Discovering Howick

Today we went on a “Discover Howick Village” walk.  We started at Stockade Hill, which was the location of a stockade built by British settlers to defend themselves from indigenous Māoriduring the British colonisation of New Zealand. From there we moved across the road to the Crawford Reserve where we met the Howick Town Crier, one of only four in New Zealand. We viewed a plaque in the graveyard at the Catholic Church in memory of the children who died from scarlet fever back in the late 1840s, then crossed the road and spent some time in an art gallery called The Art Lounge, which was displaying some wonderful paintings and sculpture.  One of the artists spoke briefly about her art, which was interesting. After leaving The Art Lounge we walked down to Howick beach, which is where the first Fencible soldiers and their families landed in 1847 following a twelve week journey from England and then three weeks waiting on the Minerva before being allowed to disembark. Morning tea was provided at Shamrock Cottage, just up the hill from the beach.  Following morning tea we visited All Saints Anglican Church, which was the first parish church in Auckland and is the oldest building in east Auckland. Inside was a lovely stained glass window and a beautiful old organ. After admiring the church we moved on to the Uxbridge Community Centre where there was a wonderful photographic exhibition and then walked to the Apothecary Eatery where we were provided with a delicious three-course lunch. The restaurant’s name comes from the lovingly restored, original 1950s Apothecary interior from Northern France. 

On the way home we stopped to visit my sister and brother-in-law in their new home and finally arrived home just after 5:30pm, having set off at 9am. It was a most interesting and enjoyable day and we met some lovely people, whom we plan to meet up with again. 

The main blip and the extra show images from the day.

There are 7,927 new community cases today, and the seven-day rolling average is 6,059 compared to 6,937 last Thursday. The number of people in hospital is 393, including 12 in ICU. Another 27 deaths have been reported, bringing the total number of deaths to 1,294 and the seven-day rolling average to 14.