Saturday 7th April 2018
So, in record time, Aspire Down Under our tour operator re-booked our flights to avoid our stay in Fiji but not, of course to pass through there on the way home. So now, we stay in Auckland until Tuesday morning when we fly to Fiji.
These are a couple of maps from the Fiji Meteorological Service which show what the forecast for Storm TD13F is.
So now our flight out of Auckland leaves at 9.45 a.m. on Tuesday 10th April and (we hope) lands at Nadi at 12.45 p.m. Our flight out of Nadi to Los Angeles is at 9 p.m. so we can wait at Nadi Airport and watch the rain and wind at close quarters!! All this to look forward to!!
So we cannot stay at the Sebel Hotel for the extra days and have booked into a nearby hotel called Social M for Sunday and Monday nights. We will move in the morning and also drop off the rental car.
The administration part of the day being completed, we walked the shortish distance to a restaurant called Amano. Our walk took us along the waterfront and past a docked P & O cruise ship called the Pacific Something maybe Destiny? It was a bit nostalgic to see the old house jack flying from the bow of this vessel although P & O Cruises were sold some time ago to some other company.
Amano is a place highly recommended and is housed in an old warehouse. It is also a bakery. We had an excellent brunch there of burrata and king-fish crudo. This is certainly a very nice place and we would have had dinner here but it was fully booked.
We walked back to the hotel to pick up the car for the drive up to Gibbs Farm about 50 km north of Auckland. Our route took us over the Auckland Harbor Bridge and on a motorway for quite a distance until we left the highway and continued on some smaller roads.
When I have time to sort out the hundreds of photographs, I will write a whole separate post on our visit to Gibbs Farm which was, without doubt the highlight of a trip full of highlights. But here I will give some outline.
The farm is owned by Mr. Alan Gibbs and he bought it in 1991. Mr. Gibbs is the father of our friend Debbi Gibbs who used to be our neighbor at 99 Reade Street in New York. She still lives in New York but has moved a few blocks away further downtown. Debbi very kindly coordinated our visit to the farm which is not often open and when it is, the tickets which are free go in minutes. We were very lucky that there was a charity event there on the day we could go and we were able to visit.
The farm is nothing short of stunning, amazing, incredible, you ascribe any adjective you can which matches or exceeds those. It is set in rolling hills on the edge of Kaipara Harbor, the largest natural harbor in the Southern Hemisphere. Mr. Gibbs, who was, when he bought the land, already a very significant art collector and benefactor of museums and galleries, decided to populate the land with large sculptures by notable artists. The art is by such luminaries as Maya Lin, Richard Serra, Anish Kapoor and many others. The farm also has a collection of animals such as alpaca, emu, deer and others who graze over the lush undulating acres. The whole place takes your breath away and leaves it away until you leave!!
The following photos are copied from the Gibbs Farm website and give an initial impression of the place, I acknowledge their copyright of these. I will add photos of my own as soon as I get the chance to sort them out. More information about the farm can be found at: http://www.gibbsfarm.org.nz/
We were lucky enough that Jane Sutherland, a friend of Debbi's who we had met some time ago in New York, was attending the charity event and we go to meet her and she very kindly hosted us in the main house with tea, wine and cheese giving us the chance to meet some of her friends, Sarah, Geoff and Antonia. Sarah had an exciting story, she has just launched a New Zealand sourced all-natural appetite suppressant which will be launched in USA in May. It's New Zealand launch caused quite a sensation.
This was a simply idyllic afternoon and we feel very privileged to have been able to see this really magical place. We are greatly indebted to Debbi and Jane Sutherland for their kindness.
The above is just a short description of the visit which I will elaborate on with a later post with photos.
We drove back to Auckland and armed with some restaurant recommendations tried one of them 'Badduzzi' in the newish Wynyard section of dockland, but found the place very crowded and the wait too long. So we moved to a place close by called Marvin's Grill which turned out to be good. We had rack of lamb and clams.
This area is a hot area with many busy and noisy restaurants. It being Saturday eveninjg, many of them were full of party-goers. There are also a lot of very large super-yachts moored in the marina, one of them the 'Janice' is offered for charter at US $150,000/week!!
