024

The aptly named Peninsula neighborhood in Long Beach, separates the ocean from Alamitos Bay. It is only a couple of hundred yards wide but stretches for over a mile. There is a boardwalk running in front of the houses that line the ocean side. Unfortunately, the nearby port makes swimming on Long Bay beach only for the foolhardy.

As we walked along we could see the usual lineup of cargo ships waiting to dock at the largest container port on America’s west coast. Along with the waiting ships, we could also see one of Long Beach’s four Astronaut Islands. This one is named Chaffee Island for the astronaut Roger Chaffee who was selected as one of the astronauts to fly on Apollo 1. Tragically, he and the two other crew members died during a pre-mission test when the command module caught fire. Although the island looks like a beautiful tropical isle lined with palm trees, it is in fact man made and the trees disguise what is in fact a rig drilling for oil from the large reservoir that lies beneath Long Beach.

There is an interesting variety of houses lining the shore ranging from this little shack.

To this large modern home right next door.

On the bay side of the peninsula, the water is swimmable and there were a number of people out enjoying the sunshine.

The houses also appeared, perhaps not surprisingly, a little less weather beaten.

Today we have not one, not two, but three classic cars. Two American

And one British, A Rolls Royce, no less.

August 29, 2024

Back on the streets of Belmont Heights today. Here are some of our favorite homes.

And here is yet another classic pick-up truck.

August 25, 2024

La Jolla is a seaside suburb of San Diego. We drove down the coast from Carlsbad to take a look around and meet up with friends who live down there. We started out by having lunch at a New Zealand themed restaurant called Queenstown. According to the waiter, one of the owners is married to a kiwi. It is part of a chain of restaurants in the area with New Zealand themes, with names such as Raglan and Dunedin. To be perfectly honest, Mal’s vege pie wasn’t quite up to New Zealand standard and Lauren was less than impressed with her long black (a New Zealand version of an Americano, but stronger).

After lunch we strolled down to the ocean where a lot of people were out enjoying their Sunday.

It wasn’t just people enjoying the sunshine. Pelicans lined the cliffs.

And the seals were enjoying playing in the surf. They were having a great time body surfing in on the waves and being rolled up onto the beach before swimming straight back out to catch another wave.

In a continuing theme, classic car of the day is another pickup truck.

August 24, 2024

Carlsbad is a beach town between Los Angeles and San Diego. It is named after the Bohemian town of Karlsbad (now Karlovy Vary in Czechia). Coincidentally, we visited Karlovy Vary a few years back and can tell you that looks nothing like Carlsbad. Apparently, the connection is that both towns are known for the quality of their water and both were spa towns. Nowadays, Carlsbad is more well known for its Legoland amusement park. We skipped Legoland but Mal did enjoy some body surfing in the Pacific which was surprisingly warm and inviting.

One of the great things about being on the west coast and having endless sunny days, is the quality of the sunsets. We had a beautiful walk along the beach with our son, Jake, and daughter-in-law, Kylie. A perfect way to finish a perfect day.

August 23, 2024

Today, we wandered into the adjacent neighborhoods of Bluff Park and Bluff Heights. 1st Street appears to be where Long Beach’s rich built their homes, lined as it is with large and ornate homes.

Further back from the ocean in Bluff Heights, the homes are less majestic. There also a number of small apartment blocks, many of which are in deco or mid-century modern style.

The classic cars of the day are these two lowrider pickup trucks.

It is always nice to have a spare, identical (albeit somewhat smaller) house on hand in case of emergency.

We thought that this church was more colorful than usual but then realized it is now a Cambodian Buddhist Temple.

We passed this strangely geometric topiary.

And this beautiful fragrant Frangipani.

Before long we were back in Belmont Heights.

This resident sitting on her front porch freaked us out a little with her bright red hair and strange stillness.

During our walks we have passed by some beautiful old doors and gates.

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 truck with house to match.

We also loved this little ma ‘n pa grocery store.

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 accessible to all visitors.

Kauri are New Zealand’s largest trees by volume (but not height). Seeing these tall straight trees, it easy to see why early European settlers quickly realized that the trunks of young kauri were ideal for ships’ masts and spars. The gum from the trees was also essential in the early manufacture of varnishes. Consequently, the Kauri forests were decimated right through until the middle part of the twentieth century. The trees are now protected but in recent years have come under a different threat. Kauri dieback is a disease that can lead to the death of the trees. To prevent the spread of the disease, footware-washing stations have been set up at the entrances and exits of walking tracks.

