I Am Sailing, I Am Sailing

Breakfast is served in our room this morning, it's a bit too breezy for the alternative venue of the balcony over-looking the garden.  

Eric licks his lips at the prospect.

As you may be able to see, breakfast is literally served in our bedroom. A little unusual for a B&B perhaps? But nonetheless it is delicious.  We are also brought a fresh flower head as a table decoration. Some kind of lily we are told - but probably not edible.

We also have boiled eggs, done in a microwave chookie, and served with suitable eggcups/spoon.

This chook looks rather sad muses Eric - 

so would you be if you had a hot egg on your head!

We had booked a trip on an America's Cup yacht at one o'clock, which starts in Auckland not far from where the ferry gets in.  Before that, our host offers to take us on the guided walk, to Mount Victoria and through historic Devonport, past the various Edwardian, Victorian and California Style houses that are abundant here.

First we walk up Mount Victoria - part of an extinct volcano - there are quite a number of these in Auckland and the surrounding area.  It was used by the Maori as a fortified pa and we were shown the terraces they made, which would have had palisades around them for protection. They also had pits that were used for storing Kumara (sweet potatoes).

Panorama from the top.

The site was also used in the World wars as a defensive position. 

These 'mushrooms' on the top hide the ventilation pipes for a large water tank that serves Devonport. They also appear to provide a tourist attraction as lots of poses were being made whilst standing on them and being photographed. 

Eric takes his turn to sit on a mushroom.

That's Mount Rangitoto in the background. It protects Auckland from howling winds apparently.

Eric reads about the large gun emplacement that is also on the top. 

It is hidden inside a chamber and was pumped up using compressed air to fire it. The recoil sent it back down again.  It was never actually used during the war, but they did have a practice fire towards Mt. Rangitoto. It was only tested once and broke so many windows in the town they decided once was enough. 

Eric sits on the gun control wheel in the hidden chamber, although he says he can't make it move no matter how hard he trys.

Another panoramic shot in a different direction.

Eric sits on the relief map showing all the islands in the Hauraki Gulf. 

He's actually sitting in the sea between Auckland and the Coromandel Peninsula (we are on our way there soon).

...and a view towards Auckland Central Business District. (Yawn)

We're on the way down, and we've cut off the top of the Skytower.

In the 1700 and 1800s the top of the mountain was used as a signalling post. A warden at the top used to watch for the merchant ships coming in, then put some markers on a post at the bottom of the hill. When he actually knew what ship it was he would put a flag (or sequence) to mark that as well. This would alert the particular merchant in the town to come down to the docks in order to unload his goods. The warden used to have to live in a very basic tent or grass hut on the top in the late 1700s early 1800s, in dire conditions, but they eventually built him this villa halfway down the mountain. Nowadays it is used as a writer's retreat, and one of the Man Booker prize winners of about four years ago wrote their novel here. 

Eric is shown the cabbage tree dressed up as an Hawaiian lady. "Shall we try that in our garden?"

The tree gets dressed up according to the season/event - so will be decked out for Hallowe'en soon.

This is a California style bungalow. It has a flatter roof style than the Edwardian era ones. These were originally imported as flat pack houses, and then as patterns that were cut out using local timber. 

They are in an enviable position on the seafront and very much sought after nowadays.  Much of Devonport is a Conservation Area in terms of heritage.

The building below was originally imported as a flat pack sea front hotel. During the war it was used to house the women in the NZ naval service - they used to like to keep the sexes seperated in those days - but allegedly this didn't always work!

Back at sea level we spot this amazing looking tree 

...it is a Morton's Bay Fig (of course it's not a native!).

Back to the accommodation to pick up coats, it's cloudy and very windy today, but with only the odd spot or two of rain so far.  Cross the road to the ferry terminal, hop on the ferry and off we go. 

There's a huge cruise ship which came in to dock this morning, it's bigger than the buildings it sits alongside. 

It's not raining, that's just spray on the window. 

We find the yellow explore more booth on the viaduct harbour walkway to pick up our boarding passes. 

There's our boat.

It's being made ready, and one of the crew is hoisted to the top of the mast (scary!) for some repairs (not too crucial we hope).

After putting on life jackets and having a safety briefing we board.

Ahoy there mateys. 

We have to use an engine to exit the harbour.  This has been retrofitted to this boat as the America's Cup yachts for real do not have engines. They are towed out to where they can get under sail. 

This is a hands-on boat trip, as we are effectively the crew. As we get out to where we can put the sails up we have to man the grinders, two on each one.  Theses are large handles on the deck, there are four sets of them. The skipper shouts out instructions 'grind forward', 'hold' and 'grind backwards'. After a bit of effort the sails are up and out (in the case of the front gib sail). Hope we are getting the lingo right!

We're off. 

Auckland in the distance.

A bit closer again.  You may be able to see from the other yacht that there is quite a wind blowing. We have had to sail with the sails reefed (more lingo - shortened sails so they don't catch too much wind)

As we tack back and forth across the harbour it's all hand to the grinders as the aspect of the sails to the wind needs to be changed.

There is also an opportunity to steer the boat - great fun - we're doing 12.6 knots.

Yippee!

There are some naval ships in the dockyard at Devonport. One is a relief vessel and sent to areas if there are cyclones etc, the other frigates are mainly on fishery protection duty.

On the way back to port now.

And Eric has a big smile on his face as he didn't even get wet!

Hungry and thirsty after all our hard work we set off to find a coffee and cake shop. Walking around the Viaduct Harbour Walkway we come across Jones the Grocer. We could almost be at home. Cappuccino and lemon drizzle cake. We ate too quickly before even capturing it on camera. 

The Viaduct walkway has some interesting features on it.

"I'm not sure what it's supposed to be but it's fascinating"

Each of the individual discs moved around fluidly and seemingly independently, although they were all attached. 

 "There's that Skytower thing again, it keeps popping into view."

All this sailing - we think we might buy a boat. This one looks good.

Now you might think we've had a busy day already, but we're not finished yet!

Back on the ferry, disembark and then follow the town trail to North Head, the headland in the distance.

This is another one of those wartime defensive sites. They dug lots of tunnels to hide equipment from the enemy. "Mm, I see".

What! not another view of Auckland and the Skytower. Oh boy. 

Eric thinks he could probably write a book about the guns and cannons he's sat on around the world. He may have a few more to go before it would make the best-seller list.

The low lying island just in front of Eric is the bird sanctuary, Tiri Tiri, we were at last week.

This is looking back towards Devonport from North Head. I won't mention what else is in the background.

There's another one of those hidden gun emplacements here. A bit better preserved than the last. 

When we get down from here the route takes us along the back of that beach down there. 

"Whey hey, these tree swings are great fun".

The buildings below were used to house the U.S. Marines during WW2. Eric tries to remember the cadence or marching song in the form of a call and response pattern that was in that film with Goldie Hawn - but it escapes him.

Two pictures of the beach walk and then that's all for today folks. It's back to B&B and bed (ready for the rugby?).