On our way back from the restaurant, the Bascule Bridge raised up to allow a disco party boat to enter the marina.
So ended a really memorable day.
These are a couple of maps from the Fiji Meteorological Service which show what the forecast for Storm TD13F is.
 |
| This is the threat track map for TD 13F Note: Nadi Airport at the western end of Fiji's main island. The ey of the storm is scheduled to be there at midnight on the 9th April. |
 |
| This is the forecast of the track of the storm TD 13F. Note: the main International Airport in Fiji is at Nadi which is in the third square from the left at the top of the map. |
So we cannot stay at the Sebel Hotel for the extra days and have booked into a nearby hotel called Social M for Sunday and Monday nights. We will move in the morning and also drop off the rental car.
The administration part of the day being completed, we walked the shortish distance to a restaurant called Amano. Our walk took us along the waterfront and past a docked P & O cruise ship called the Pacific Something maybe Destiny? It was a bit nostalgic to see the old house jack flying from the bow of this vessel although P & O Cruises were sold some time ago to some other company.
Amano is a place highly recommended and is housed in an old warehouse. It is also a bakery. We had an excellent brunch there of burrata and king-fish crudo. This is certainly a very nice place and we would have had dinner here but it was fully booked.
We walked back to the hotel to pick up the car for the drive up to Gibbs Farm about 50 km north of Auckland. Our route took us over the Auckland Harbor Bridge and on a motorway for quite a distance until we left the highway and continued on some smaller roads.
When I have time to sort out the hundreds of photographs, I will write a whole separate post on our visit to Gibbs Farm which was, without doubt the highlight of a trip full of highlights. But here I will give some outline.
The farm is owned by Mr. Alan Gibbs and he bought it in 1991. Mr. Gibbs is the father of our friend Debbi Gibbs who used to be our neighbor at 99 Reade Street in New York. She still lives in New York but has moved a few blocks away further downtown. Debbi very kindly coordinated our visit to the farm which is not often open and when it is, the tickets which are free go in minutes. We were very lucky that there was a charity event there on the day we could go and we were able to visit.
The farm is nothing short of stunning, amazing, incredible, you ascribe any adjective you can which matches or exceeds those. It is set in rolling hills on the edge of Kaipara Harbor, the largest natural harbor in the Southern Hemisphere. Mr. Gibbs, who was, when he bought the land, already a very significant art collector and benefactor of museums and galleries, decided to populate the land with large sculptures by notable artists. The art is by such luminaries as Maya Lin, Richard Serra, Anish Kapoor and many others. The farm also has a collection of animals such as alpaca, emu, deer and others who graze over the lush undulating acres. The whole place takes your breath away and leaves it away until you leave!!
The following photos are copied from the Gibbs Farm website and give an initial impression of the place, I acknowledge their copyright of these. I will add photos of my own as soon as I get the chance to sort them out. More information about the farm can be found at: http://www.gibbsfarm.org.nz/
 |
| Gerry Judah's 'Jacob's Ladder' |
 |
| Anish Kapoor's 'Dismmeberment - Site 1' |
 |
| Bernar Venet 88.5 deg ARC x 8 |
This was a simply idyllic afternoon and we feel very privileged to have been able to see this really magical place. We are greatly indebted to Debbi and Jane Sutherland for their kindness.
The above is just a short description of the visit which I will elaborate on with a later post with photos.
We drove back to Auckland and armed with some restaurant recommendations tried one of them 'Badduzzi' in the newish Wynyard section of dockland, but found the place very crowded and the wait too long. So we moved to a place close by called Marvin's Grill which turned out to be good. We had rack of lamb and clams.
This area is a hot area with many busy and noisy restaurants. It being Saturday eveninjg, many of them were full of party-goers. There are also a lot of very large super-yachts moored in the marina, one of them the 'Janice' is offered for charter at US $150,000/week!!
On our way back from the restaurant, the Bascule Bridge raised up to allow a disco party boat to enter the marina.
So ended a really memorable day.
Comments
Post a Comment