Mission Bay

The last two weekends we decided to get out of the city centre to do a little exploring nearby. Mission bay is a short 15-minute drive from Central Auckland (where we live) and is an easy bus trip. On Jan 23 BC (Before Car) we decided to go to Kelly Tarlton's Aquarium. They provide customers a free shark-shaped courtesy bus which departs across from the wharves, a shortish walk from home. The aquarium didn't look like much from the surface (see photo in gallery linked below), but it was much nicer than Sydney aquarium--the highlight being their large penguin exhibit where we could watch two species of penguins swim, sleep and waddle among one another. They seemed quite content; apparently they get so wrapped up in their own business they sometimes don't notice the enrichment activities provided by the staff.

Afterwards we strolled further along the coast towards Mission Bay, a popular beach suburb where we had some lunch and a dip. The water was very warm, but we had to go a very long way to get to deeper water. It wasn't the nicest beach, but there were many families there enjoying the safe water and the giant water fountain that doubled as a children's pool. There was quite a lot of traffic along the main road, which meant waiting quite a while for a bus, but overall it was a successful day.

The next Saturday we were united with Bob the van (that's what I've unofficially named it). We decided for our maiden voyage to go back to the Mission Bay area, but explore a little further to find what we missed the first time. The drive was lovely along the water but busy again, as it was another sunny weekend (it was forecast rain). We decided to drive along the coast until we found a beach that looked worthy of our attention. We cruised past Mission Bay, Kohimarama and were slightly tempted by St Heliers, though we couldn't see much parking, so we continued up the residential Cliff Rd until we found Achilles Point, which had an excellent view of the aforementioned Rangitoto Island (and neighbouring Motutapu) and further around the coast than we'd seen before. After a quick stop to appreciate the view, we headed back down Cliff Rd towards a sign we passed labelled Ladies Bay.

Ladies Bay is a lovely little beach with clear, deep blue water and the sand is mostly shell. It was a slightly steep walk down, with the beach surrounded and protected by small cliffs. The other view we weren't expecting was the nudity... Not everyone was unclothed, however, so we didn't feel too out of place. We had a refreshing swim and enjoyed drying off on the rocks taking in the view (of the bay, obviously).

Bob drives well, and we're hoping to take it (him? James says cars are always girls, but I'm not so sure) on a longer trip soon.

Click here for a link to the photo album.

Alex