Devonport

Today was the last day of Winter, but we were lucky to have a really nice spring-like day! We decided to take a ten minute ferry ride to Devonport and explore the town; something we have been hoping to do for the last 18 months but the weather just never seems to be right.

After catching the ferry we followed a 5 km tour route through Devonport. We hiked to the top of Mount Victoria and North Head, which are Devonport's volcanic peaks. Mount Victoria is the higher of the two and provided us with great views of Auckland. It is also home to a some old military bunkers and a disappearing gun.





Jeremy has been busy today preparing for his trip back to the US. He'll be in Orlando for work for a week. I'll find something here to keep myself busy!

Happy 2nd Anniversary!

We celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary today and can't believe that it has been just two years since we got married! We have shared so many fun and exciting adventures together.

We celebrated over a delicious dinner at Number 5 in Auckland. Number 5 is famous for its New Zealand food and huge selection of boutique New Zealand wines. Upon being seated we were quickly greeted by the Sommelier who probed our wine preference and convinced us that the Felton Road Pinot Noir would change our lives forever. It was DELICIOUS! If my wallet was bigger, I'd let her choose wine for me forever - I guess life really is too short to drink bad wine.

Jeremy started off with a serving of cauliflower soup with bleu cheese (which I enjoyed my fair share of). The name does nothing for it as the soup was divine - move over Cream of Broccoli! For our mains, Jeremy had the Venison while I enjoyed the Lamb Fillet. Lamb isn't something I would usually eat but since we were in a restaurant that specialized in New Zealand cuisine, I couldn't resist. We agreed that the Venison was good but the Lamb was GREAT. While we finished our bottle of wine we pondered over what dessert to order. Our top choices were Vanilla Bean Brulee, Lemoncello Bavarian or the NZ classic - Sticky Date Pudding. We went with the Lemoncello which literally was a melt in your mouth lemon essence with white chocolate chunks...mmm mmm goood!

I'm stuffed and can't type anymore. Have a great night!

Snowboarding

On Friday, Erin and I left the city around 3pm to head south towards Tongariro National Park. This was the first national park in New Zealand (the fourth in the world) and is also the home to Mt. Ruapehu. If you remember, last winter, we headed down here and went skiing on an active volcano. This volcano also had an eruption in September of last year.

It took us 4 hours to get there and we arrived at the bach (holiday home) around 7pm and hung out with the various friends that we were meeting down there. In total there were 10 of us, but we only knew 4 of them prior (Gareth, Clare, David, and Katy).

On Saturday we headed to Whakapapa ski field which is on one side of the mountain. We both decided to try snowboarding since the rest of the people we were with are snowboarders. Erin has never done it before, but I have gone snowboarding 1 time with Kevin Baker back in 1990 (I believe). I didn't like it at all then, but Erin and I both had a blast and really enjoyed ourselves. We both did really well and will try it again.

Unfortunately, the weather on Sunday wasn't the greatest and rained very hard. We ended up just driving home, but made it through the rain.

What was on bikes?

For the past 5 years in Auckland an Erotic Fair has been held and the Wednesday prior to the weekend there is a very special parade that comes through the city. Last year I happened to be outside with a co-worker when the parade passed us, and everything seemed reasonably low-key.

This year, there have been protesting and people seeking injunctions in court. What kind of parade was it you ask? It was a parade that's called Boobs on Bikes. It's used to promote the fair for the weekend and an opportunity for individuals to be "free". The injunction didn't work and the parade went ahead today. With all the press, there were many people lining the streets today to see what was going on. (I decided that to ensure I really got to experience Auckland I should be there as well). I've heard that there were around 100,000 people on the streets.

Here's a link to the newspaper article on it. I was able to snap a few pictures of the crowds and people with my phone as shown below. (Don't worry no nudity below)

Here are a bunch of construction workers lined up for the show (parade).
Right in front of the parade were a bunch of protesters walking against pornography and nudity.

Two of the participants in the parade.

Don't worry...

There has been some concern that we are losing all of our friends here in New Zealand, and we wanted to let everyone know not to worry as we still have friends left...(haha)
This past weekend was good and on Friday night we decided to hang out at a new bar with a couple friends Jackie and Jerry. We weren't out late as on Saturday we had plans to go to the gym early in the morning.

It was good talking with some folks from back home this weekend (Ciaccia's and Mathews'). It was also Avery's 3rd Birthday on Saturday and she celebrated with a sprinkler party. We sang Happy Birthday to her on Skype, but she didn't seem overly impressed with our singing skills.

It's a busy week this week and we will be preparing for our trip down to Mt. Ruapehu on Friday with a bunch of friends. We are planning to try a little snowboarding on Saturday and will be sure to update you all with how sore we are.

New Zealand had a big day at the Olympics on Saturday as well as they won 5 medals (2 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze). It was a big day for the country!

Another bites the dust

We went out for Mascha, Jereon and Sophie's last dinner in New Zealand last night. We headed to Mecca for what ended up being a very fun, very tasty, and very expensive meal. Jacco joined us as well and we proceed to drink a bunch of wine, and eat various courses.

Mascha has been in New Zealand for 8 years and Jeroen has been here for 2 years. He came over here with PwC as a single man and is leaving as a married man with a 3 month old baby girl. He worked fast! They are headed back to the Netherlands.

We had many fun times with them and it was sad to see them go. We will hopefully catch up with them in May on our travels back home to Boston.

Busy Week

Thursday night were the "leaving drinks" for Jeroen. Unfortunately it was raining like you wouldn't believe that night, but a lot of people showed up and it was fun. Then Friday was the last day for Erin's co-worker Joe and they went out for drinks and dinner. It was month end drinks at PwC which entailed a pretty late night for me as well.

On Saturday Craig and Lisa came back to Auckland from going diving up north at Port Knights which is one of the top 10 dive spots in the world. We ended up going to the All Blacks Road Show which was pretty cool and we got rugby balls and signatures from 1 current All Black and 1 past All Black (Joe Rokocoko and Buck Shelford).


At night Erin and I had dinner plans at Paul and Emma's house with Jeroen and Mascha. While we were over there enjoying some good food, Craig and Lisa watched the All Blacks beat the Wallabies at Foxes which is a bar in the Viaduct. Craig and Lisa headed down south on Sunday and we enjoyed our time with them and having some house guests.


Today Erin and I had a lunch at Sunshine Chinese Restaurant and had Yum Char or Dim Sum as it's sometimes called. It was very good!