Awhitu Air

For the past couple of years we have taken a day trip up to Shakespeare to see our friends Sally, Kevin, Tony and Petra who were camping up at Shakespeare Bay on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula. This year there was a change in plan because they didn't get their booking in on time. So we went to Awhitu which is south west of Auckland. VERY south west of Auckland. It took us a couple of hours to get there a whole bunch of which was on the motorway and pretty boring. But once we got past Waiuku it got really, really pretty.

Merenia said something along the lines of "Wow this place is really slow and quiet" By which I think she essentially meant that it was super serene and peaceful. Unlike much of greater Auckland that still retains that feeling of 'being city' even while looking 'country'.

The drive and Merenia's comment got me thinking about air.

There's the everyday air that we breathe- we don't think much of it and it serves the function of keeping us alive by supplying oxygen to our bodies. Unless we've been holding out breath or we focus taking a particularly deep thoughtful lung filling breath there's not much to appreciate about it.

When you change your environment and you are mindful you can be aware that the air is something really special.

Les and I have both commented that South Island Air is superior to this stuffy North Island stuff. The air has a clarity and crispness about is. If it was glass is would be clean clear crystal catching the light and sparkling. As opposed to North Island Air which is more like a dirty window in a 50 year old house grimy with dirt and fingerprints.

Sea air is something else altogether. On a hot day, or a windy day, on a cold day, at High tide or low tide, on the beach, on a cliff, or out on the open ocean- Sea air has so many notes and characteristics. Is is salty and blunt. It is sticky and sometimes biting. Breathing Sea Air is not a passive activity- you don't generally just breathe it in it is more likely to whip around your face, or blow across it trying to steal your hair, or plaster your skin. It leaves a taste in your mouth which may be as crisp as a fresh cool lime juice or as acrid as I imagine eating sulphur to be. Sea air tells a story of salty sea dogs, of seaweed long traveled washed up on the beach, of seals swimming among long strands of bull kelp to sun themselves on rocks, of trees whipped and buffeted into sloping shapes as they fight to stand up against the coastal winds, of birds soaring slopes and currents, dipping and diving.

Country air is still, slow, sensible.

Country air is peppered with the zips and clicks of cicadas, the baa-aaaaa of calling sheep, the gentle drone of a distant motorbike or the sharp barking of a dog. Country air is slow and solid. It is purposeful but calm. If it was a colour it would be straw- happy sunny yellow but somber and sensible, both crisp and warm. If it was a food it would be fresh clover honey with a little honeycomb wax- creamy and mellow, sweet but with a gritty after taste. Country air tells a hundred peoples stories. Of holiday makers enjoying slow lazy days awaking under striped canvas to a day all ready warm with relaxed promise. Of Farm houses wooden and weathered whose kitchen curtain flutters through the window dancing with the breeze as biscuits cool on a rack on the bench beneath the sill. Of farmers bailing hay or moving sheep. Of a rabbit stopping to check on a bovine paddock mate as it ambles hopping with no real direction across the field. Of children riding farm bikes and exploring a broken down villa now home to hay bales and possums in the everyday adventure of a lifetime.

Country air is my favourite and driving over the peninsular through the country with snatches of sea views promising the sea air still to come was just awesome. And then we got there.

The set-up was a lot different than Shakespeare. For one thing there were lots of trees.

Tall trees.

That were enjoyed by all.

Some things never change though....

Then we took the walk down to the beach.

Kieran borrowed Sally's very pink shoes as the kids (minus Will) and men folk walked out to the island. (Will and I did the same walk a little earlier without the beach shoes- ouch!)

The low tide was a bit of a bummer- it didn't come up will we left around 7pm. But we still managed to have a lot of fun.

On the way home we stopped to take some photos of cool stuff...

Pretty groovy what some people have in their front yards.

Isn't very 'Otago Peninsular'? I loved it!

Pity about the influence of modern man...
(Glenbrook Steel Mill- Merenia has visions of people slaving away in there as she had not long read the Lemony Snicket book 'The Miserable Mill')

The sun was setting as we came home and Merenia snapped some cool pics from a moving car.

Don't ask why I drove by this particular sculpture on the way from there to home especially considering I messed up with getting to the Petrol Station back in Manukau. Let us not speak of this at all.

So how's the air where you are?
♥