Once we got to Devonport our tour bus was waiting for us just outside the ferry building. (You need to be pretty able, to do this tour as the bus was not wheelchair friendly) On the bus tour we learned about the local history. Devonport was first called Flagstaff because of the flagstaff on Mt Victoria. The name was changed to Devonport by the British Navy. Devonport also has the dubious honour of being the only place in NZ to have a public hanging.

After the bus tour we walked to the Navy Museum which is non-accessible. It has around 15 steps to get inside. If you do manage to get inside they have a great disabled toilet. Which I found quite funny!!!!! We were told a new museum is going to be built, sometime in 2010, which will be fully accessible.

By the end of our sightseeing we were getting pretty hungry climbing in and out of the bus and climbing up and down a flight of steps, so we found a cafe in the lovely historical village. After lunch we walked around the, mostly accessible, village shops, which had lots of cafes, art shops and galleries. We extended our walk to include the beach and reached Torpedo Bay, just before North Head. The Bay was named after the naval torpedo boat housed here in the early 1920s.

We caught the ferry back to the city. Had a walk around downtown Auckland, then walked up Queen Street and got another “United Taxis” cab home from outside the Civic Theatre.

We certainly had a fun day out, at an inexpensive price.

Paul “Monkie” Munckhof

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