Pink Beach is a remote destination on the east side of Shakespear Park, my favourite Auckland New Zealand regional park. The park offers hours of hiking trails and has three popular beaches with nearby carparks. In contrast to the others, Pink Beach requires a hike along the Tiritiri Track, is accessible only at low tide via […]
Shakespear Park: Our Favourite of the Auckland Regional Parks
Shakespear Regional Park encompasses the lush rolling hills at the end of Whangaparaoa Peninsula. It’s an open bird sanctuary, with three main beaches, hours of hiking trails, a waterfall, a popular campground, and a lookout tower with 360-degree views. Open to the public, Shakespear Park is a gathering spot for families and whanau alike. Hiking […]
Springtime in New Zealand: Baby Lambs in Shakespear Park
As I look at the hills dotted with baby lambs, I know why springtime in New Zealand is my favourite time of year. A modern country, New Zealand still has the highest density of sheep per unit area in the world. We have significantly more sheep than people. In fact, the country is home to nearly […]
Little Spotted Kiwi Birds Return to Shakespear Regional Park in Auckland, New Zealand
For the first time since the late 19th century, little spotted kiwi birds roam free on New Zealand’s mainland. The celebration and release of twenty kiwi birds at Shakespear Regional Park was an event more than five years in the making. It’s a dream made possible by a lot of hard work, planning, and protecting by […]
Shakespear Park After the Cyclones: Landslide, Floods and Happy Birds
The recent unsettled weather in New Zealand wrecked havoc around the country with driving rains and high winds. While neither Cyclones Debbie nor Cook made a direct hit, the damage from these two back to back storms is evident in parts of Auckland. Even after the cyclones downgraded to tropical storms, they carried quite a punch. Our […]
Waterfall Gully: A Hike Through Shakespear Park in New Zealand
While the recent rains created havoc for much of the Auckland region, Shakespear Park seemed to flourish. Colours deepened to a richer shade, a fresh aroma filled the air, and the usual trickle at Waterfall Gully now cascaded over the rocks with power and pride. Shakespear Park is my favourite of the Auckland urban parks. Possibly it’s […]
Endangered Dotterels and Chicks on a New Zealand Beach
Out of the corner of my eye I see little balls of fluff bouncing and hovering across the beach. These baby dotterels stop to forage for food. Camera in hand, I attempt to focus on one of the endangered chicks although its camouflage makes it challenging. As a result of this lack of contrast, I […]
Photos: Adorable Lambs in Shakespear Park, Auckland New Zealand
Adorable lambs are bouncing all over Shakespear Park these days. Lambing season is the cutest time of the year in New Zealand, and the Auckland region is no exception. From our house, we can walk to Shakespear Park. This is what we found last week: Adorable Lambs Practical Information: Shakespear Park is one of a […]
Collecting Cockles at Okoromai Bay in New Zealand
As the tide retreated, we could see a few people collecting cockles at the water’s edge. Okoromai Bay in Shakespear Regional Park is one of the few spots remaining in the Auckland region where one can gather these clams. While ordinarily a summertime activity, fresh New Zealand cockles are delicious all year long. It was […]
Docking Lambs – A New Experience for this City Girl
Living on the doorstep of an Auckland Regional Park offers us access to great hiking trails, varied beaches, and farm animals – in this case, sheep and cows. We all know the city girl in me is still intimidated by the cows, even after living in New Zealand for 12 years. No worries, today’s story […]
Coastal Hiking: Interesting Rock Formations in New Zealand
Swirling patterns in the cliffs and unusual rock formations dominate the coastline on the east side of Shakespear Park (Auckland, New Zealand). With a bit more energy, I could actually walk from my house to the steps leading down to Pink Beach. Yet, before last week I had never been here on the outgoing tide, […]
Photos of Frolicking Adorable Baby Lambs
There are hundreds of reasons to visit New Zealand and adorable baby lambs actually shouldn’t be too high on the list. However, I asked last week, and the general consensus was that my readers want more cute lamb photos. These were all shot last week, the first four with my Olympus OM-D Em5 and the last […]
Intimidated by Cows I Climb Over an Electric Fence
On part of today’s walk through Shakespear Park in Auckland (New Zealand) hubby and I parallel an electric fence. We were well beyond the paddock that held the adorable black lambs. Escape route gone, my rational mind takes over and I know these cows are not going to harm us. They are used to humans. (Even […]
A Black Sheep in the Family: Baby Lambs in Shakespear Park
Black or white, bouncing, bleating, baby lambs make me smile. Despite the chill in the air, this is my favourite time of year to walk in Shakespear Park (A regional park north of Auckland New Zealand). Birthing is just about over and the hills are dotted with happiness. And this year there is a special […]
Sarah’s Sunday Snapshots #33 – New Zealand Undergrowth
New Zealand is well known for being a lush, green country, with plenty of interesting endemic flora and gorgeous forests. I’ve been on a few photo shoots over the last several weeks (mainly to Shakespear Park) and I’ve been trying to take photos of some of the undergrowth I’ve found. My favourites are below: Shakespear Park […]
Sarah’s Sunday Snapshots #32 – Shakespear Textures
Across the bay from us is Shakespear Park, and my mum and I often go there to take photos. Because I really enjoy taking close up photos, I thought today I would post a few shots of my Shakespear textures and close ups. I took these photos with a Canon 70D, which I am quite enjoying […]
Photo Tips: Shooting at the Golden Hour
Just before sunset, colours get softer and redder. Photographers call this time of day the golden hour and, whenever possible, they take advantage of its gentle light. Add in a white cliff, a water reflection and an east facing view so the sun is setting behind the photographer, and you have reached perfection. In the […]
Blood Moon, Supermoon and a Moonrise over New Zealand
Often called a blood moon, the red cast during a recent total lunar eclipse in New Zealand offered me this series: Why is the moon red? As the earth eclipses the sunlight from shining directly on the moon, the light needs to travel through the earth’s atmosphere to reach it, thus having a reddish cast. The […]
Sarah’s Sunday Snapshots #29 – Memento Mori
This week, my photos follow the theme of Memento Mori – a latin phrase translating to “remember (that you have) to die”. It is about the reflection of mortality and death, and I am using it for my photo shoots in a photography class I have started at Whangaparaoa College. My latest photo shoot is more specifically based […]
Sarah’s Saturday Snapshots #24 – Long Grass
My family go across the bay to Shakespear Park quite a lot, whether it’s to hike, picnic, or take pictures of smiley face crop circles. Summer in New Zealand is about halfway over now (Is it me, or are the holidays whizzing by at super speed?), and though it has been a much wetter season than […]
Clean Me, Guard Me, Heal Me – My Travel Essentials
Hidden in the bush behind our house is a small fairy garden. I don’t go there, because alongside the fairies (which I have never seen) are mosquitoes. I don’t like mosquitoes. More to the point, I don’t like their bite. So, when I was asked to try out Guard Me, an all natural bug repellent […]
Pippins in the Park – Sarah’s Saturday Snapshots #9
It has been a few weeks since my last Sarah’s Saturday Snapshots post, and in that time we have moved to a new blog site! Last week, mum, who is in charge of a Girl Guide Pippin group (girls aged 5-7), took the girls to the nearby Shakespear Park for a hike, and I was allowed to […]
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