Clowning Around NZ & Australia: Auckland to Wellington

In Auckland we always visit Christine's sister Kath and her husband Jim, out at Whangaparaoa a beautiful spot near Gulf Harbour. I was heading out to do some busking at Silverdale but somehow got a little lost and ended up at Orewa. Plenty of people about so I started busking, then I found there was actually a small busking festival going on 100 meters down the street.

The busker below is Jonathon Acorn, with his dancing puppet show, a man of 30 years international busking experience. I knew of him, he not of me, and we had good chat.

The next day I headed for the New Zealand Juggling Festival in Parakai and was also going to see Keith Levy perform at the Kumeu Arts Centre. I had been following his exploits via the internet and wanted to see him perform. It was a small showing that night and a wonderful mix of rhyming and storytelling. On this occasion he teamed up with The Dirt Road Orchestra. It was character-full night as one could expect, looking at his vehicle below called "The Flying Tortoise".

I had also arranged to meet up with Keith further north at Uretiti Beach near Whangarei but as we motored out of Whangaparaoa, the bus electrics were playing up. After we got to Uretiti and after much discussion, we figured that the main bus house battery was definitely suspect and on the way out. So we decided to head back to Auckland and get some help from AA Solar back at Silverdale, who did a super job of fitting two 120w Gel (AGM) batteries into the old case, another solar panel on the roof taking our solar capacity to 290w and a new controller to cap off the whole upgrade of our solar electrical system.

Two new gel batteries, one above the other in the old battery box by the door.

This is the superb beach at Langs Beach, north of Mangawai Heads....I uni'ed to the end of the beach, had a swim and uni'ed back to the bus.

The photo's below are of Snells Beach. I was out doing yoga on the mudflats and boy did the tide come in fast, ending the yoga

The nicest toilet block I've seen was in Matakana, a nice little trendy town

Heading south we came to Tirau, which looks like it is the corrugated iron sculpture and sign capital of New Zealand

The dog building is the Visitor Centre.

We took the back roads a bit and headed through Raetihi

What an impressive Church

Not sure just how long this will be around as it hasn't seen any maintenance

or fresh paint in a day or two.

It was all unlocked ready for business

On the way to the Gallipoli Exhibition we spotted this scooter at the Te Papa parking.

All padlocked up.....they train them young in Wellington.

The sculptures/models of Gallipoli fighting etc were all done larger than life size by Weta Workshops.

They looked so real, even down to hairs on the arms etc.

A powerful and sobering exhibition, making one appreciative of the efforts of our forebears fighting for and giving their lives, so we can live in peace today.

There was also Waka Ama races in the Wellington harbour

Near Te-Papa was a skateboard event/competition with skateboarders from USA, Australia and Europe.

The weather was pretty cool and windy, they managed to continue even tho some showers came through. They towelled off some areas, so they could skateboard into the night!