Identification

Found this excellent site, the NZ Birds Gallery, which confirms that the birds photographed at Long Bay last weekend were indeed yellowhammers. A very useful and well laid out site.

In other identification news, the jellyfish spotted at Tauwhitokino Bay on 7th October were featured on the front page of the Herald earlier this week. Massive examples of the Lion's Mane jellyfish have been washing up on Great Barrier Island recently, and there was a picture of a 1m plus monster splashed on the front cover on Wednesday (which you can see to the right).

Although the supersized ones are a cause for concern, it was nice to get confirmation that the jellyfish is in fact supposed to have a blobby purple top and yellow skirts, as we were a bit worried they might have all been sick at Tauwhitokino Bay as they look pretty strange.

Kauri Point Centennial Park - 28th Oct. 2006

Yesterday Ferd and I walked along several of the tracks at Kauri Point Centennial Park, from the lower entrance on Onetaunga Rd in Chatswood, on the North Shore.

And here is the view going in via said lower entrance:

Most of the walks were through the bush and, except for the track from the main entrance to Kendalls Bay (Rongohau), the tracks weren't very well maintained - clearly lots of bits that had worn away through weather and use. As a result the track could be quite difficult to maneouvure when it's not dry.

Despite the name of the park there weren't many kauri in evidence, certainly no adult ones. It's an area dominated by old pines, although the bush that is re-generating is largely native and there's clearly an ongoing intention to whittle out some of the larger pines to encourage this, as there were a lot of massive pine trunks cut and left on the forest floor.

One track that we followed went out to a point where you could see the Chelsea Sugar Factory, the Harbour Bridge and across the inner Waitemata which was quite lovely but the trees obscured the view. From here you can walk all the walk to Chelsea, but we headed for Kauri Point itself and Rongohau instead.

There was an unofficial track out to the end of Kauri Point, branching off where the main track heads down hill to the eastern part of Rongohau. The views from out there were just grand:

And there was some lovely moss along both sides of the path at several points:

Bird-wise many were heard but few seen. I suspect as this is very close to an urban area the birds are quite reticent. There did seem to be a small flock of escaped parakeets, which followed us around a bit, but still didn't come very close. We also saw a tui and a pair of fantails very briefly flit past.

Kendalls Bay itself was accesible from the eastern end and the western end, but as the tide was in you couldn't walk between them unless you went back inland via bush and hills (which we did). A very lovely spot, only two other people on the beach although we did see quite a few people walking their dogs up on the tracks.

Eastern end:

At this point the camera crapped out again so I turned to my mobile. But I think I've since worked out how to fix it whenever it does it, so mercifully I won't be having to rely on the phone camera again, fingers crossed.

Western end:

This walk took us about 2 hours, with quite a bit of stopping for photos and a sit-down break in the western part of Rongohau for a snack. Although it's a bush area it's quite different from the traditional NZ bush walk, due to the high presence of pines rather than natives. Quite a bit of up and down, and the track itself would be a challenge in places if you had weak ankles or short legs. Would definitely like to go back and do the loop walk through the swamp, and the track to Chelsea, that we didn't have time for.

North Shore Council walks

Sussing out the Le Roy's Bush walk to do tomorrow with Ferd (weather permitting) I found the North Shore City Council's page on walks and popular parks.

Long Bay Coastal Walk - 21 Oct. 2006

Today we headed north, to the far end of Beach Rd, where Long Bay Regional Park begins. Although I'd been to the beach and the area close to it many many times in years gone by, I'd never actually ventured past there and along the Long Bay Coastal Walk.

We started out by heading along a short Nature Trail which was interesting but would have benefited from a few labels on the trees as there were quite a few intriguing specimens that I have no idea about.

Then we walked up to the Vaughan Homestead, which weirdly faces in, across the river, rather than out to the great views of Rangitoto. The start of the Coastal Walk turned out to be at the bottom of this hill, so we squelched back down and then headed up along the cliff tops towards the mouth of the Okura River.

Many birds were spotted, some of unknown name, but including grey herons, several types of gull, cormorant, magpies, fantails, sparrows, thrush, blackbirds, tomtits, finches, pukeko, ducks, and something that may have been a yellowhammer?

Walking around the clifftops involved quite a lot of up hill and down dale, but the views were grand,

and eventually we made it to the Okura River mouth, to start the trek back around the coast (which is only passable three hours either side of low tide).

The walk back seemed a bit dull at first - impressive sedimentary layer cliffs to the right, views of Whangaparaoa Peninsula to the left, rock and sand underfoot. But after a while I started to notice the large range of rock formations, some of which were quite like the surface of another planet (or how I imagine the surface of another planet, to be more accurate).

All in all a lovely walk, took us about 3 hours in total, involving a great deal of stopping for photos, and a really rather nice view of Long Bay at the end.

Tauwhitokino Bay - 14th Oct. 2006

Today we ventured out east, way east, past Kawakawa Bay, to the walk from Waiti Bay to Tauwhitokino Bay and back. You drive to Kawakawa Bay on the Pacific Coast Highway, then keep heading along Kawakawa Bay Coast Road for quite some time. The drive itself is wonderful, but the walk is even better.

At Waiti Bay we parked the car and headed off to the southern end of the beach, then around the headland over the rocks. There's quite a lot of going around headlands via rocks, and it would pay to check the tide - we didn't and it was nearly high tide when we got back (and a higher than usual tide too) which meant getting a bit wet.

