Growing up and walking the sands:
Growing up was a good life though at times i do feel it could have been better if I pushed myself more, I grew up on Waiheke Island, a short ferry ride from the oversized and sprawling city of Auckland.
Waiheke was a good place to start in this world, you got to explore the island and find hidden bays and wild forest trails that had seen little to no human touch, sadly this changed when the island was opened up to a short 30 min ferry ride from Auckland where as before the fast ones kicking in, to get to the island could take around 2hrs.
I remember times of camping down the far end of the island and having a fire on the beach, it was wonderful.
By water at one time I also with a friend Kyacked to the far southern headland.
Schooling on the island was good though I have to admit there was the usual thing of one group of people picking on another at school and i tell you what,that did kind of get to one.
I guess it is a part of growing up but in saying that it is a real shame how cruel kids can be to others at times.
One of the things I loved about the island is when the northern storms came blowing there way in resulting in a big swell in the likes of Oneroa and along the coastline ....
Made for some fun when making the way back round the coast to Little Oneroa, now and than when I was walking with my dog pipi we would get hammered quite hard in the weather but we always got through though almost getting washed off the rocks once.
During my history on the island i kind of had enough with the teasing at school that I ended up going over to Correspondence school, now in a way it was a good thing but in a move of life it was not good, as I found as a child I maybe did not gain the skills to deal with groups of people that I should have had at time time.
I would hope soon to post images from the island to see how things have changed.
If it has changed or hey maybe it is the same, but from what i have been hearing i feel it has become too busy and some of the special places that one used to be able to hike to away from the road has been cut off due to coast line housing being built.
You know people used to moan and bitch about Spencer who owned alot of the far end of the island as a big farm and well it was good as it was ran as a farm and one could still access the coast.
I might be wrong but i found it sad when parts of the farm were sold off.
I ask you this folks.
When progress happens what is more important keeping special things and nature intact or selling things off and making a profit and keeping the special areas just for the few ?
Going to try and post images from the island soon... and with luck find some areas on the island that were special to me and see if they are still there and if they may have changed.
