In memory of Gus Nola.

On Friday morning I paused twice in my travels, both times to visit a park that I was passing. I enjoy doing random visits. The first, caught out of the side of my eye, was Gus Nola Park, just of off Summerland Drive in West Auckland. The land was once owned by Gus Nola, a prominent orchardist of the area and the name Summerland has originated from an export apple that was grown by Gus in his orchards. The early Croatian settlers played a big  part of the West Auckland history as they still do today. Babich vineyards also was in the area. Now the land is all one big housing development, moving slowly westward eating up the countryside completely, all except for several parks that have been opened by the council over the years for all the new residents and local detectorist's to enjoy.
It was another hot day and Gus Nola Park was an empty park. I spent about 30 minutes uncovering mainly nails or screws and nothing that stirred me. In eight coins I got 90 cents in spending and an old 1988 20 cent. The weed mat was well stapled down under the bark giving off lots of deep signals, so again I just scraped away the loose bark and left my trowel redundant. A nice park in a nice street.

The Virtruvian Man, a super Euro?

The second park, down Summerland Drive about a kilometer, was Ferngrove Park. Here I had a little more success. First up was what looks like a screw in surround to a car ignition or choke. Then a 1987 50 cents piece from the old currency, the first one I have found. I had forgotten how big they were. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand will still exchange the old silvers for spending, a good thing to know.  An Italian one euro coin was a surprise, dated 2002, the year of the first release of this coin. A nice design featuring Da Vinci's famous 'Virtruvian man". A cool find 10,000 miles away from it's home. But with a mintage of over a 100 million I bet they are spread far and wide.

I'm a little pink tea cup.

I then went for a cuppa, it was about 3 inches down and a little metal tea cup charm off of a bracelet. Again, nothing valuable but nice. It is enamalled pink and has a small row of sparkly decorations around the rim. Or maybe it could be a miniature of a chamber pot.

Next up the screw that is used to tighten up the brakes on a push bike surfaced as did a old mottled badge with a heart on it and a design in the centre that the rust has overwhelmed. 

That was me for they day.

The days inventory.

So an interesting hour and a half. Along with odds and ends from Ferngrove Park another $1.80 of spending was gathered too. $2.70 for the day.

See you out there.