Freshness of spring with burst of new blooms and bird activity!
1 October 2016. SPRING! Best time of the year, in my opinion.
In between the showers of rain, there are great moments to be had out here and in the Bethells Valley. 9 years ago, as the Unit was being built, I planted a clematis seedling off the rear deck, and tied it, as it grew taller and taller, onto the kauri tree. Well i did know that kauri trees don’t like things growing on them (they are epiphyte intolerant), and it kept throwing the clematis off! Luckily the five finer and coprosma next to the kauri didn’t mind…the result, it is now flowering for the first time ever! HOORAY!
Plus all 3 of my clematis babies on the driveway are also in full bloom. I can look our across the valley from my tale and see spots of white clematis and the yellow of the kowhai trees, also madly blooming. The kereru have decimated our 2 young kowhai in our mitigation planting area (never pays to be early flowerers), but luckily all the others are now out too.
The Tui birds are also very feisty as they spar and compete for good partners. Lots of activity out here and only 1 free weekend in the whole of October which is the last month to use out “stay 3 nights for the price of 2” policy for the off peak season.
Electric car has arrived and free charges for EV Guests
4 July 2016
We were so excited to receive our Gen2 Leaf in January and I completely forgot to post about it. lol. We love it and getting an electric car is definitely the right thing to do. Everything lined up: great deal from the wonderful Autolinks Cars in Grey Lynn, Auckland (https://www.facebook.com/autolinkcars/timeline); time for Alan to research and match our needs and wants to price and availability. It felt good to select a car, wait a couple of weeks for it to arrive off the boat, and know that Autolinks are so concerned that we still felt the choice was right, that even up to the day of collection, we could still have changed our mind. I have never met a car Dealer Owner like Henry and staff, Sarah. We went through a learning curve, almost like learning to drive a car all over again, because you need to think about our driving range (estimate only of km “in the tank”) and the route. Folk talk about ‘range anxiety’ but we quickly got over that. Long trips definitely need a 100% charge and carefully plotted route. An 80% charge is enough for most of our usage and we reckon it costs us $2.50 for 100km of travel! We can also now advertise that any Guest staying here, with their own electric car, can re-charge for FREE!
Beautiful fly-over video
Exciting happenings at Bush Sand and Sea B&B. We were approached by a local company to fly a drone up and over the B&B, to give people a birds-eye-view of the Unit itself. We thought it would be helpful to show where it sits on our 10 acres of native bush, its proximity to our home, (a common question from prospective Guests), and it clearly shows the 2 distinct buildings, separated by a garage. We like our peace, quiet and privacy too! It gives a lovely view of the valley with its lush regenerating rainforest. The distortion of its 360 lens makes the beach look far away. We are 7 mile ‘as the crow flys’ and hence made our name “Bush Sand and Sea”. It was designed to be descriptive- we are IN the “bush”, which you are surrounded by, you look out over to the “sand” and beyond to the “Sea”. We are not AT the sea. People can and do enjoy walking there in 45 minites, or drive in 10 mins. It gives our Guests the privacy while being the ONLY GUESTS here, and not amongst a cluster of cabins!
The drone didn’t pick up the spa nor our track, so we added some stills taken down the track just this week. Check out our revitalised website, PLUS new video link on www.bushsandandsea.co.nz These drones are amazing and cute and we are thrilled with the effort of this budding company.
Unfortunately I missed the action, but arrived in time to see their shining faces, (hot day and they had just come back up the track), their eyes brimming with enthusiasm. The video is now on our Home page.
Last sweet days of September special
I love Spring and at Bethells Beach it is VERY special with the bright yellow kowhai flowers and the climbing clematis vine cascading bunches of white flowers bursting into life amongst the green of the native bush. The Tui birds have a feast, get frisky, drunk on the nectar and then begin the nest building cycle.
MORE ABOUT THE WEDDING
i WAS SO EXCITED, i forgot to add the text, as follows….
Must be wedding season, lol! These pics are of a lovely couple here in January. They seized upon the idea of being adventurous and made good use of our decks, bush walk and bridges. She arrived in her red embroidered dress straight from the traditional tea drinking ceremony, and then changed into her formal white gown, Gorgeous and entertaining for us to watch from our dining room.
Summer bat walks
Bat Walks, a summer highlight- Discover the mysteries of the rainforest at dusk and the nightlife below the forest canopy on a Waitakere Ranges bat walk this summer. Park ranger Dennis Badan says Cascade Kauri is one of the few places Aucklanders have the opportunity to spot a long-tailed bat.
Bookings are essential – contact the Arataki Visitor Centre on 09 817 0089 or the Auckland Council on 09 301 0101 to book.
Numbers are limited to 25 per walk and book up fast. The cost of the walks is $5 for adults, $2 for children and $12 for a family pass, including two adults and two children.
Want to know what’s happening at Te Henga, (Bethells)?
Check out the new website, set up by locals in our Bethells Community. It’s full of good information so to see what is happening in our local area,
http://www.tehengabethells.co.nz/events.html
Some of my favourites are on the Home page: an Image Gallery; Local History and Local Organisations.
As any Traveller knows, if you want to get good information, to be well informed and to be able to maximise the time you may have in the area, ASK a Local, and that’s exactly what you can find on the Community website!
