Published photographers!

Today we were delighted when we opened the Gulf News and saw that our dolphin photos had been published in a two page spread. For the record, that means that Ilona and Alexander each appeared on the cover of the weekly, Ilona had a five page article on her, Mike and Ilona got photos published, Mike had a picture of him with a Harry Potter book in another weekly, and there were numerous other times when our names (particularly Ilona) were mentioned in one of the three weeklies. We really do feel part of the Island community!

Through Alexander's eyes

Pretty well every day, we walk down to the beach so Alexander can have a swing. Today, he took the camera and snapped a picture every few steps. I thought it would make a nice little movie. I took the pictures once he was on the swing, but he took all the rest. A regular Orson Wells in the making!

Night time over Waiheke

Some of the best scenes are on quiet nights with a moon over the bay, reflecting in the water. Taking a photo of that is more skill than I have (and perhaps a tripod and special lens/filters are needed), but perhaps this gives a bit of a hint.

More dolphins

The dolphins were back this morning, bouncing and jumping about. At one point, they all disappeared into a frothing mass, when they must have been feeding on something. This time we raced down to the beach to get some closer up photos.

Walk to Fossil Bay

Now that the weather is better, we are taking more advantage of the numerous walkways available on the island. These trails are somewhat controversial, since they often skirt some of the multi-million dollar houses on the island, whose owners prefer not to see the smelly trampers. But New Zealand egalitarianism holds strong, and there are some beautiful walks in the area.

Today we went to Fossil bay, the next bay to the west of our house. The fossils found there are perhaps not that exciting (being bivalves: things that look just like the stuff you find on the beach every day) but Ilona's paleontological interests draw her there.

The first part of our walk is through private land (Ilona got permission), leading to a "stairway" down the cliffside. Mike (and Alexander) could not do the stairway down (it was essentially vertical with ropes to hold on to that prevent plummeting to one's death) but Ilona went down and found a fossil or two (the actual site is halfway up the cliff but enough falls down to be collected at the bottom). Ilona notes that these are Paleocene fossils.



We then took a walk through vineyards to a nice outlook over the coast and water. Alexander was a trouper for a while, but eventually his little legs gave out.

Dolphins!

We have had the worst luck with dolphins during this year. If you talk to anyone else, when you visit New Zealand, you practically have to kick dolphins away if you want to go for a swim. Not for us. Two major areas for dolphins are the Bay of Islands and the area around Kaikoura. We visited both, and saw no dolphins. Up to now, only Mike has seen a dolphin, and that only at a distance.



Today changed all that. A pod of four dolphins entered Oneroa Bay and put on a show right in front of our house. They jumped and danced about for more than an hour. They were perfectly happy when people jumped in the water to play with them. After these pictures were taken, Mike went down to the water and stood with them (not quite side-by-side: they had moved about 30 feet off the beach). Two of them promptly did a "Sea World" style, side-by-side looping jump out of the water.

Between the stingray on the weekend and the dolphins today, we are really checking off the "to do before leaving New Zealand" list.

Sailing around Waiheke

The Masons stayed overnight on their catamaran so we all went out sailing this morning. Karin (our former nanny who says she went off to Stewart Island but since she never updates her blog, we aren't sure) arrived last night for a one day stay, so she joined us on the outing. One highlight of picking Karin up at the ferry: we saw a four-foot wide stingray in the shallows (read: beach where kids often swim) by the ferry. Ever since Steve Irwin was killed by one, it is hard to look at stingrays as weird, but essentially harmless sea creatures. But they really are.





We began our sailing day with breakfast in Sandy Bay around the corner from us, where Mike and Alexander went for a quick row. It was great to see Oneroa and Waiheke from the water: it does look a lot different. We then sailed back around the island, to end up at Matiatia, where the ferry arrives, to let Karin go back to Auckland and the rest of us take the bus back home. Beautiful day, with enough wind to keep the boat going, but not enough to make it hard to sail. Alexander loved being on the boat, but was a bit disappointed that we all insisted on doing the sailing, when he obviously could have handled everything on his own.

More Waiheke Sailing

Party on Waiheke

Ever since we moved into our place in April, we have been meaning to have Mike's Auckland colleagues over, but we kept putting it off. With less than a month to go, we could delay no further, so we invited the crowd over for an "Afternoon on Waiheke". It was a glorious day, sunny and warm. Many came over on the 11AM ferry, and most walked from the ferry to the house. We took a long-cut through a "reserve" (a public park) leading up a steep hill to views over the island. Even Alexander put his little legs to good use getting up the hill (wearing a Santa hat: he is back in Christmas mode). One group (the Masons, Andy Philpott, and Hamish Waterer) "sailed" from Auckland, though a lack of wind mainly meant motoring.