Like all of the forest (called bush by New Zealanders) we have visited here, the Reserve is very well maintained by the Department of Conservation. Wooden boardwalks and stairs make it easy to get around and view the magnificent Kauri trees.

Someone had left this little surprise tucked into one of the trees.

This old Kauri has been standing for approximately 800 years, during which time it had survived lightning strikes, fires and blows from a miller’s axe.

After our walk, we went to nearby Orewa for lunch. Just 25 miles north of Auckland, Orewa is a bustling seaside town, sitting beside a long wide beach.

Parts of the beach are lined with private homes. Here are a few.

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, where beautiful parkland surrounds a lake fed by natural springs. Our cousin, Annette, who lives nearby, acted as our guide. We headed toward the rainbow and started out at the small hidden Japanese garden.

We then followed a path around the lake, encountering along the way numerous black swans. Europeans assumed that black swans did not exist until Dutch mariners first spotted them in Australia in 1697. Based on a theory first posited by the Lebanese-American essayist and mathematical statistician, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, black swans have become a metaphor for an event that comes as a surprise, has a major effect, and is often inappropriately rationalized after the fact with the benefit of hindsight.

There were also large numbers of pukeko. These swamp hens are very pretty with their bluish purple breast and bright red beaks. We also love their large feet.

Here are some views from our walk.

In Maori, the lake is called Te Wai Orea (the water of eels). It is easy to see why.

Speaking of Maori, if you want to learn to count to ten, just play a few games of hopscotch. Hint, Tahi is one and Tekau is ten.

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 from St. Heliers is a secluded beach nestled down at the bottom of the cliffs named Ladies Bay. We think it may be the only nude beach in the city. Despite the blustery day, there were plenty of folk out getting an all over tan. Sorry, no photos.

A little further around is Achilles Point, where a look-out offers extensive views over the harbor. The point is named after HMNZS Achilles, a Leander-class light cruiser which helped defeat the German battleship Admiral Spee in 1939, during the Battle of River Plate. The point’s Maori name is Te Pane o Horoiwi (The Head of Horoiwi).

One volcano that we will not be visiting is Brown’s Island, unless we can convince one of our boat owning friends to take us out there, because it is not served by ferry. We did get a great view of it from the point. The island is named for William Brown who, along with his business partner, Logan Campbell, was one of the European founders of Auckland. Brown had owned the island along with Campbell and lived on it for a while running a pig farm. In Maori, the island is called Motukorea (island of the oyster catcher).

It’s virtually impossible to look over the harbour and avoid seeing Rangitoto.

We eventually arrived at Glover Park, which is located inside a 500 meter diameter explosion crater. It is one of Auckland’s oldest volcanoes, having erupted between 140,000 and 180,000 years ago. It is named after Albert Edward Glover, a city councilor and Member of Parliament in the 1890s- 1910s. In Maori, it is called Whakamuhu, meaning ‘to lead into a thicket’ referring to its once swampy crater floor. In the middle of the twentieth century the swamp was drained and filled. It is now used for sports.

From Glover Park, we continued on into the neighboring suburb of Glendowie. Here are some houses, we saw along the way.

At the center of Glendowie, stands Churchill Park. Named after Winston Churchill, at 40 hectares, it is one of Auckland’s largest parks. It is also much more rural than most of the others, with farmland supporting a number of grazing cattle.

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 the railway line. These gates are opened twice a month during spring high tides to flush out the nutrient-rich brackish water and replace it with sea water. There is beautiful walk way that extends right around the circumference of the basin.

After walking around the basin, we made our way up and around the rim of the basin and over to another nearby volcano, Litttle Rangitoto. Here is the view down into the basin.

Because this is Auckland, with a cafe on every corner, we didn’t have any trouble finding a spot for a rest and a couple of coffees.

We are not sure how Little Rangitoto got its name. The Māoris called it Maungarahiri, meaning ‘hill of the sun rays’. If it was originally named Little Rangitoto because of its resemblance to its much larger and more famous namesake, it no longer holds true because the volcano was quarried away in the first half of the 1900s. What remains is a pretty neighborhood park.