North of Auckland...

This weekend we went up to visit Renee's gran (who isn't her real gran, but a good friend of Renee's mum, Jay) in Kerikeri which is up near the top of the North Island. On the way we stopped in Paihea for lunch - a lovely little coastal town in the Bay of Islands, a popular tourist spot. This is a picture of Renee and I by the water.
This is me in a Pohutukawa tree, a New Zealand Christmas tree. They are all out in flower at the moment and look beautiful, especially with a tawny owl perched on a branch. You may notice that Renee has done some repair work, and all my beads have been reattached. I also now have a lovely piece of New Zealand paua shell added to my decoration.
Renee and Jay had lunch in a lovely cafe by the water and had lots of kaimoana - that's Maori for seafood. Then we headed inland towards Kerikeri which, as I think I mentioned, is a very good place for growing avocados, macadamia nuts and citrus fruit. Kerikeri oranges are world famous in New Zealand!
As you can see, I was a bit tired from the trip, and so was Renee. We had a sleep on the couch with Mitzi, Renee's Gran's dog, and Jay took a photo. It was Gran's birthday on Friday, so I gave her a birthday kiss.
This is the view from Gran and Poppa's house. It was nice in the sun, but there was a very chilly wind. We went to the Kerikeri farmers market before we left and Jay and Renee bought lots of lovely fresh vegetables. Renee also had a blueberry pancake and wouldn't give me any!
We went back on a bit of a back road, through a place called Helensville, and then through Parakai where there are hot pools. We didn't go to the pools though, we went to MacNuts Cafe which is on a working macadamia nut farm. The cafe looks out over the pond and the trees as you can see. We all had a lovely lunch and stretched our legs (or wings in my case) before heading back to Auckland.
We went down to have a closer look at the lily pond, and I thought of Amy as that's her middle name! The lily flowers were all out and very lovely.
And here they are a bit closer (I didn't want to get too close as I can't swim)
The trip back to Auckland was nice, but we were all a bit sick of the car. This week I am going in to meet some of the children at Glenbrae school where Jay teaches. It is their Christmas concert on Thursday so everyone is very excited. I'll tell you more about that later.
Meanwhile, I'll leave you with a picture of the view from where Jay lives (well, just down the road anyway). The mountain is actually a volcano called Rangitoto, which means 'bleeding sky'. Rangitoto is dormant, so although it hasn't erupted for a very long time, it still could one day. The poles are from a new marina they have built recently - Auckland is known as the 'City of Sails' and I guess you can see why!

Wish you were here....

Love, Sophie :o)