It was pointed out to me by Bernice today that I had not posted for a while and so after checking I must say that she was right and time does get away from you when you put things off ‘til tomorrow’.
So it is now been all officially sorted and I have taken over from Bernice and Roy Vannini as Camp Hosts at the Auckland Council Shakespear Regional Park. It is a lovely campsite nestled in a valley at the very end of the Whangaparoa Peninsular. Roy and Bernice have been here since the beginning of November and are looking to move on. Ranger Bruce asked if I would stay on til April 5th so it looks like I will be settling in for a while.
There is not a great deal to the job, I essentially am the eyes and ears for the rangers and greet the campers, tick them off the list, mark them onto the map and tell them about the park and the facilities. If anything goes not according to plan I ring the duty ranger who comes down and sorts it out! Easy peasy.
Have been kayak fishing and caught almost my limit of fish but due to the fact that they were all too short and wouldn’t stretch far enough, they had to go back!
Also I’ve had the MiniCat out and had a bit of a sail around the bay and back a few times yesterday and it was great! Just on the tail end of the windy weather, not in the midst of it all! The waves were interesting as there were some rather large ones out there but we managed well and had a load of fun.
This morning Summer Ranger Michael and I went for a walk together. It was meant to be the Sunday morning guided ranger walk but I was the only one to turn up so it became an adventure! We went over to Pink Beach and had a nosey down there. The tide was a bit far in so we couldn’t get too far around the beach at all, but he pointed out the degaussing cables from the old naval station.
From there we walked to the top via a trapping/tracking track, a bit of a bushwack but a great little trip.
At the top Michael was teaching me how to create a whistle from a waxy leaf
It was a great 2 1/2 hour wander around the regional park with some great information from Mike about birds, plants and we had a great morning tea eating the new tips of the supplejack vine. Was delicious!
We ended up down at the waterfall (not a great deal of water but did spot a long finned eel and then wandered our way back to the campsite.
So after a full night last night of 160 we are down to about 10 tonight!
A bit of an overcast but still warm day today with little breeze. Ranger Bruce has just dropped of a couple of snapper to Bernice and Roy and they have brought over a fillet for me, so will do something with it for dinner tonight!
Now that was written a few days ago and I have been here for two weeks, had a side trip to Wellington for a day and now I have been evicted to the self-contained area as there is a huge school group in and they don’t need or want a camp host there. So I am out in the wilderness with nothing to do for a week, so I will go pester Bruce for some jobs to do around the park. I have joined 5 other vehicles in the SC area so it is very quiet.
The main carpark and picnic area if full today (Sunday) and it is a lovely day and loads of families and groups playing, swimming and having bbq’s all over the area.
This morning there was a volunteer day and we removed an old 7 strand wire fence and weeded out some Mexican Devil Weed from the same area.
At the end of the morning we were all covered in biddybids and I am not sure that my socks will ever be the same again….
We all had a bit of a laugh at Michael’s shirt…
The other day there was an interesting breeze blowing and I watched a paraglider who just hung off the end of the hill for hours….
So I am sitting here contemplating the rest of the year and wondering what it will bring and whether I turn left or right but certainly enjoying the moment.
Safe travels everyone.
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