Ward Family Vacations

New Zealand 2005

Whangamata / Hauturu (Clark) Island

The second/last weekend I was in New Zealand, we spent Saturday looking for a second-hand Christian bookstore in Mt. Roskill. They had over 30,000 books and since New Zealand is a British colony they had many books of the old English preachers, John Wesley, Jonathon Edwards, Spurgeon (Jess's dads favorite). Jess and I went crazy in there. I buy Dennis a lot of rare books on Ebay but I have never bought this many old, quality books for these kind of prices. I think Dennis wants to go to New Zealand just to go to this store!

On Sunday, we drove to Whangamata which is Dave's home town, where his parents have a farm and his grandparents, retired school teachers live. It was a beautiful day to drive and the weather was 70ish and breezy. Our first stop was Whangamata Beach and Hauturu (Clark) Island in the distance. I told Dave I couldn't believe he grew up in a place like this. It was so beautiful, he said they surfed and swam here growing up. In some of these pics you can see surfers. Whangamata Beach is one of New Zealand's most popular Beach Resorts. I can see why after visiting there...everything is so clean and untouched.

Dave and Jess

Sandy

Notice surfers on left