An Australian friend visited us yesterday on his way back home, so we decided to go on a drive around Auckland to show him a few of the sites we like. The photo above is looking back toward the Auckland CBD from Achilles Point, which has a particularly nice viewing platform looking out over the Waitematā Harbour and Hauraki Gulf. The spot it self is named for the HMNZ Achilles, a light cruiser that took place in the Battle of the River Plate in WW2, a battle that led to the defeat and scuttling of the Nazi pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee.
After lunch, we headed over the bridge to the beach at Takapuna (I made a video of a visit there back in 2015). Even though it was a cool day, especially with the lengthening afternoon shadows, the beach was very busy. Part of the reason for that was that Auckland Council built a large children’s playground there a couple years ago, and that was mobbed. It was nice to see how popular it was, even in winter.
Of course “winter” is a relative term. It was a beautiful and sunny day, something that’s actually quite common for Auckland in winter—in fact, some of the prettiest days all year are in winter. I have no idea why that is. Maybe it’s that it rains so much in winter that sunny days seem extra nice. In any case, it was also reasonably warm at 16 degrees (60.8F), though somewhat cooler nearer the water’s edge, where sea breezes were more of a thing.
So, it was a lovely day, and we had a really nice time during our friend’s (too short!) visit. It was in every sense a nice winter day.
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