It was such a relief to get over
the assignments by the end of spring. Summer looked quite promising with the
increasing temperature and the fluttering leaves on trees. The place which
looked so pale so far started to show its true colors, in its literal sense. I was
badly looking forward for the summer, so that I could pack my bags and explore
this place which still seems so new to me. But now, it’s different, I am liking
it so much more than before. Ah yea!! It’s the weather which is making the difference
and my mindset too. I have finally got my mind convinced that, this is where I
am now and I got to be here completely.
Well, now that the mind game was
won over and the weather being in favor too, I received an invitation from my
lovely host to go to Duder Regional Park in the south of Auckland. It is about
45 kms from the city and suggested to take a personal transport than taking
multiple public transport and taxis to reach here. It is one among the 25
beautiful regional parks in Auckland. Ah!! You got to be guessing by now, Yes,
I will make sure to visit all of them during my stay here.
It was a short and a beautiful drive
towards Whitford village. The horse grazing in the fields adjacent to the roads
reminded of a scene in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. It was indeed a beautiful
sight to see a herd of sheep grazing on the fields far on the hills. We soon
reached the east coast. My first experience of seeing a beach in New Zealand.
It is a perfect place to spend a lazy day on the beach reading a book. We dint
stop at the beach though, Duder was further ahead. We parked our car outside the
park. Make sure to take a map of the park from the notice board right there. The
maps comes handy when you are there for the first time and in general very
informative.
It must have been around 9 am and
the walk was pretty short. It won’t take too long to walk around in this park,
but bet you, the sight is so beautiful at the Whakakaiwhara point that you
wouldn’t mind spending a whole day there. We decided to do the Farm Loop which
is 4.3 kms and walk up to Whakakaiwhara point which is an additional 2.4 kms. There
is a deviation to Coastal walk which is additional 2 kms if you have time. I’m
sure every bit of land here is worth visiting. So indeed an ideal walk for beginners
too. Sheep are in heaps grazing on these hills, we are intruders and so they
make sure to stay in their safe zone. We quickly reached the tip of the park
and sat for a while watching the boats sail, few gliders fly above us and the
sea changing its color. I thoroughly enjoyed
the quiet time I got here. We listened to some beautiful music on our phones
and headed back.
It was an uneventful journey except
for an encounter of an angry bird. A
Magpie, an Australian origin bird, seemed quite offended by our intrusion and
attacked us. Might sound quite funny though. Yea, the birds mostly attack if
their nests are around and if they have li’l ones or eggs. It made weird noises
as it flew above us, indicating an attack. We pretty much dint know how to
handle the situation. All we knew was that it had strong beaks are definitely
not a bad idea getting pecked. All we could do was to try and shoo it away with
our hats. Hmmm, fortunately the bird spared us for once but kept flying up
there above us. After a distance, it looked bad, it was targeting us for the
second time. And we did the same thing again. We managed to run from that place
as far as possible and probably must have managed to leave the danger zone soon.
It spared us. From here it was a nice jog down the hill to reach the car park. It
wasn’t even lunch time. We leisurely drove back home and then headed out to
have a yummy and filling pancakes at a strawberry farm.
