Today Aroha and I took a long leisurely drive north of Auckland to explore wine country around Kumeu and visit a few beaches.
First day of the Labour Day weekend and the roads were pretty quiet, as was Muriwai beach with only a handful of surfers and fishermen. It was a pretty dreich day so not surprising that it wasn't too busy. We climbed up over to see 
the gannet colony, and watched the locals building their nests. Back round the road to the car park which was filling up and we headed off to visit the vineyards just as the rain came on.
First stop was Cooper's Creek where we indulged in a full wine tasting exercise and educated our palettes with the entire range of white, and a few reds before spending too much money on the wares we had been 
testing. Next we thought we'd better pace ourselves and have a spot of lunch at Carriages in Kumeu, then onto Soljans to continue our 'education'. A few glasses of bubbly and port later and we hit our maximum.
In need of some fresh air and a bit of a walk we found Bethells beach and stretched our legs, just managing to avoid the rain for the second time but still leaving us with extremely bedraggled beach hair due to the lethal wind whipping the black sand up into a frenzy. Leaving Bethells we did feel sorry for the poor lifeguards, confined to their shack on stilts, with no lives to guard and a pretty bleak day
threatening to leave it that way.- AM
