Cheltenham Beach

Day 144, Friday 12 January 2018.

I went to Cheltenham Beach today, one of the sandy, pōhutukawa-lined beaches on the east coast of Auckland’s northern suburbs. There were substantial numbers of people sunbathing and a few swimming, a couple of kayakers, and children playing in the water and the sand. A little at odds with this idyllic scene was a pillbox at the southern end of the beach, part of the North Head fortifications to provide cover for defenders against a 19th century Russian invasion that existed only in the minds of paranoid politicians.