Waiheke Island

I have been meaning to blog for a while about our trip to Waiheke Island. We went last weekend before Ian started work. It is just 40 minutes by seacat from auckland city. We headed off on the Friday morning, dashing across the city to catch the 10am sailing. The crossing was gorgeous as the bay was bathed in sunshine. We docked at Kennedy Point. On disembarking we were met by a huge sign that read "Slow Down, You're Here"!

We rented a one bedroom cottage, called Little Red, which overlooked Anzac Bay. This was the view from our deck -

It is a fairly small island and easily explored in a weekend by car. Quite a lot of people commute from there to the city. We meant loads of friendly people at the village market on the saturday morning. There seem to be many families there who went for a holiday and basically never went home. At the market we bought a sausage sandwich with HP sauce from a very cockney lady who was selling them from her burger van. We bought crepes from a frenchman and admired another frenchman's chocolate and illegal cheese. Ian tucked into a spring roll from the chinese stall and I admired jewellery and accessories at a greman ladies stall. all very cosmopolitan. we chatted over coffee with a guy whose surname was Duffy. He was half samoan and half irish. I'm sure he was actually a pirate because he had a huge leather eye patch over his left eye and was wearing a red and white stripped long sleeved top and three-quarter length trousers. he was sitting by the cafe playing his guitar and singing every so often. I don't think he was busking but just doing it for the love of it.

After a very relaxing weekend we headed back to the city and Ian began his new job. He has completed the first week now. It looks like it is going to be a pretty challenging but exciting job. It is a fairly nasty commute from where we are - 30 minutes or so off peak but in rush hour it can take anything up to an hour and a quarter. He will probably be keeping pretty unsociable hours and avoid rush hour most days anyway.

We would appreciate prayer for our search for a new home. Our short term rental is coming to an end. We house sit for the Bundys in July so need a new rental for the mid to end of July. I am hoping to stay reasonably close to Titirangi as I have begun to make friends there. However, the most important thing will be being around friendly people with whom we can build community.