I {Heart} Whangarei

I grew up here so it's always been special to me in the way it's home. But since I've been back I have been re-discovering some amazing places to visit and take the kids for a great Morning/Day out.
Here are some of the awesome places we have visited ....

Whangarei Falls

This place is gorgeous! You can swim, picnic, walk, play pooh sticks and just admire the amazing waterfall. I can't wait to get the photos from when we released the Birthday Balloons for Jase here. Also need to go again with both kids so I can get some pics of Riley too!!

The Quarry Gardens

Every time I go here something is different! It is beautiful and so many awesome things to see. Definitely going back here and again with Riley so I can get some pics with him too!

Mair Park

Do you know how many bush tracks there are off Mair Park? Not me!!! But I know there are LOADS. Some short, like this one we went on, some long. We are slowly trying to work our way through them a weekend at a time. It's gonna take a fair few weekends before we have explored them all!!

Reed Park

Reed Park is so cool! There is a boardwalk that goes up high in the trees, wish my kids were more co-operative that day so I could have got more photos of the board walk. This track also makes it way back to Mair Park somehow!! I think they all do!

Tutukaka Breakwater

I pretty much grew up at Tutukaka! We had a boat and spent pretty much EVERY weekend out there on the boat which was moored at Tutukaka. Northland has some amazing beaches, we haven't even begun to explore them all!

Serendipity Farm Park

This place is really cool. You buy a bag of food and get to wander around feeding all the Farm Animals. Horses, Sheep, Pigs, Rats, Donkeys, Chickens and even Emus!! The kids thought it was awesome. We will definitely go back there, next time with a picnic lunch!

Rose Gardens ... Fernery ... Cafler Park

This is where we went today. The Rose Gardens have a fantastic wishing well. Cafler Park has some really cool art works around as well as amazing grounds to run and picnic in, plus a major bonus is we found the trees are all pretty climbable! The Fernery/Conservatory is really cool too! The kids really enjoyed themselves, and so did I.

So I have decided I need to explore and show my kids around our Home Town more.I was really inspired by Mandy who is Discovering her home town Wellington, she wrote a home town list. So I am going to Discover my Home Town Whangarei. I am going to start a list of where I want to take the kids and it will be my goal to cross all the things off my list by 2012. So here is the start of my list ... I will definitely add to it as I go along!

* Mount Parihaka - we have been here a few times but I haven't got many photos, gotta get the photos!!
* Abbey Caves
* Ocean Beach
* Sandy Bay
* Whale Bay
* The Quarry
* Ruakaka Beach
* The Whau Valley Damn
* The Whangarei Falls (with Riley for photos!)
* The Quarry Gardens (same as above!)
* Town Basin (again been but want more photos)
* Heritage Park

That is all I can think of off the top of my head, will keep adding and if any of you Whangarei bloggers know of anywhere awesome for me to check out please let me know so I can put it on my list!!

So how many places have you explored in YOUR home town??