Hey, the SUN's shining ...

Mini Mania!

Sunshine AND blue skies .... it has been the most AWESOME weather in Auckland this weekend!

You can see it in the number of people on the beaches, on the sidewalks and ..... IN THEIR CARS!! I reckon they conduct the census on days like today. 

“Hey look,  the sun’s shining .... the people of Auckland will be out on the roads 

.... let’s do a CENSUS!” 

Everyone ... and I mean EVERYONE .... all of the 1.5 million people in Auckland ... are out on the roads on a day like today.

Enjoying the sun on our ramble yesterday.

The hound missed out on her ramble. Watching rugby at “before sun rising o’clock” in the morning doesn’t make for early rising later in the day. That sounds really confusing and it probably is. At least my Bokke won which always makes waking in the wee hours worthwhile. 

We popped across to Dairy Flats on North Shore, just outside the village of Albany to look at a guesthouse business that’s up for sale. It’s in a gorgeous setting and the blue skies and sunshine set it off magnificently. Whilst the property was gorgeous, it was the cars we saw on the way back home that really got our mouths watering

...... salivating in fact!

There are an abundance of beautiful cars in Auckland. 

I wish I'd been able to get pictures of ALL the ones we saw today!

Car spotting when you’re sitting in a traffic jam and your lane’s not moving, is a huge amount of fun. The oldest lemming is amazing where knowledge of cars is concerned and had us all drooling as we looked for the cars he was calling out. A Mercedes C63 AMG - the car that broke the mould, according to Mercedes, a 1986 Porsche Carrera 2, a black Ferrari F430, 

a blue and white AC Cobra and a beautifully groomed Morris Minor to name but a few.

Cute little treehouse and bridge in one of the houses we're looking at

I LOVE fast cars .... always have .... and I love driving fast too. The oldest lemming seems to have inherited some of his mother’s love of speed and has incurred the wrath of the speed watchdogs (ie Traffic Police) on more than one occasion, once managing to have his licence revoked for 28 days. Despite the speed I drive at, I’ve yet to incur THAT kind of penalty. Pure luck, I guess.

Our neighbour owns a Porsche but it’s the friend who visits him on a regular basis who has a car that I’D be interested in driving. It’s a modified MGB GT and the growl as it navigates the driveway is awesome.

Some of the views from the guesthouse we looked at today.

I miss my MG. I miss driving it with the top down and the wind blowing my hair every which way but down. I miss the speed with which it could hop through traffic and the AMAZING acceleration.  It WASN’T the most comfortable of cars but it sure was a whole heap of fun to drive.

I think the hound would have liked it too .... particularly with the top down. I can just picture her sitting in the passenger seat, wind whipping her ears back, eyes closed as she savoured the sensation of all that movement.

Hmmm .... maybe the idea of a motorbike and a sidecar for the hound isn’t such a bad idea after all.

Mini conversions we saw on our way to the guesthouse today

There were 3 of them but THIS was my favourite!