Tucked away behind the Catalina Cafe at Hobsonville is the local farmers markets. With the new motorway having been opened, it's actually very close to the major on and off-ramps for the area, in a lovely setting.
Inside a large Shed, there are a wide variety of fantastic goods for sale. All organic, home-made type things but in a mass produced style.
My current favourites are the pumpkin seed bread - purely awesome toasted with soup. The Fig and ginger Jam - have it with crackers and double cream brie... to die for!
The selection of cheeses, pastries and fresh herbs are wonderful. They also have cooking diplays using all the produce from the markets, live music, a juice bar, a coffee corner.. and so forth.
The week I took this pictures Lyn Walters was playing her music, and her dulcet tones made the market have a fantastic mood.
The most awesome thing? Taste testing! Yummmmm!
It's not a very big market, but it is ever so tasty and a really enjoyable way to spend a Sunday morning.
I've personally been fortunate enough to walk under the Syndey Harbour, in the tunnel before it was open to traffic, as well as the Gateway motorway in Brisbane... just recently the whole family got to walk along a motorway before the traffic was allowed on it.
While in the Northland we also visited a glowworm cave. Again, slightly smaller and cheaper in the North, but still a great experience, the kids were fascinated and all coped well when the lights got turned off so we could see the worms glowing.
Kawiti Caves have been in the one family for around 6 generations, and only having walkways and public access in the past 20 years or so. T
he story of the caves goes... some farmers found their crops of sweet potato missing and searched the lands to find who took them. In the local hillside they found a woman here in there caves, with all the sweet potato :)
In recent times, Bill Gates flew in by helicopter with some family and friends and took the cave tour. Aftet they were down they went off the the bay and went swimming with the dolphins.
The family new claim to fame... I have stood where Bill Gates has stood!
We couldn't take photos inside the caves itself, but I have a few of the surrounding hillsides, valleys and one of the cave entrance.
For a quick cave tour, with a little history Kawiti fits the bill nicely!
Ok, now I got that out of my system, let me tell you about the Skytower Skyjump.
Free Fall Base Jumping from 192 metres is not your usual way to spend a Sunday afternoon, and this morning it was not the way I had planned to spend it.
However, this was something I had wanted to do since we got to Auckland, I had a voucher, it was going to expire soon, and the the time.. so it seemed.. was now!
When I arrived, they told me I was going to jump a little earlier than planned as I had arrived so early, this got my nerves going and I spent the next 10 minutes wriggling, shaking and entirely failing to sit still. When I realised that it was going to be a little longer I calmed down.
The guy who got us ready was calm, happy and helpful - gave the little group I was in a tonne of confidence. We suited up, got the harnesses on, then headed to the top of the tower.
At the top I offered for the other girl to go first and observed what she did. When it was my turn I knew they would be stopping me 10m down for a photo and felt good about the checks they did of the harness and gear.
My turn came very quickly. I've been up the tower before, more than once, and even jumped on the glass platforms looking down to the ground, feeling completely safe. Standing on the OUTSIDE of the glass with the wind hitting you and walking along a skinny platform is a completely different experience.
When I got to the end of the platform, I glanced down briefly and instantly felt uncomfortable, so I decided not to do that again. The wind chill factor was -6degrees Celsius, and every time I grabbed the railing for stability, my fingers froze. Oh yeah I knew I was alive!
Then my harness got attached to the rigging, I got told to step forward until my feet were on the edge... oh how everything in my body was yelling at me about how wrong that was to do... and then... on the count of three... Let Go!
Getting off the top was the hardest part. Then, for the next 11 seconds I took in the view, the ground that was coming ever closer and as I neared the large red target I knew... YEAH I've done it.
Since arriving in New Zealand a year ago, seeing a real live Kiwi was high on the list on priorities, but we hadn't had the opportunity until recently.
Oh wait... yes we see Kiwi's every day, I mean the bird ;)
We found the Kiwi house and Museum and decided to drop on in. It's not expensive, and kind of small, but very well done. The Kiwi house has a few Kiwi's in a nocturnal environment with low lighting and a bush style setting.
There are places for the Kiwi's to go for safety, but this sadly also keeps them out of our view. While we were there one decided they were hungry, so ran out of the nest, across the 'landscape' and to the feeding trough. I was surprised by how fast they move, and by the colour of it's beak - such a bright yellow!... or at least it seemed it in the dim lighting.
We went around the rest of the buildings in the grounds, seeing the display of the other birds, the engines, the mini train wasn't running that day - it was too wet, and then to the Museum. The Whangarei Museum is actually built inside an old airplane hanger (by the looks) and has a few well appointed small displays.
I was fascinated with the video of the Moari winter solstice, and loved the collection of 1900's+ paraphernalia. I saw old Cameras, typewrites, scales and a manual printing press from 1851 that still works today!
A real piece of nostalgia was the dining room they had set up, with the doilies on the arms and backs of the chairs, and the dining table laid out with the delicate China. It reminded me so much of my Great Aunt's house when I was growing up, so I had a lovely walk down a personal memory lane, as well as discovering history of this land.
It's not the biggest, nor does it have many displays, but for a piece of history not far North of Auckland, you just might enjoy a visit to Whangarei.
