Living in Auckland often earns you the derision of the rest of the country, but it's home and I love it. I don't doubt the beauty of the rest of the country, NZ is beautiful, but Auckland has it's little gems too.

One of those places for me has always been Bomb Point.

Up until recently Bomb Point has been open to the public. Thanks to urban sprawl and the current construction going on over there, it's been closed off, so I was pretty lucky one of my previous flatmates showed it to me before that happened. It's 11 hectares of land, at what used to be a munitions dump for the Royal New Zealand Airforce and will soon be a park and marae for the public.

Prior to the current construction work there was a short walking track around the point (perfect for a loop for running) and some old munition storage bunkers that had been opened up and contained art work. One of which was by Auckland based graffiti artists Cut Collective.

What was really cool about the bunkers was you could walk inside, check out the graffiti and the gantry cranes inside were actually still functioning.

I went several times before it was closed off. At sunset, it was particularly quiet and some what creepy when alone but a very beautiful place.

Also in the area is Catalina Cafe, a new housing development, the former RNZAF parade grounds and the Hobsonville Point Farmers Market. The Farmers Market is on a Saturday and Sunday from 9am - 1pm.

Heidi