This weekend I decided to take another walk out to St Heliers Bay, only this time go a little further along as I'd heard there was a great lookout on the cliff top. It was a slightly overcast day, but pretty warm when the sun did periodically show itself.
It took a couple of hours to make it out to St Heliers, and another few minutes to scale the cliff. I may have been horrendously hot and sweaty getting there, but the views were definitely worth it.
After spending some time taking in the spectacular views I decided to stop for a bite to eat. The night before I had ordered some takeaway noodles and hadn't managed to finish them all, so took them with me on my trek. I walked down the cliff to a place called Ladies Bay, it was pretty much deserted so I sat on the rocks where I had a good view of Brown's Island on one side, and of Rangitoto on the other.
I found a comfortable little spot on the rocks and opened up my lunch. The noodles I had ordered were quite spicy and had a number of large chillies in them. I had eaten one the night before because I wasn't sure how hot they were.... I then spent the next 10 minutes salivating LOTS and attempting to use milk to quell the fire. Needless to say it didn't really work! To make sure I didn't have a repeat of the chilli incident, the first thing I did was to remove every chilli in the noodles and throw them onto the rocks. I then grabbed a fork and began to tuck in. After about 3 mouthfuls a large seagull landed (how did it find me?!) and began edging towards me. I sighed and rolled my eyes as I thought I was going to be pestered until I had finished eating, but as the seagull got within a few metres it bent over and snatched one of the chillies I had discarded on the rocks. HA-HA! REVENGE! It then proceeded to swallow it (I presume whole) and then went nuts for the next 2 or 3 minutes drinking water from the rock pools and running from side to side. After it had finished going crazy, it started edging towards me again..... and then picked up another chilli! This time it had a little more sense and after playing with it for a few minutes, decided it didn't want to consume it. It then proceeded to test every single chilli that I had thrown away, but didn't eat any more. For it's bravery I saved it a raisin from my fruit and nut selection.
After enjoying the lunchtime entertainment I moved on to the lookout point. There was a great view of Browns Island, and also the Auckland Sky Tower in the distance.
I sat at the lookout for a good 10 minutes before deciding to make my way home. The great thing about New Zealand houses is that people design exactly what they want, so every home is different. They just buy a piece of land and can pretty much build anything they like (within reason), so I always find it interesting to look at the different styles of house. On the walk back through St Heliers I managed to find the oddest combination of housing I have seen since being in New Zealand. One house was a beautiful Mediterranean-style villa, built in a square with a courtyard in the middle. The courtyard had a large fountain in the middle, terracotta pots everywhere and there were vines growing up the sides of the building. Immediately next door there was a very modern-looking house with wooden panelling on the outside and built with clean, straight lines. The two houses could not have been more different, I think I would have opted for the villa.
I then began the long trek back home, and arrived just in time for dinner. My feet ached and I was exceptionally tired, but am pleased I have managed to teach at least one seagull a valuable life lesson.
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