The Mycroft Chronicles

I had a great day at Rainbow's End with Nonie and the boys yesterday.  I took loads of photos with my phone, not wishing to risk my camera and not giving a toss what happened to my phone.  I uploaded 48 of the better ones to somewhere with my phone - buggered if I can find them but there's some good generic pictures on the Rainbow's End website.  OK - found them and updated the phone drivers - nerd day today. The place I am staying here is on top of a cliff in Red Beach, north of Auckland.  It has no internet access, hence my sporadic blog entries.  I can use the internet through my cellphone but if I do that I pretty soon want to hurl the darn thing in the sea (not much of a throw). I also can't persuade my PC to read the photos from my phone which doesn't amaze me.  I will email them to myself so I can get them on my laptop when I get to the airport.  Maybe. (I ...

Today I drove down from Red Beach to Waihi to stay with George, Cassie and Amy for a couple of nights.  I woke up at 5 a.m. ready to roll but thought it inappropriate to do so, largely because I wanted to collect my camera from Nonie and suspected a knock on her door at 5:30 would not win me any friends.  So, having confirmed my suspicions that a large amount of bacon cooked in a pan with a criss-cross pattern in the bottom would stick, I packed some food in one bag and some clothes in another and watched the sun come up.  Finally convinced that the north Auckland rush-hour was over (wrong!), I set out to her place of work in Albany only to find she had yet to arrive. So I treated myself to a cup of coffee from the kiosk and waited 10 minutes for her to roll up, with camera. OK - time to hit the road, Jack.  Bit of logic involved - first, find the motorway.  Pretty easy.  Then drive south to a major exit and get off to buy gas.  Wrong!  Not even ...

Moving on Yesterday was military exercise time as I decamped from Waiwera (where the hot pools look pretty perma-closed, incidentally) and headed for my favourite camp ground in Red Beach.  My "tent" is a well-equipped 1000 square foot cottage on top of a cliff overlooking  the Pacific.  Two nice bedrooms (one of which has a closet that gives George the creeps), a big living room, a small but functional and well equipped kitchen and similar bathroom.  Also a garage which is a bit of a luxury, even if I do have to choose which wing mirror I can live without when I back in.  The military exercise came in the shape of help from Nonie & George who packed my stuff (except the clothes) at Waiwera and unpacked it all this end.  Made for a very smooth move especially as I was able to get in here earlier than the allotted 2 p,m. We have, of course, christened the cove below which was relatively packed yesterday.  Someone has done some work on th...

OK - it's the east wind but it do blow.  I started my day in what has become traditional fashion today - glass of apple juice, cup of tea and a laptop on the long squashy bench on the deck, checking email.  After having the wind slam the lid a couple of times and realising I have wrecked enough laptops this year, I headed back indoors. So back indoors to check the news and things.  My laptop has finally realised I am not in Kansas anymore and shows me the NZ news.  That means there is no mention of American politics which is very refreshing. I spent most of the morning doing a tiny bit of housework followed by a hundred pages or so of the Bourne Identity (on the windy bench outside) before trotting off to the Albany Pool to share some lunch with Nonie in the local park.  Once again my GPS made its mark by guiding me perfectly for the first 15 kilometres, which I knew, and then, as I zipped round a roundabout a bit sharpish, it dumped itself on the floor and mu...

... to the lonely sea and the sky.  I left my vest and socks there - I wonder if they're dry (Thank you, Spike Milligan).  I enjoyed my time on the beach so much yesterday (at least when my eyes were open) that I thought a replay was called for today.  Bigger towel this time and the company for a wee while of the bloke downstairs.  He's from Hawaii and announced that the water was a bit chilly as I struck out for my getting-to-be-a-habit quarter mile.  When I can't see the bottom, I am out of my depth - nice safety feature.  I found out later that a paddle boarder drowned just round the bend in Waiwera today which was a bit sobering. I didn't take my camera today as it looked pretty much the same down there as yesterday so here's a poke-and-hope shot I took of the weed yesterday. I've finished "Every Day in Tuscany" which has got me fancying a long stint in Florence (with Susan, of course) off season.  Not buying a wrecked house to renovate nor ea...

