M&J Down Under: October 2010

Kia Ora

Kia Ora

Interesting facts.

NZ. or Aotearoa In Maori, means 'The Land of the long white cloud'. It is quite a young country, geologically active, with tectonic faults and volcanoes, glaciers and rivers constantly building and eroding land. It consists of many islands, the main ones being the North and South island. It used to be part of one land mass, Gondwana, and split off 80 million years ago, taking with it its unique plants and bird life. The first Eastern Polynesian settlers arrived 750 years ago, and the first Europeans to settle arrived in 1769 after discovery by James Cook.

As it is a long thin country, there are several climates and micro climates within, from sub tropical in the North and temperate (similar to UK) in the South. The total population is around 4.2 million ( UK has nearly 63 million) of which 1 million are based in Auckland. Auckalnd also known as the 'The city of sails' (due to a high proportion of boat ownership) is the biggest city, though not the capital, which is Wellinton. Auckland’s weather is warm/hot long summers with mild and wet winters. (average annual sunshine hours= 2050. Manchester=1200 hrs) and (annual average rain=1240mm. Manchester=810mm!) most rain falling as heavy tropical showers in the winter months of June-July

Sunday 10 October 2010

10-10-10 at 10.am

a special date, and lots of events happening. we chose to go to a geo-caching event in Auckland domain. our first social event, and we had a great time. met lots of fellow geo cachers, and able to put faces to the names we have seen signed in logbooks and on the website. It was a fun day, and the couple that organised it, had gone to great lengths, and put in place a type of scavenger hunt around the park, using GPS to find way points and solve clues to gain points. it was a beaut day, and quite busy in the park, the locals must have wondered what was happening, seeing lots of adults (and kids) racing thru the park, rooting in the bushes, groping statues, and generally looking dodgy! we teamed up with this Dutch guy and his 8 year old son, and we were amazed to find that we actually won it! go team Howick! More photos here

It must be here somewhere?

The Winners - Team Howick!

The Geeks gather at the Geocaching Gala

Sunday 3 October 2010

Dino Island

Matty's Legs apres Cutty Grass!!

Motukaraka Island

There is a small Island off a headland near us, and if you get the tide right, you can walk out on the sandspit to reach it. Its called Motukaraka (or Flat island as its affectionately known, due to it looking like a big cake!) there is also a geocache on the island, that we've been meaning to do for a while. so off we set one bright and early morning, armed with the GPS to find the cache. it was a lovely walk over, but once on the island there wasn't much else there (apart from the geo cache!). This cache hadn't been found for 7 months, and the whole site was overgrown with cutty grass and bush. We had never really heard of this grass before, but it is aptly named, as you can see from poor Matt's legs. We located the cache, after ploughing our way through (which when opened revealed an Island scene, complete with little volcano, sand, rocks, trees and dinosaurs! Cute az!) and signed the logbook before having a little walk round the beach and a look at the birdlife around.