From Ardmore with Love

Well I never thought I would say it but we have just spent a few weeks exploring around Auckland and I really enjoyed it! There I said it.

I have to admit though the nearest I got to the CBD was passing it by on the motorway. But the Greater Auckland Region was excellent from Rodney to the West Coast it really does have a lot to offer.

The NZMCA Park at Ardmore is so conveniently located it made a great stop over.

Next time though we will definitely get the Regional Parks pass and stop a bit longer. However right now it's whitebait season and I can hear those hide tides calling. In fact if I think about it hard enough I can even hear the butter sizzling in the pan ready for my first fritter of the season. Fingers crossed we catch more than last year.

Shakespear Regional Park

Shakespear is one of the many Auckland Regional Parks where you are allowed to camp for $8 a night or $128 per year for self contained vehicles (bargain).

They have great walks/mountain bike tracks and good facilities too.

In just a couple of hours you can walk all the way around Shakespear from the beach to the waterfall and get up really close with the wild life.

I'm not sure if this is my favourite one of the parks, as it's been a few years since I visited some of the other parks, so I'll have to reserve judgement at this moment in time and wait until I've visited them all again to refresh my memory but it's pretty close.

Passes run from September 1st to the end of August so now is a good as time as any to buy one.