Location

Greenhithe is a small suburb in North Shore Auckland. There are lots of new developments and a few little reserves. It is about 10 minutes drive from the shops.

Pets/House

For this house sit we looked after two French Bull Dogs, Lulu and Gary. They both had quite funny, quaint personalities that we thoroughly enjoyed. Lulu loved human affection and whenever she wanted to be petted she would jump up onto two feet and paw at our arms. She loved going outside and searching for bugs hidden under the rocks, and would spend hours out there sniffing about. Gary took a bit longer to warm up to us but loved to play with Lulu. He would jump and tackle her to initiate playtime but Lulu was often uninterested. Occasionally she would join in and they would zoom around the house. Gary had a funny relationship with the vacuum cleaner. When I used it he would run back and forth growling and biting it. Due to the warmer weather, the dogs were shedding a lot of hair so I had to vacuum every couple of days. The house was a modern three bedroom house with a study. It had an awesome games/Tv room which we enjoyed.

What We Did

James and I needed to be in Auckland for his ACL reconstruction surgery, so it was great that we managed to find a house sit for the right dates. One of the first things we did in Auckland was go on a day trip to Devonport, to visit the Maungauika North Head Reserve. It had awesome historic military navel defenses to look at and beautiful views over Auckland City.

We also visited the fairy houses in Hobsonville. Someone had created them during the covid-19 lockdown to bring joy to the children and they were very cute. There were about fifteen little homes with some of them intricately set up like real rooms.

The next two activities I did by myself while James was in surgery. I went to the Winter Gardens, which had the most beautiful flowers at this time of year. There was a whole conservatory full of them, and another one filled with exotic rainforest plants. It was a nice little hidden gem.

I went to the Auckland War Memorial Museum and it was amazing! There are three levels with so many things to look at from Maori History to Stuffed Animals. There was a also a Volcano Room and a lot on NZ Military.