A sunny Sunday in Helensville.

It was nice to hear the TV3 weatherman (local lad Michael Hall) advising Aucklanders to take their mountain bikes up to Woodhill Forest today, then stop at the Helensville bakery on the way home! Nothing like a bit of national promotion for the town.

The Helensville Pioneer Museum reopened recently, so that's another worthwhile attraction for out-of-towners to visit on their way through (not that we want them to "go through" - we'd prefer them to stay a while).

Helensville has become something of a cafe destination, with four of them in the main road and almost always busy.

People driving through will be interested to see the development going on - construction at both ends of Commercial Road, with the new medical centre and new physiotherapy centre. And of course coming from Auckland, even before you hit Commercial Road there are all the new buildings that have gone up recently in Mill Road. A boom town for sure!