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When we planned this trip, both Mary Ann and I agreed that it would not be a "hiking" vacation, where all we did was walk. Day 4 came pretty close.
Auckland has something like 50 volcanic mounds in the area. The largest is Rangitoto Island, just offshore in Auckland Harbour. The second largest is One Tree Hill, in a suburb just south of downtown.
Fortunately, this whole area was set aside as parkland (Cornwall Park), and is owned by a Trust for the Maori people. Much of the park is used as paddocks for sheep and cattle. And we were allowed to drive to the top of the monument. The monument is dedicated to the Maori.
Many of the sheep were trusting enough to let Mary Ann get in for a close up.
Another popular mound is Mount Eden. Unfortunately, this one did not allow us to drive to the summit, we had to walk the top half of the mound.
The interesting thing about Mount Eden is that the caldera (crater) is intact. Very interesting.
The view of the skyline from Mount Eden. This image was a 5 shot bracket, using Lightroom to generate the final HDR image.
Many of you know that I like to photograph interesting architecture. In planning this trip, i had seen photos of this building on the web, and remembered the name of it. As it turned out, we were very close by, and decided to take a look.
The Ironbank Building, from the rear (the more interesting side). The street was nothing more than a laneway, and I could not capture the entire building in a single frame. This was a 10 shot composite, stitched together in Photoshop.
Chris took us out for dinner, to one of his favourite steak houses. The Sky City complex includes a casino, hotel, restaurants and the iconic Sky Tower.
The steaks were outstanding, I can see why it was Chris' favourite steak house.
The plan today is to head to Muriwai Beach for some horseback riding and to see a gannet colony, although the weather forecast is calling for rain. Stay tuned.
If you are reading this blog for the first time, don't forget to review the archives at the right side for earlier entries. And feel free to add a comment, as well as share this blog with your friends. If you have not already done so, please enter your email address in the "Follow my Blog by Email" box on the right hand side. It will be much easier for me to stay in touch with you. If you don't see a signup box on the right side, then click on the blog heading and that should take you to a webpage with better graphics. You should then see the signup box on the right side. If you have trouble signing up, send me an email at mark.girard@rogers.com.
When we planned this trip, both Mary Ann and I agreed that it would not be a "hiking" vacation, where all we did was walk. Day 4 came pretty close.
Auckland has something like 50 volcanic mounds in the area. The largest is Rangitoto Island, just offshore in Auckland Harbour. The second largest is One Tree Hill, in a suburb just south of downtown.
Fortunately, this whole area was set aside as parkland (Cornwall Park), and is owned by a Trust for the Maori people. Much of the park is used as paddocks for sheep and cattle. And we were allowed to drive to the top of the monument. The monument is dedicated to the Maori.
Many of the sheep were trusting enough to let Mary Ann get in for a close up.
Another popular mound is Mount Eden. Unfortunately, this one did not allow us to drive to the summit, we had to walk the top half of the mound.
The interesting thing about Mount Eden is that the caldera (crater) is intact. Very interesting.
The view of the skyline from Mount Eden. This image was a 5 shot bracket, using Lightroom to generate the final HDR image.
Many of you know that I like to photograph interesting architecture. In planning this trip, i had seen photos of this building on the web, and remembered the name of it. As it turned out, we were very close by, and decided to take a look.
The Ironbank Building, from the rear (the more interesting side). The street was nothing more than a laneway, and I could not capture the entire building in a single frame. This was a 10 shot composite, stitched together in Photoshop.
Chris took us out for dinner, to one of his favourite steak houses. The Sky City complex includes a casino, hotel, restaurants and the iconic Sky Tower.
The steaks were outstanding, I can see why it was Chris' favourite steak house.
The plan today is to head to Muriwai Beach for some horseback riding and to see a gannet colony, although the weather forecast is calling for rain. Stay tuned.
If you are reading this blog for the first time, don't forget to review the archives at the right side for earlier entries. And feel free to add a comment, as well as share this blog with your friends. If you have not already done so, please enter your email address in the "Follow my Blog by Email" box on the right hand side. It will be much easier for me to stay in touch with you. If you don't see a signup box on the right side, then click on the blog heading and that should take you to a webpage with better graphics. You should then see the signup box on the right side. If you have trouble signing up, send me an email at mark.girard@rogers.com.
Thanks for reading...
Mark
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