We're here - Whangaparoa

So, after a long but uneventful trip, in which the kids were just terrific, we finally made it to Auckland yesterday.  Debbie and Julian met us at the airport, and drove us to Mum and Dad's house.

They live in Whangaparoa, a peninsula about 45 minutes' drive north of Auckland city.  The views in all directions are spectacular: harbors on every side, filled with sailboats, and the city far in the distance across the bay.

In the afternoon, we took a walk through the huge nature reserve that occupies most of the peninsula; and Tommy and Alice went for a swim at this beautiful, deserted beach.

Tommy, recalling Margaret's last advice to him not to go near cliffs, was pleased to find this sign:

On our walk, we met many of New Zealand's principal inhabitants:

On this walk, we learnt a little about the World War II history of the peninsula, when it was heavily fortified as the front line against an expected invasion by German or Japanese forces (a German U-boat was apparently spotted in the channel).  This end of the peninsula was criss-crossed by water filled canals, as an obstacle to tanks, and scattered with pill boxes for nests of machine-gunners.  Oh, and there was active research (3000+ tests) to construct a megabomb that would cause a tsunami!  Today, we took another hike in the park, along a different route, to find some of these sites:

Tommy was fascinated by all of these preparations for an invasion that never happened, and is planning to report on it to his class when he returns.

They were fascinated by the primeval forest, especially the towering tree ferns that have grown here since the Carboniferous era!

Later today, we went to Waiwera Geothermal Resort with Debbie, an amazing waterpark with a dozen indoor and outdoor mineral water pools of various (natural) heats, from the gentle Reflection Pools, a little over body temperature, to the fierce "Lava Pool" at 120 F!  The kids lasted about a minute in the latter.  There were also quite terrifying pool slides, which dropped you nearly vertically into the water -- more frightening than fun, was the general verdict.  On the drive home, we stopped at a lookout, intending to admire the spectacular view.  But we didn't pay much attention to the view, because of the very insistent attentions of a rainbow lorakeet (an illegal immigrant from Australia), who seems to have claimed this spot to charm humans out of fruit and other treats:

This was, they decided, the best moment of the entire day!  (I was a little more tentative, as you can see).

Tomorrow, we take the early ferry into Auckland City, to explore, and will meet Debbie for lunch.  Will try to send some more pictures soon!