Didn't stay up late last night - just long enough to photograph the moon over the water.  Supposed to be a superduper moon later this week but it's doing OK thus far. Up early this morning - lovely windless day with the sun dodging behind wispy clouds.  Where to? I asked myself.  First step was to the kitchen - Al had been fishing yesterday and Linda had prepared a couple of nice snapper fillets for me.  What better brekkie than them on the barbecue, accompanied by some earlier-in-the-week rice fried with a couple of eggs.  This deserved not to be rushed so I took my time for a chat with Al about all sorts of stuff and nothing in particular. All of which did nothing towards deciding where to go and what to do.  Eventually the answer came to me as I was cleaning up - what I really fancied was a swim in the sea, a bake on a towel with a book and a shady tree I could crawl under if I smelt the familiar aroma of burning skin.  So, pausing only to slap o...

Who's a lazy bugger, then? Yup - couldn't get my arse into gear this morning and didn't try all that hard.  It was blowing a bit of a gale when I woke up so I did the only thing possible and went back to sleep.  Finally bestirred myself to head north, destination undecided but as it turned out I wound up at Goat Island where the tide was out and the waves looked less than inviting (great snorkelling spot but the rocks make it less than ideal for low tide swimming) To my eternal discredit, this rocky beach picture below isn't from Goat Island - it's from somewhere between here and there whose name I've forgotten.  There goes my career as a travel writer.  Cool spot, though - there was a Maori guy and his grand-daughter (maybe) trolling for fish in the waist deep water: by the time I returned, from my long walk they'd gone so I hope they'd caught enough for dinner. Now, this urchin is from Goat Island - it's about the size of a quarter / 20 cent...

A delightfully hectic day today.  Georgia stayed the night and we played "You first" from about 7 a.m. to 7:30.  As we slowly unwound ourselves from the arms of Morpheus, the world woke up around us until, by about 9 o'clock, the place was swarming with Wards, Magyars and Mycrofts.  So, having demolished breakfast, what else was there to do but hit the beach.  High tide was about 5 pm today so by the time we fell down the face of the cliff to the beach, there was plenty of exposed territory, starting with the caves.  Not very deep - Cassie is just about visible up at the very end. I don't know what geological forces made this chunk of coast but I'm glad I wasn't around at the time.  There's some evil stuff gone on there. I finally managed to figure out how to make my fake GoPro take photos - a simple case of push each button in turn and see which one causes a photo to be taken.  Must reset the date. George had brought a pretty traditional kiwi meat ...

Every once in a while in New Zealand I get to thinking "Why did I ever leave?"  That's when I head for downtown Auckland as a reminder.  The easy way to get there from Waiwera is to drive to Gulf Harbour and hop on the ferry which dumps you, 45 minutes later, right in the heart of the city with no parking to pay for.  Among many other things that Auckland has copied from large American cities is the price of parking. So, having got up at 7:30 and taken until 10:15 to eat two slices of toast and marmalade, off I tootled.  My timing was impeccable as a ferry was just pulling into Gulf Harbour when I got there so, ignoring the stupid beep noise the Audi was making (old - excuse me, classic - cars do that), I sauntered energetically the couple of hundred metres to catch it. It was a windy but calm ride and the weather gods put on a nice cloud display over Rangitoto. With no plan in mind other than a determination not to get back on the same ferry and head straight b...

Wednesday.  The most remarkable thing about today was that I didn't appear to have moved during the night, as per the photo.  Must have been tired.  Feeling much better but still spluttering, I walked up and down the cliff to the beach a couple of times, flinging myself into the ebbing tide on both occasions.  I also extended my bucket list to 3 things - the ride in a helicopter (non-medical emergency variety) is still there but has been joined by spring in our flat in Florence and a third I am keeping quiet about until I discover if someone else has already done it and to prevent anyone pinching the idea Taken from 200m with my trusty Leica Georgia came over for dinner last night and we strapped on our posh frocks and wandered off to Bolliwood in Orewa for another of their splendid curries.  It was beautifully presented but you'll have to take my word for it as we ate it without photographing it.  Where's our manners?  A long walk along Orewa be...

WebMD said "plenty of bed rest" for flu.  Given the view from bed, that sounded a good idea but given that I didn't know it was flu, it sounded like a waste of time.  So time to investigate the "private beach".  Depends on your definition as there's no such thing legally in NZ but you can't see it from anywhere so, adjectivally, it's true. Beach at high tide from the breakfast table At low tide, nearly One of my favourite places closish to Orewa is the Parry Kauri Park and the Warkworth Museum so, to stretch the legs and lungs, that was my next stop.  I'd taken a number of dud photos last time and wanted to do better, especially those of the "Make the little woman happy - buy her a new iron for Christmas" variety.  I suspect someone at the museum found them inappropriate and has whisked them away to the archives.  They did leave behind the shoe repair ad, though. The Dudlesack