Four Park, One Hour Challenge.

Triangle Park....from a distance.

Yesterday was a scorcher and rather than hang listlessly around the homestead three of us set out for MD challenge. We knew of four bark parks, three close together and a fourth one in Riverhead which as an after thought we visited on the way home. We had only an hour in each park and the prize apart from obvious prestige was a dozen cold
beers which sat at home sitting in the fridge awaiting the victor. We set off in the Rav at about 11 am full of anticipation. I was with my Beach Cobra, Ritchie on only his second adventure, in which strangely both featured beer, had the Garrett Ace 150 and Garfy strode out proud with his ATPro.
First stop was Triangle Park.

Ritchie was the first to find and due to the lack of headphones his signal could be heard binging regularly. He quickly gathered a following of kids all keen to help him dig and no doubt he cultivated a few future detectorists. I did reasonably well after a slow start a few coins and a couple of small keys.  After the hour was up my total stood at $2.40, Ritchie and his band had managed $1.70 and Gareth had 20 cents.

Then we progressed to McClintock park. A very picturesque park which the photograph didn't really do justice to.  I didn't hold much hope for too much as it was along way of the beaten path and probably underused.

Garfy and me in McClintock Park

But it was a good hour spent. Gareth found three nails in a row, Ritchie commented all you need to do now find is the hammer!! Amazingly within a few minutes I had dug up a hammer head about three metres away. Which caused a few laughs. I also found a Japanese 100 yen coin which I later identified from 1980 the Showa era, only a 580 million mintage!!!!

Only 579,999,999 left to find.

Also my Cobra produced an old 20 cent and $2.10 spending.
Ritchie came in with a couple of old currency and $2.80. Gareth found a few more old 20 cents, only 40 cents of the new stuff and a old rusty cheap chain.

The next park was Gallony park a very small compact park and quite secluded.  We forgot to photo this one and we actually gave up after 30 minutes as we felt we had drained what little it had to offer. A couple of Ritchie's young followers had skateboarded across to watch how things went on. He managed only forty cents, I plucked a single 10 cent and Gareth won the round with 40 cents and an old currency twenty.

Our last stop was the park behind the Riverhead bowling club. Kids cricket on the adjacent field was in full swing and the heat was becoming really oppressive. I found zip. A broken one otherwise I found zip. Ritchie nailed it but managed a few small coins and Gareth plucked a ten cent. After a trip for much needed ice creams and cold drinks we set off for home. 

Approaching the last leg, Riverhead Park



So Ritchie and his Ace 150 won the day with his total of $5.10, I was second with $4.60 and Gareth uncovered $1.10.

We all felt worn out and luckily Ritchie decided to share his prize and we spent the rest of the afternoon analysing, dreaming and planning our next adventures with lashings and lashings of foaming beer.

See you out there.

Has anyone seen Herne Bay?

Gareth and I headed downtown to check out Herne Bay beach in the early morning. Not as early as we wanted though due to a flat battery in my car, we arrived at 7.30 am. I spent many a day on this beach in my youth and also worked in the area through the eighties. So I was a bit shocked when after following the path to the beach we found that we were on Home Bay beach and not Herne Bay! I had forgotten which was the right access way.
Home Bay is a smallish crescent shaped beach and we decided seeing as we were there we would give it a run over. 


Home Bay 1911.
(Acknowledgement 'Sir George Grey
Special Collections, Auckland Libraries)

 I headed to the wet sand and Gareth seemed busy up at the top of the beach in the dry sand. In my first three digs I found a $2 and a 50 cent piece and my hopes were high of a good haul. There, my finds of anything valuable stopped. Suddenly I was a pull tab and bottle top magnet. In the couple of hours or so that $2.50 was my lot. Gareth meanwhile was well in to double figures, his ATPro finally kicking in and producing lots of $2 and $1 coins. He was a happy man.

After having to drag Gareth away we were off to Herne Bay but once again we failed to locate the walkway to the beach.
We asked a local and he in his wisdom somehow sent us to Sentinel Bay. So Sentinel Bay it was.

Sentinel Bay - Ponsonby Auckland.

I found just 40 cents on the wet and Gareth once again found a few dollars in the dry. I went around the boat sheds and exposed bedrock at the city end of the beach but found nothing but trash. I took as much broken glass, whole bottles and plastic bags as I could to the rubbish bin. How different from the clean Cheltenham Beach almost directly opposite on the other side of the harbour where we were at last week.
We had been on the go for nearly four hours so thought to grab a feed. Whilst munching down some not that tasty morsels we decided to forget the lost Herne Bay beach and hit the a couple of big playgrounds in Walker Park, Point Chevelier. It was very hot at the park with little cover. I managed just a few coins, including a 20 centime French coin, but Gareth once again was having a good day. He found a few dollars and a pocket spill of old currency of four coins in the same hole as well as a Singapore 20 cent coin and a cheap earring. I had had enough though Gareth was still keen. The heat was sapping a lot of our strength, mostly mine it seemed.
He talked me into a quick run over at the Walker Road beach just a hundred metres away. Lot's of trash but a few coins kept us interested and maybe a place to visit properly at a later date.
Around 1pm we headed home.
I had managed the grand total of $4.90 for the day. Gareth was unsure of his total as he bought his lunch, a coffee, a pair of shoes and a shirt from the local op shop out of his finds but still had $15 or so left.
So the ATPro has beaten my Beach Cobra twice now on a hunt. This time quite spectacularly. Maybe Gareth is getting to master the machine, we will see.
See you out there.