Camping at Ōmana with Anna

This past weekend Martin and I were camping with our friend Anna at Ōmana Regional Park.  It's actually the first place Martin and I ever camped together, but it turned out to be a much nicer place than either of us had remembered - apparently arriving completely exhausted last time had put more of a pall on things than we'd realised!

This time we traveled by bus: the 195 to Pt Chevalier shops, the 65 across to Greenlane (Anna met us on that bus), the 70 to Botany town centre then then 739 through to Beachlands.  From there it was a maybe 20-30 min walk to the campsite with our stuff packed in one large pack each.  I particularly enjoyed the #70 bus as it took us through my old stomping grounds of Ellerslie, Panmure and through to Pakuranga Plaza - and we were on the top deck of a double-decker, with excellent views :-)

our campsite :-)

On the Saturday morning we did the perimeter walk around the park - officially 1 hour, but we took at least two with various diversions.

so many lovely old puriri trees full of epiphytes and other life

one diversion was to the lookout in the middle of the park.  It was super-steep and very exposed to get up to it, but well worth it once there.

 

 

 

 

back near the entrance to the park - I love old pōhutukawa so much :-)

 

 

 

Saturday night was forecast to be pretty stormy - the tarp and picnic table came in handy as we battened down the hatches :-)

Sunday was forecast to be pretty wet, and we had visitors joining us for lunch.  What to do for shelter?

the first configuration Anna and Martin tried

the version they settled on - it worked well, even through occasional heavy showers

 

Anna and I with Marjory and Len, and the amazing bacon and egg pie Marjory brought us :-)

 

 After they left I had a rest, then the three of us went for a soggy walk to the beach.

 

the only photo of us all together - sheltering from a rain shower under the pōhutukawa

But there were more than three of us!  Anna brought All New (the pink pig - a tramping buddy from way back) and I brought Canada Bear :-)  Here they are, hanging out in Anna's tent.

On the way home, Martin worked out that we could take the farm track across the park, join the perimeter track for a bit, and cross the main road to a quiet road by the local Presbyterian church where we could catch our bus.  On the way there we'd walked from Beachlands, which had been a gentle downhill most of the way to the campsite but would have been a steady up on the way back.  It worked really well.  The bus then did a loop through Beachlands which took a good 10 minutes.  I noticed there was a bubble tea shop right on the corner at the beginning and end of the loop: if we do this again and it's still there, I'm voting to get off the bus and buy a bubble tea while the bus does it's thing :-)

It was a really nice wee break.  With the public holiday weekend the campsite was almost at capacity, but it didn't feel crowded (maybe some people didn't come due to the stormy weather?).  It was pretty sheltered, too.  And it's amazing that we can get to places like this just on the regular bus - and for only $5.40 per person per trip!!  Taking the bus also made it astonishingly carbon-efficient: only 19kg CO2e for Martin and I (which is likely an over-estimate!) - about the same as that generated producing a kilo of red meat or using ski lifts for a day!  Our share of the trip also came in at around $150, almost all of which was for the three nights in the campsite.  We've bought passes for the Auckland Council campsites (valid through to the end of September) and this was our first use of them: after we've done 11 nights camping with them, all further nights will be free.  Hurrah!