Flâneur…

“Flâneur” – the man of leisure, the idler, the urban explorer, the connoisseur of the street. This french term is often used to describe the act of ‘wasting time’ or ‘wandering without a destination’, which I guess is kinda what I’ve been doing for the last two weeks. The word came up today on a climb up to the summit of Rangitoto Island (a dormant volcano in the Hauraki Gulf of Auckland) when I fell quite far behind, reaching the top exclaiming that I like to ‘meander’ on my walks. Stopping every 5 minutes to breathe in the view and take some photos. My friend Louise said she had a french word which meant the same-ish… So yeah, that’s that!

I haven’t updated for a few days because we’ve been AFW (away from wifi), which has been nice. I spent Friday morning wandering through a town called Takapuna, not far from where I am staying, which was nice. I stumbled upon a Micro Coffee Brewery where I got possibly the best coffee I’ve ever tasted. A flat white made with almond milk (full sugar version). It was incredible. So I sat down and enjoyed every mouthful. I’ll go back there tomorrow for more!

We left Auckland and headed down the coast to a seaside town called Whangamata (pronounced: wong-a-mata, with a Scottish accent). The drive took us almost 5 hours because of horrendous traffic, but that was cool with me because it meant longer time to take in the scenery along the way, which was gorgeous. The landscape changes quite a bit here in New Zealand, and at one point we could easily have been driving through Scotland. Rolling green hills and loads of dairy cows (the poor bastards). Just a lot warmer. I’ve been very lucky with the weather here in New Zealand.

We arrived late and ended up having pizza for dinner in a nice little restaurant, it was delicious – I haven’t had pizza in MONTHS, so I was very grateful for it. Then we arrived at our caravan at Whangamata Motor Camp, which was literally a stone’s throw from the beach and town. It was like being thrown back in time.. I’m not sure to which era, but it was incredibly relaxing. We went caravanning a lot with my family as a kid, so it felt very nostalgic for me, lots of good memories that had buried themselves seamed to reappear and it was welcomed.

I spent most of the weekend relaxing, doing sweet fuck all and reading my book on the lounger, the beach or in the garden of the motor camp.

I’m reading ‘The Owl Always Hunts at Night’ by Samuel Bjork

A wander down the beach here, a wander down the wharf there – it was lovely. We ate some really good burgers at a little place called ‘Soul Burger’, which was so busy on our first night that they’d ran out of produce (hence the pizza pit stop). Luckily we got burgers on our second night there, it was worth the wait!

We left Whanga late afternoon yesterday and headed back to Auckland, arriving late in the evening after another traffic filled drive, stopping at a cafe called ‘Bugger Cafe’ on the way home. What a cool little place, very quirky. It was dinner, TV and bed – I was knackered. Haven’t slept like that for ages!

Today has been a very busy day! Managed to squeeze in two hours of work this morning before we headed out to take the ferry from Devonport to Rangitoto Island to climb to the summit. It was a glorious day, the sun was sparkling on the water and it was just amazing. The climb to the top only took about 40 minutes, it was relatively easy, but still a sweaty one due to the temperature! The view from the top was amazing, you’ll see it if you head over to my Facebook page as I did a live broadcast from the top.

We spent an hour or so at the top just ‘meandering’ and headed back down, where we saw some cute little historic ‘bachs’ (holiday homes) that have been preserved from the early 1900s. There’s quite a nice little story attached to them actually… The bachs are still used by descendants of the original families, and when the last descendant has gone, the bach is destroyed! I thought that was quite sad really, as they are so quaint and lovely. You’re not allowed to live on the island anymore, as it’s a nature reserve now.

Anyhoo, back to Auckland again on the ferry and I headed back home for some lunch and chill time, which was much needed!

I’ve just returned from Crossfit Infinite Takapuna where I managed to complete the Crossfit Open Workout 17.1. It was tough in this heat, but it’s done so YAY! Very pleased with that…

I’ll go now as I’m fucking starving and I’m wilting fast… thanks for reading, and I hope you’re enjoying keeping up with my travels…

Rach xx