Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere

The Auckland EY office shuts down for two weeks over the Christmas holiday season.  The last day of work this year was December 21st and the tax group had our Christmas party that day beginning at 2 pm.  We took a boat from the nearby ferry terminal to the Riverhead Tavern (a two hour journey).  Then we had time to enjoy the sun on the patio overlooking the river before sitting down to a formal (and delicious) meal.  We took buses back to the office around 9 pm.  It was a great party and very fun to celebrate a typical, New Zealand summertime Christmas. 

Me and Julie (intern) on the boat to Riverhead

Me, Katarina, Christine, and Jonothan on the boat to Riverhead

Justin and I spent Christmas Day over at our friend's, Anna and Michael, house.  Anna's sister and boyfriend were in town from Moldavia and another couple and their son came as well.  We had some traditional Moldavian food and had a white elephant gift exchange.  It was an interesting way to spend Christmas!

The crew on Christmas Day (with our white elephant gifts)

December 26th is a public holiday in New Zealand known as Boxing Day.  I did a little research on the origin of Boxing Day and found a few theories.  The English tradition is thought to originate from the boxes of gifts and left over food that servants would take home to their family the day after Christmas from the master's house.  The servants were required to work on Christmas but would have the following day off to spend with their families.  

A more modern British tradition was to celebrate Boxing Day watching the fox hunts which evolved into watching horse racing in more recent years.  Justin and I chose to celebrate our first boxing day in this traditional British fashion and attended the horse races at Ellerslie.  Boxing Day races are a big deal in Auckland and the race track was packed with everyone (well the woman anyway) dressed up in skirts, heels, and hats. 

Santa Claus on Queen Street in Auckland

Orbit

On Friday, 3 August, I left work early to meet M and D and head to the sky tower to watch the sunset before dinner.  M and D and I walked to the sky tower and enjoyed the views from the observation deck as the sun set over Auckland.  Just after sunset, Justin arrived and we went up to Orbit for dinner.  Orbit is the restaurant at the top of the sky tower that rotates as you dine.  We rotated at least three times while we ate dinner and I'm not going to lie, it made me slightly sick to my stomach.  The meal was delicious!  We enjoyed mini farmhouse loaves and a goat cheese puff as appetizers.  For our mains, M had the lamb, J and D had the filet, and I had the chicken.  After dinner, we ascended to the highest observation deck at the sky tower for a final farewell to the Auckland city night view from above.  We stopped at the Occidental on the way home for dessert on the heated patio.  It was a great evening which we will forever compare to our space needle experience on our great Northwest vacation!

From the bottom of the Sky Tower

View of the bay from the Sky Tower

Straight ahead is a view from above of our apartment on Princes Wharf

Sunset from the Sky Tower

Same view of Princes Wharf from the Sky Tower after dark

Baby Pancakes

Last Saturday Justin and I finally partook (yep, it is a real word) in the farmers market at Britomart we have walked through (or by) so many times.  The farmers market takes place each Saturday right in front of my office.  While there are a few produce stands there, the market is mostly breakfast treats and fun foods to buy.  I had baby pancakes with cream and berries and then Justin and I split an order of empanadas.  We also got a bag of bagel chips to take home and of course had to buy a bag of bagels as well because of the deal if you bought two items.  After the market, we strolled down the waterfront to the Viaduct and Wynyard Quarter.  It was a lovely, sunny morning and we took full advantage of it before the rain set in for the afternoon and evening.   There was plenty to see on our walk as New Zealand Fashion Week was in full swing at the Viaduct Events Centre.  

Baby pancakes made fresh to order!

Yum, baby pancakes!

Empanada stand

Baby pancake stand with EY building in the background

Auckland Harbor Bridge from the end of Wynyard Quarter

Go Warriors!

Justin and I finally made it to our first rugby game on Sunday!  I was informed by a co-worker that since we were going to see the Warriors play, we were going to watch the league, not rugby.  We took the train to the Mt Smart stop and then made the long trek to the stadium.  In hindsight, it would have been cheaper and less walking to drive to the game.  Little did we know how small a crowd a local league game attracts!  The atmosphere and stadium felt similar to a large high school football or small college football game.  We enjoyed yummy fried stadium food including donuts!  Any venue that sells freshly fried donuts is a winner to me!  The Warriors ended up losing but it was a close game so very entertaining for two league virgins.  It started raining towards the end of the game and continued on our walk to the train stop.  Luckily, we are used to the winter, Auckland weather and came pretty much prepared.  We definitely want to go back for another game next season and are hoping to catch an All Blacks game as well!

