Sunday 14th

Well, the weatherman was wrong last night, although the expected rain & wind didn't quite blow itself out overnight the day wasn't too bad so we decided to take a chance! The wind was cold, the sun was warm and we only have a few slight showers.
It was more like a PhotoDrive rather than a PhotoWalk, we drove out West again towards Huia where we were back at the beginning of September but this time we stopped in at all the little bays along the way, well the first three, by that time we were tuckered out! All these small beaches are on the Manukau Harbour which is on the other side of the isthmus that Auckland city is situated on.
On the way there I had to stop and get a photo of this rather unusual looking rock!

On the way back to the car this beautiful French Lavender bush in someone's garden caught my eye.

This is Laingholm Beach. This photo is for SusanG - I couldn't get a pretty flower Susan, will this do?

I like this one, the old Pohutukawa tree stump in the foreground is completely rotted away and yet it has started to sprout again!

The native bush vegetation that goes right to the waters edge.

Another view of Laingholm beach and the lovely huge palm trees.

There was a group of Pied Oystercatchers (Haematopus longirostris), all sitting on the very end of the beach trying to shelter from the wind.

On the way back to the car I stopped to take a photo of the berries of the palm tree and what should I spy but this Kereru, our Native Wood Pigeon (Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae) which is endemic to NZ.

Then onto Armour Bay.

I nice little reserve that is popular in the summer, very shelly sand though.

DH wondering if it was going to rain again, and it did.

This is the Kiwi Bird (Dawn), also endemic to NZ and flightless!

Mainly cockle & oyster shells.

Next stop Mill Bay.

The first thing I saw was this White-faced Heron (Egretta novaehollandiae), self-introduced into NZ in the 1940s. There were two of them but this was as close as they let me get, even with my telephoto lens it wasn't close enough!

There were also a large flock of the Pied Oystercatchers on the beach with the odd Variable Oystercatcher (Haematopus unicolor) amongst them, they're the mainly black ones.

This is the first time I've seen these signs on a beach here, it lists the allowable catch for each person per day of the various shellfish that people like to collect, either by wading out in the water or going out in a boat.

This is one of our native Pohutukawa trees (Metrosideros excelsa), also endemic to NZ, already in flower, a good sign for the summer.

And lastly but not least the flower of the same tree.

Next weekend if the weather is good we hope to take grandson Harry to the zoo for the day. We're having him for the long weekend (our Labour Day weekend) so don't expect me to be able to move for another week after he's gone!