The walk isn't purely coastal though, there's also a section up and down a hill through bush, with a clearly laid out track that is largely stepped.

Ultimately, after several others gorgeous bays, as only NZ can do, we ended up at beautiful Tauwhitokino Bay, a long expanse of beautiful sand, with a few bright red jellyfish, and one lone beach fisher. There's a very basic camp ground there, basically just a non-bush area of ground with a sign saying no more than twenty people. It's got an ace drift wood swing though.

Unfortunately the camera stopped working early on, so at this stage I only have pics from Waiti Bay, one of gulls on the sand and the other of the beach itself, looking back from the rocks where you start heading around the coast.

If I ever work out how to retrieve pics off my phone there may be more added to this post.

All in all, a slightly challenging walk due to the hill and the rocks, I'd recommend walking sandals and shorts so there are no worries about splashing about a bit. Fantastic views of the Kawakawa coast and across to Coromandel. Plus we saw gulls, cormorants, kereru, a canada goose, and heard fantails. And of course there were sheep.

Updated, 19th Oct 2006 8.43pm: To add aforementioned pics from phone.

Above is the far end of Tauwhitokino Bay, complete with our footprints.

Walking through the bush under the ponga.

Stranded sand.

A (possibly ill) jellyfish.

The kind of view I wish the real camera had been working for. Coromandel is the low lying profile at the horizon. Sigh.

Three volcanoes - walks I prepared earlier

Last year I actually managed to walk up three of Auckland's volcanoes, so I can already tick off:

• Mt Roskill (cannot find out the Maori name) - surprisingly steep and you have to walk through the cows (and their pats) which is quite fun
• Mt Albert (aka Owairaka) - a bit dull, but had a nice picnic at the top
• Pigeon Mountain (aka Ohui-a-rangi) - quite small, I've always wanted to climb this one because of an historic association with OAR YMs which is based at the bottom of the hill.

I've also found a handy map of Auckland's volcanoes on the ARC site (and learnt how to spell volcanoes correctly as a result). Some of those listed are of course craters rather than hills, eg Lake Pupuke. I'm not sure how I'll tackle those as I know you can't walk around all of them due to private property on the lake/basin edges.

Tahuna Torea Nature Reserve - 7th Oct. 2006

Today we went to Tahuna Torea Nature Reserve and did the walk around the reserve and out along the spit.

The walk starts at the carpark at the eastern end of West Tamaki Rd in Glen Innes. Below is the pond by the carpark which is frequented by a lot of birds, including ducks, pukeko and cormorants.

We took the Upper Bush walk which heads off to the Godwit Lookout, below.

There are a series of lagoons along the waterfront, frequented by godwits (I think?)

We walked out along the spit on the loop back to the car. As the tide was out you could walk about three-quarters of the way across the estuary to Bucklands Beach. The part of the spit that doesn't get submerged is covered in foliage, including yellow and pink flowers of the type below on the northern side, and tussock on the southern.

As you can see it was damn windy on the return side of the spit.

To finish off I was determind to get a pic of a pukeko before we put our muddy shoes and Tevas in the boot and headed home.

All in all a good mostly flat walk, with lots of different areas, birds and flora. Took us about an hour and a half, including the walk out to the end of the spit, stops for photo taking, and a break for a chocolate and water refuel.

Blockhouse Bay to Green Bay - Sept. 30th 2006

Little bit of catch-up to play here, as the first walk was in fact done last weekend...

Nickname Pending and I took part of one of the walkways along the northern side of the Manukau Harbour. It has a name which regrettably I can't remember, and I can't find anything about it on the Auckland City Council website either.

Anyway we started in a carpark off Taunton Tce (I think) and ended up initially walking the wrong way, and ending up at fishing spot in Blockhouse Bay that was being well used. We turned around and headed in the other direction, resulting in a lovely little trek up hill and down dale through the bush to Green Bay where we had a break, ate some chocolate and replaced some of moisture we'd lost. Then we turned around and headed back - much faster than the trip there, particularly as we didn't stop to go down to a little beach that we visited on the way there.

All in all a pleasant walk, made it back to the car just in time to avoid the big downpour that lasted several days. Calf muscles very sore the next day from going up so many steps and hilly bits, but it's a burn that makes you feel rather virtuous.

the first footprint

The purpose of this blog is to motivate me to complete my goal of walking up every Auckland volcano, as part of my aim to increase my fitness and get to know my own city better. I'm also intending to do many of the other non-volcanic walks Auckland has to offer, especially in the early stages as I build up my poor saggy calf muscles (they really are pitiful).

I'll be recording these walks here, in brief, along with a few photos where I've remembered to take the camera along. The idea is to try to go on a walk each Saturday, as the weather allows. I'm not walking alone - Nickname Pending will hopefully be coming along too most days.

Recommendations for walks are always welcome. Currently I am seeking them out through several methods:

• The book Day Walks of Greater Auckland by Marios Gavalas and Peter Janssen
• The ARC website's page on Walks and tramping
• Where my trusty road-map says the volcanoes are

I'm not expecting a big readership of this blog, it's mostly for self-motivation, but if you do drop in and feel inclined to share please feel free to do so via the comments function (after each post), or send me an email via spanblather@gmail.com.

Happy reading to you and happy walking to me!
Span