Today was a glorious day for a drive to our new B&B. From an hour north and west of Auckland to an hour south and east of Auckland we traveled on highways and smaller waterfront roads.

At Orere Point we stopped for a break at a quiet beach where we found these seats. What a wonderful sentiment. A restful place to remember and reflect.

A little further down the road we found Tapapakanga Regional Park, the former home of  pioneer family James & Rebecca Ashby who in 1899 settled here and raised 14 children. The family farmed the land until 1990 when it was purchased by the Auckland Council and opened as a park in 1995.

The farmhouse, built in 1900 of kauri wood, has been restored, but is not furnished or open.

The view overlooking the Firth of Thames, the large bay south of Auckland. When the Ashby’s settled here access was by water only until roads were built in the 1920’s!

Our destination is across the bay (or Firth) to the Coromandel peninsula in the distance.

We moved to a ‘shed’ on South Head, a peninsula forming the southwest banks of Kaipara Harbour, only an hour’s drive to Auckland. A bucolic area of paddocks, small farms and smaller forest tracts.

The porch seating area with comfortable chairs and a view of our 3 bovine neighbors in the paddock.

We had 3 days here to explore the area.

On one outing we passed a deer breeding farm. The stags in the field were impressive!

Another trip took us to Omeru Reserve and a short hike to Omeru Falls.

Back to the verdant green hills of Aotearoa! Land under the ‘long white cloud’.

The view from the hills above Waipu, the town we are staying in for a few days with our friend Sam.

We made it to Brisbane, turned in our rental car and got a ride to the airport hotel where we have a room.

Literally at the airport! We have a view of the tower, but not the runways. Downtown Brisbane is in the distance, and that’s as close as we got to the city!

We continued our drive south and stopped in Caboolture, Queensland for a night. It’s a far north suburb of Brisbane, where we are ultimately heading.

We drove through bone dry country. What a difference from the ‘wet tropics’ where we were in Wangan, about 969 miles (1560km) north.