Waiheke Island

Monday Dec 5

Today, Stewart and Joyce (Janeen's parents) took us out on their boat, the Arapoha along with Janeen, Ray, and Janeen's nephews Michael and Jack.



The main point of the trip was to head over to Waiheke island so that we could see one of the places where Granny grew up. Here is what Granny wrote about on Waiheke island

Aunt Daisy and Uncle Dun had a cabin at Awa Awa Roa Bay on Waiheke Island in the Waitanmata harbour and we went every weekend and all holidays. There was no electricity so Uncle Dun put in a generator and we had lights instead of oil lamps. The house was on the edge of the water and when the tide came up the water came to the steps. Uncle Dun made spears for Stewart and me (a stick with a sharp nail on the end).

In the early morning the two of us would go out and walk along the edge of the water and spear flounder for breakfast. We'd clean them and Aunt Daisy would poach them in milk that was milked that morning. Those fish and the potatoes left from the nigh before fried were about as close to mama from heaven as a person could get.

They leased the house from Mr. and Mrs. Gordon who was quite old when they married. They had three children, one older than me, one my age, and one younger than me. It was so isolated that they went to school at home and got their lessons by mail and over the radio. The mail came twice a week by Ferry. When they reached 10th grade they went to boarding school on the main land. It was a very good life. It was a sheep farm. There were no roads so we all rode horses. If you went to the local store you took the dingy, put on the motor and went around the coast.

We arrived at Awaawaroa Bay after a pleasant 30 minutes ride and took a quick ride on the dingy to shore. We walked around the area a bit and took in the scenery.




Here are the New Zealand "Christmas" trees that Granny always wrote about:


It was easy to imagine what Granny was writing about because it still feels really isolated out there. We met Collin who owns the land now and saw the house that Janeen's grandfather built. We were even able to pet the horses that were there. We didn't get to stay too long because the mild rain that we had all morning was threatening to turn into something more, so we headed back to the beach and waited for Stewart to come back and pick us up in the dingy.



Once back on the boat, we had a nice lunch and sat around talking until it was time to head back to Half Moon Bay Marina.

Tami even got to drive the boat:


Once back at the Marina, we said our goodbyes and went with Janeen and Ray over to grab some coffee at Columbus Coffee and talk some more. The shopping center was very nice, lots of shops and it was called Botany. We then came back to their house where they fixed us a wonderful steak dinner. After dinner, we watched a movie to relax a little (Tami didn't stay awake through the whole thing) and decided that it was time for bed.

Tomorrow we are planning to hit downtown Auckland which should be fun.

Couple of other things. Thanks everyone so much for the comments. We are getting them and enjoy hearing from everyone. Also, I'm sorry that we haven't posted any pictures yet. We have Internet access from Ray's computer, but I don't have the laptop hooked up and I'm too lazy to figure out a way to get the pictures over :) As soon as I get access, I'll update these posts with pictures. Don't worry, we've already gotten plenty of pictures and still plan to post them.

Greg