Once at the house, we had the grill going for sausages and chicken and veggies and so on. Ilona's potato salad was a huge hit, and Mike's caesar salad also went well.

Most of the people spent the afternoon at the beach. The best part for Mike and Alexander was messing around in the Masons' rowboat. The wind was up a bit, leading to some fun waves. It took Mike some time to get the rhythm, but he eventually made it out to sea, though, truth-be-told, Andrew Mason did most of the rowing with Alexander.

We ended up with about 30 guests for the day.

Rainy day

Summer can't quite take hold. Today was a rainy, gray day: I even canceled my sailing lesson. But here is a time-lapse video of Alexander playing for about 10 minutes to see if I can can get short clips working.

Olive Festival

While Whaiheke is known for its wines, it also has a thriving olive industry, with perhaps a dozen groves producing highly sought-after olive oil. The producers got together today for an Olive Festival. This is what the Wine Festival (which we thought was a rip-off) should have been: cheap, fun, family oriented. Alexander had a great time running around with the other kids, and we enjoyed the food and music. We even came back with four bottles of olive oil for our own taste tests.


The festival was held at Rangihoua Estate, which has some amazing sculptures made from swamp kauri. If that bench was for sale, I think we would be figuring out how to ship it back to Pittsburgh.

Summer!

Definitely felt like summer today. We spent the morning splashing about in the ocean and playing on the beach. No pictures: only videos (that Mike is still figuring out how to put online). A glorious day!

Summer yet?

Summer keeps trying to arrive. Everytime I think it is here, we get another "Fine with gale force winds" day. Today was beautiful day. Ilona took Alexander over to the "Playground with a Beach" (Little Oneroa, about a 15 minute walk away) to play with one of his girlfriends. We had thought the school ran a play-circle involving pirates, so he dressed as a pirate (as if he needs an excuse!), but the play-circle did not materialize. Oh well, plenty of fun on the beach!

New Zealand Premiere of The Amazing Adrenalini Brothers

One great thing about having a kid is the interesting people you meet through them. Alexander, being a total babe-magnet, has a lot of girlfriends, one of whom is Poppy. Poppy's parents are on Waiheke for three months as a reward for finishing a long project, producing and directing a new animated series: the Amazing Adrenalini Brothers. By a nice coincidence, the show just debuted on the Cartoon Network here in New Zealand, so we had a "Premiere Brunch" for Claire and David, inviting over some others we know on the island. It was a great brunch: the show is fun for all ages, and the crowd enjoyed getting a bit of the inside scoop.

Mike goes to the Auckland West Coast

We have only about a month left, and our list of things to do before we go seems to get longer rather than shorter. One "must do" was to visit the rougher, wilder west coast of Auckland (Waiheke is in the sedate, quiet east coast). Fortunately Michael's officemate Hamish lives out there and he offered to take Mike for a tour.




The tour started at "One Tree Hill", famous for not having a tree. It used to have a tall stately tree, but it was regularly attacked by Maori activists (the tree was not a native, and the hill is sacred to many Maori). Eventually, the tree decided enough was enough and it died. Now there is a very tall obelisk in honor of the Maori, which seems kinda out of place. But the views from the top of the hill are wonderful. In typical kiwi fashion, the park surrounding the hill is given over to sheep.

We then headed off to the west coast, beginning by walking up a Mount Donald McLean (more of a hill than a mount) to get an overview of the area, then off on a long walk (Hamish thinks it was a short walk)at the beach at Whatipu. The beach is predominantly a black sand beach. West coast beaches are much rougher and more isolated than east coast (and Waiheke) beaches. We then had lunch (which was a good idea: the day was much hotter than planned and I was getting a little wobbly-legged) before heading down to Karekare for a visit to a waterfall and its beach. We ended the day with a walk along the beach at Piha, well known for its role in the hit TV series "Piha Rescue".


Apparently, many operations research people have been on this sort of day with Hamish, so Mike is now the latest in a long string of exhausted OR faculty who tried to keep up with Hamish's outings. Fortunately, the day ended at a bar with the most amazing views over all of Auckland.

Auckland West Coast