Last of the Pulp Italians ....and some more scenery.....

I have actually had these few Italian infantry finished for a while but had not got around to doing the basing then taking pics till this morning. My days have been pretty full of late - Weds we did a 300+ km day road trip with our neighbours "just for something to do" and then on Thurs/Fri we spent a very pleasant couple of days with other friends over on Waiheke Island in the Hauraki Gulf off Auckland - approx 30 min ferry trip from the mainland.

Firstly, here are the toys - starting with a Breda MG crew

The actual model comes with four figures, but I decided to repurpose them as separate officer/NCO figures (see below)

The MG crew officer....

..... and the NCO with SMG and field glasses

Followed by two shots each of the last three Italian infantrymen..

I still have pics from walks done a couple of weeks back but will leave them for later (or maybe just not worry about posting every single day trip we have made over my summer break!)

The first image of two maps gives an indication of Waiheke Islands location relative to Auckland 

The second map shows the vin yards we visited, plus the Stony Batter in the NE corner of the island

View of the car deck on the SeaLink Vehicular ferry

Looking back down the gulf towards Auckland city

My wife Ruth left and our friend Jaene (pronounced as two syllables like "je" in French then nay - its a S African name!) on the right.

Top deck of the ferry - the image makes it appear narrower than it actually is

Approaching Matiatia ferry terminal on Waiheke

View from the vehicle deck

Above and below - the accommodation for Jenae and Russell - its a converted 1970's bus with a pirate theme!

Above and below - our cabin - this was very basic accommodation but perfectly adequate for a night or two and cost $120 - US$80 or £60 approx - per night. That's a bargain here, particularly at the height of holiday season!

After dropping bags etc, we headed off to the first vin yard of the day - Passage Rock. Wine tasting here was a bit underwhelming and disorganised (the actual wine tasted good!) but the lunch was superb (below)

View of the vines at Passage Rock. Next up,. a fifteen minute drive to Awaroa Winery, where the guy doing the wine tasting was a lot more experienced and made it a more enjoyable show - I didnt take any pics there though.....

Third wine tasting of day one - at Casita Miro - a Spanish themed establishment where we returned later for a lovely Tapas style dinner.

A couple of views of the environs of our cabins

I did not take images of the beautiful evening meal we had but here are three of the sunset from a viewing platform a five minute walk up the hill from the cabins

On Friday morning, after a very substantial cooked breakfast at local cafe on the beach front, we headed off to the far NE corner of the island over unsealed loose gravel roads

Luckily for me, this was a piece of local military history - a gun position built during WW2 as a defence against enemy naval activity/invasion of the Auckland region

A couple of information signs on the fifteen minute walk to reach the actual site

Whilst waiting for the tour to commence, we saw a couple of Weka chicks and their mother - the Weka is another NZ flightless bird and sometimes known as the Maori hen.

Layout of the gun position at Stony Batter - there were three ex WW1 9.2 inch naval guns taken from old British warships. There were a total of three positions around Auckland where three sets of these guns were situated to provide inter locking fields of fire covering approaches to the city.

Reproduction cordite bags as would have been used to fire the shells a distance of 34km

One of the tunnels in the gun complex

Stairs leading down to the engine room and plotting room, a depth of 65m below the surface

A contemporary photo of WRAC girls who worked in the plotting room. Their barracks were literally next door and they lived below ground for extended periods of time and were forbidden to talk about where they worked or what they did (apparently, the islanders were unaware of the complex until it was closed down, ten years after the war, in 1955!)

Cutting edge technology in use to co ordinate gunnery ranges and liaise with the other two batteries!

The third gun position was never actually completed

A view of the area where the gun position is located

Down the road a bit and we popped into the Waiheke Distilling Company and sampled three of their very quaffable gins, followed by a Lychee cocktail

The view from the table we sat at for the gin tasting session

The two cocktails we shared between each couple - our lychee one on the right

After the gin tasting, we went to a lovely restaurant at Man o War Bay (another vin yard!) but I did not record that meal.

Above and below, the vehicular ferry arrives to take us back to Auckland

View of Waiheke as we head out into the Gulf

A couple of views of Rangitoto Island, a dormant (NOT extinct) volcano a couple of km off the coast of Auckland

And that was our trip - a very enjoyable mini break with a really sociable couple of friends. Not the cheapest two day trip we have ever made but you cant take it with you (or spend it all on toy soldiers....I suppose!)