Trying to fill the hole in his heart left by no football

Junior league after their game

My first rugby game....the Warriors are not the team in all pink!

They don't walk around selling beer in NZ.....

And of course I bought some!

The Streets of Auckland

Justin and I walk most places we go within the CBD of Auckland and as such have seen some interesting sights in our 5 months in the city.  Please enjoy our pictorial journey of Auckland.

Farmer's Market at Britomart every Saturday morning

Fireworks over the bay on Princes Wharf

Protesters on Queen Street on a special day set aside for protests

A snowman on Queen Street during a film shoot

Man shoveling fake snow on Queen Street for a film shoot

The unveiling of the catamaran for Team New Zealand for the America's Cup

Trash Art...a fish sculpture made of discarded jandals (a.k.a. flip flops)

Captain Pete Bethune, the captain of the Ady Gill from the Whale Wars series

And there is never a lack of great views....skyline view from one of our fishing spots

Saturday at the Museum

On Saturday, Justin was feeling under the weather so we needed a non-strenuous activity just to get out of the house for a few hours.  We decided to visit the Auckland Museum in the Domain.  We were prepared to pay the $10 entry fee but upon arrival discovered the museum is free to Auckland residents, bonus!  

The museum has 3 floors with different themes on each.  The ground floor covers the history of New Zealand from the native tribes up through modern times.  It also displays artifacts from most of the other surrounding Polynesian islands.  Justin was clever enough to discover that if you touch a piece in one of the exhibits, an electronic voice will notify you to step away from the display.  Part of the history section was geared toward children and displayed New Zealand children's items for each time period in history.  We were amused to learn that our own childhood is now considered long enough ago to be displayed in a museum.  That's right, there was a bunk bed section displaying children's items from the 1980's and 90's including a Romeo & Juliet poster with Leonardo DiCaprio, a magazine with Dawson's Creek, and roller blades among other things.  This floor also has a middle gallery which houses traveling exhibits currently showing Camera, a showcase of wildlife and documentary photography.  

Blurry shot of the 1990's Museum Exhibit

And one of the boys bunk bed

The second floor is a nature theme displaying the flora, fauna, and geography of New Zealand.  There is a little house in this exhibit that you can go inside and witness a simulation of  a volcano erupting in Auckland.  This was pretty cool and a little too realistic.  You were literally sitting in the living room of a house in St. Heliers looking out at Rangitoto, the volcano you can see from most places in Auckland, watching a news program about the recent earthquakes in the area.  The reporter recaps the events of the day and the city evacuation and is then interrupted by an actual volcanic eruption in the bay.  The simulation ends with shots of the aftermath of the eruption.  All of this right after we toured the beginning of the exhibit and learned there are 48 volcanic cones in Auckland including the one the Auckland Museum sits on and that Mt Rangitoto is still considered an active mountain.  

Mt Rangitoto from Devonport

The top floor tells the story of New Zealand's involvement in wars including a pictorial temporary exhibit entitled You are Here: Mapping Auckland.  

We only made it through the ground floor and the geography section of the second floor before Justin started to feel pretty bad and needed food and rest.  However, we thoroughly enjoyed our time in the museum and plan on returning thanks to the free entry to finish exploring.  We topped off the day with an early and long dinner at Archie's, one of our favorite pizza spots in the city in New Market.  

Jucy Adventure - The Beginning

Our friends David and Tiffany Dyer arrived in Auckland last Thursday afternoon.  We drove up to Mount Eden to catch some views of the sunset over the city.   Later, Justin and I enjoyed dinner at Jack Tar on the North Wharf near our apartment while torturing the Dyer's by engaging them in conversation and attempting to sight-see when their bodies felt like it was 3 am!  

David and Tiffany on Mount Eden

View of the city on the way to North Wharf

On Friday, David and Tiffany stopped by my office and the 3 of us walked to pick up our Jucy Condo campervan which would come to be known as The Jucy.  We met Justin for a quick dinner of Ramen noodles before packing up and loading out.  David and I underestimated the spice level at this restaurant and were barely able to eat our food!  We were red faced and peeling off our layers by the end!

