Devonport

We made our way to down to Aucklands Ferry Building where ferries run over to Devonport every 30 minutes at a cost of 10 NZ dollars per person for the return trip.

It is a 12km crossing and takes approximately 15 minutes.

The ferry ride gives you wonderful views back across to downtown Auckland with the Sky Tower standing proud in its centre.

Devonport is located at the bottom of the North Shore and has many well preserved Victorian and Edwardian buildings with plenty of bars and cafe´s at its centre. I should imagine, with its quiet, village like feel, many people would make this their home and commute across water, or the Harbour Bridge, to Auckland to work.

As we disembarked the boat, we made our way to Victoria Road where the tourist information building was located as we knew that there was a self guided walk that you could do around the area. The guy in this office was extremely friendly, and had infect himself head of the Canary Islands, which was surprising considering the distance they are away from here! He gave us a tour guide for the ´Old Devonport Walk´and off we went.

We wandered along the seafront from here, admiring the large, timber framed houses along the way, many of which featured ornate upper balconies over looking the water.

There is a monument on the sea front telling of the Maori tradition which states the great ancestral canoe, Tainui, rested here on its coastal explorations during the 14th century. A village called Flastaff here was one of Auckalnd´s earliest European settlements, where the British Navy came ashore in 1840 and the settlement of Devonport began – after Devon in southwest England.

We strolled along King Edward Parade heading to the elevated hill of North Head which guards the entrance to Waitamata Harbour. As we meandered up the hillside, you have great views back across the water to the city. This area has been significant to both Maori and Europeans.  It is a volcanic cone wish was developed during the World Wars to protect Auckland with the hill having many underground tunnels, chambers and gun emplacements.  We wandered around the hillside looking out at the impressive view and watching the sailboats glide around the bay below us.

We followed the path downwards and walked along Cheltenham Beach which is made up of crushed sea shells. To the left are impressive beach front properties, again the majority being timber framed with large windows looking out across the water…..hmmm, when we win the lottery hey!

The guide took you back through the quiet streets of the town back to the centre where we decided to stop and have a drink in a bar, called ´The Patriot´where, funnily enough, the bar tender came from Liverpool!!!  We met a great guy there called Dave, who is originally from Australia, and who himself is off on a traveling adventure, although his is due to take him about a year. Ironically, he has been to all of the Canary Islands bar Gran Canaria and I found it so funny that he even knew Playa Blanca After a few drinks with him, Dani even trying Guinness´Kilkenny Irish Ale, we headed back through the small town centre back to the ferry.

This is definitely a nice place to spend a day out, with plenty to see and a nice walk to do in the area.  The people here, as all have been since the start, we extremely friendly and welcoming

After catching the boat back, we jumped back on the bus (well stepped normally onto it) and headed back to Parnell Village and after ridding ourselves of excess guide books headed across the street to ´The Java Room´an eatery recommended in the ´Footprint Guide´. It offers a great selection of Asian and Pacific Rim food and is really reasonably priced, (note, this is also a BYO restaurant where you can ´Bring Your Own´bottle if you fancy and pay a small corkage fee). We had a lovely meal sitting outside before heading back across the road to relax and catch up on a little more sleep