Sunday 22nd March
Orewa to Takapuna, North Auckland
This morning the weather was lovely so we decided to stay in Orewa for a few hours. We walked onto the beach and saw lots of other people doing the same thing. We found out that it was a sponsored 5 kilometre beach walk.


The beach was lovely and firm and the tide was far out so we walked the 2 kilometres to the cliffs at the far end.

On our way back we came across the local swimming club enjoying a relay race that involved swimming and hand-paddled knee boards. It looked like hard work but everyone was having great fun.

We took a detour to Shelly Beach on the west coast. New Zealand is only about 15 kilometres wide at this point. We watched as about a dozen boats were driven up near the beach and loaded onto trailers.

We walked out onto the pier to watch a family fishing very successfully from the end.

Later in the afternoon we drove to Devonport and climbed Mount Victoria, an extinct volcanic cone. At the summit people were enjoying Devonstock, a small, free pop festival.

From this vantage point we were able to enjoy lovely panoramic views of Auckland.