We packed up the Jucy and drove to the Tutukaka Holiday Park for the night (about 2.5 hours from Auckland).  The road from Auckland to Tutukaka would probably seem unmemorable in a car in the daylight.  But let me tell you, in the dark, in a large campervan, it felt very scarey!  It is hard to explain the roads in New Zealand but they have more twist and turns than I have ever seen and tend to become narrower the further out of town you drive.  Justin, our fearless driver, delivered us safely to our destination but he was worn out from the trek!  Justin and I spent the first night in The Jucy on the bottom bunk while Tiffany and David took the upper, coffin bed. 

Picking up The Jucy

David and Tiffany on the top bunk

Scaffolding

About a week ago, I got an email from our property manager notifying me that the apartment building maintenance would need access to our apartment in order to construct scaffolding on our patio needed to repair the level above us.  When we got home from our trip on Monday evening, there was plastic taped down to our floor leading from the kitchen to the back door and a stack of scaffolding on our patio.  On Tuesday morning, I went to close the back door before leaving the house for the day and gave a friendly construction worker quite a freight.  Yep, there was a large, tattooed man standing about a foot from the door on our patio.  Upon closer inspection, the workers had removed the wall between our patio and our neighbor's.  We could just walk right on into our neighbor's bedroom if we so desired.  So I'll keep our back doors locked until the construction is over and be glad they appear to be using the scaffolding below our level as an entry point instead of our apartment.

View of our patio.

From below...our patio is the one with the scaffolding in the top left.

This is our neighbor's back bedroom door entrance.

Sunset through the scaffolding.

Our ANZAC Day

To celebrate ANZAC Day, Justin and I took the ferry to Devonport (again....b/c my husband loves a boat ride!) for a little beach site seeing and biking.  First stop was Cheltenham Beach a short ride from the ferry stop.  We laid on the beach for a little while reading and observing the crazy's who ventured into the water.  The water is pretty cold here and I was chilly just laying on the beach in shorts and long sleeves!  We then biked on a route taking us by Narrow Neck Beach and Takapuna Beach.  We thought this would be a leisurely ride based on the distance but didn't account for the constant up and down hills.  We were pretty wiped out after our ride.  We had a late lunch at a cafe in Devonport called Platters.  Platters is a really cute place with views of the bay from your table and really good food.  After lunch we took the ferry back home to Auckland.  We had dinner that evening with some friends and enjoyed tacos and games!  Not a bad day at all for a random Wednesday off work!

Rangitoto from Cheltenham Beach

Chilling on the sand at Cheltenham

Narrow Neck Beach

Looking down the main street in Devonport

Waiting for the ferry back to Auckland

Muriwai

Muriwai beach is a black sand beach on the west coast of New Zealand about 30 minutes north of Auckland.  The waves off the Tasman Sea pound the sand and cliffs making it a favorite spot of  surfers. A campground near Muriwai beach was our destination for Saturday night. 

Enroute to Muriwai, we stopped for a quick mountain bike ride at Sanders Reserve.  Although this new bike park is aesthetically pleasing, the trails are not for the faint of heart.  I struggled on the steep down hills into hairpin turns and on the hairpin turns into steep uphill bursts even taking a pretty hard fall on one turn bruising my hip and knee.  We definitely had more fun at Woodhill on our last mountain bike adventure. 



Sanders Reserve Bike Park



Trail Map

We arrived at Muriwai Beach Motor Camp around 2 pm and got our campsite set up before riding down to the beach.  We spent some time exploring and then cooked an early dinner of hotdogs in order to finish eating before the sunset.  Watching the sunset on the beach was a perfect end to a great afternoon.  We returned to the beach after dark to explore a little more and look at the stars.  We had no luck identifying constellations but did spot two satellites.  Although it was a little cold overnight, we stayed pretty warm bundled and cuddled up in our car.  

First view of Muriwai Beach

View from the grill

Sunset over Muriwai Beach

Another sunset over Muriwai shot

It was so nice to wake up to a crisp morning with the sound of the ocean on the breeze.  We packed up our site and had breakfast (eggs benedict and a scone...can you guess who had what?) at the nearby Sand Dunz Beach Cafe.  We capped off our stay at Muriwai with a short hike up to a few different lookout points.  The views were spectacular and if the number of surfers were any indication, the waves were as well. 

Looking down over Muriwai Beach

To prove I was in fact on this trip...and yes, I am dressed like an eskimo while most Kiwi's were in shorts.  To be fair this is at like 8 in the morning.

Morning at Muriwai



Waves crashing on the rocks

To prove Justin was on the trip

Looking down on Maori Bay