During our Sabbatical, Martin and I are hoping to go camping every four weeks' or so. Around 6 weeks ago we were at Ambury Park, and a few weeks after that it was our church camp. Last week we were off again, this time to a new-to-us regional park called Waitawa. All the extra exercise I've been doing during the Sabbatical has really improved my fitness, and it felt realistic to try for a campsite 35km away from the nearest train station :-)
During the remainder of our Sabbatical Martin and I are hoping to go camping for a week each month, so last Sunday after church we headed off to Ambury Park. My fitness has definitely improved: the first time we went there it took me 1h13; this time was 58 min cycling time, although a little more than that as we stopped near the park to buy mandarins from a family fundraising for their son's rugby boots. Quite a treat to have extra fruit when camping - heavy things are always at a premium!
There was hardly anyone in the campsite so we put our tent a bit closer to the amenities area than usual - and right next to a stunning wee glade that stayed remarkably dry when it rained.
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On the whole we had fantastic weather, but it was a bit wet on Sunday when we were getting there (and on Friday on the way home, too). We were using our old tent, which isn't wonderfully waterproof, hence the tarp over the top for extra protection. The photo above is from Monday morning, and you can see all our wet stuff drying on a long line at the right!
Martin and I are just back from four nights camping at the Schischka campground at Wenderholm Regional Park. It's one of six Auckland Council campgrounds we know of that are accessible by public transport and/or foot and bike; to get to this one we bus to town, bus to Silverdale and bus to Waiwera, then it's a 30-40 min walk (mostly through bush) to the campsite. It's about 3 hours door to door, and for a lot of that we were on the top deck of a double decker bus :-)
Neither of us took many photos - we were mostly just enjoying a very peaceful quiet week to mark the start of our six month Sabbatical - but below are a few pictures from the trip.
There was hardly anyone in the campsite so we were able to take up heaps of space. We've recently bought a second pair of adjustable poles for the tarp. The Schischka campsite doesn't have any picnic tables or substantial trees, so the extra poles were very helpful in enabling us to make a nice cool resting space for the hot afternoons.
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 :-)
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| our campsite :-) |
This past week Martin and I were on Pōnui Island, where we went for Scripture Union Bible Study Camp in January 2022 and 2023. Scripture Union does four summer camps back to back on Pōnui: New Year's Camp (better known as 'family camp'), camps for the younger and older halves of high school, then Bible Study Camp. This year we wanted to go with friends from church who have kids, so we were at New Year's Camp - which turned out to be more different from Bible Study Camp than I'd expected. It was much more of a holiday, with only 3 teaching sessions and one church service - as opposed to 11-ish teaching sessions and 'testimony time' each evening at Bible Study Camp. Other differences included there being at least one significant 'fun' activity each day (camping out under the stars, a picnic at another bay, a concert, a disco etc) and access to boats was strictly limited to when there was skilled supervision - although you could swim any time you reckoned there was enough water.
It was lovely to be back on Pōnui. It's such a beautiful place.
Last Thursday Martin and I headed off for a camping holiday at Shakespear Park. It was remarkably easy to get there - biked to Avondale train station, train to town, ferry to Gulf Harbour and about 40 min bike to the campsite. And, whilst I still have a number of concussion symptoms, this was something I can now comfortably achieve :-)
Us Avondale train station with our stuff:
Life's been a bit busy recently, but I've finally found time to share photos of a lovely holiday Martin and I had 4 weeks back, at Wenderholm. We'd originally intended to camp at Ambury Park (the only council campsite within accessible biking distance from our house), but it was solidly booked for the dates we had in mind. Various more-obvious alternatives also fell through and eventually we landed on the Schischka campground, a wee bit up the Puhoi River from Wenderholm beach.
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| a neat detail in the posts at the Silverdale bus station |
To get there we caught the bus into town, the bus up to Silverdale and the bus to Waiwera. I've never been to Waiwera for anything other than the (currently non-operational) hot pools - it turns out there's a rather lovely beach there :-)
