White Island

On Saturday we boarded a luxury launch for the hour and a half ride to White Island. Thankfully we took our seasickness pills as most of the people on the boat got pretty ill from the ride. After we arrived at White Island we hopped onto a small raft that took us to shore. We were equipped with hard hats and gas masks and began the tour.




White Island is estimated to be 150,000 to 200,000 years old. The tour took us all over the island, past bubbling mud, hissing steam, sulfur chimneys, and up to the edge of the crater lake. We felt like we were on another planet. The end of the tour took us to the remains of an old mining factory and back onto the boat for the trip back home.

The experience is definitely something that we recommend. However, the seasickness pills did make us very sleepy. We took a "nap" at 5:30pm and didn't wake up again until 12:30am, so we missed out on the entire night!

On another note, it saddens us that it has been determined for the best that Maxwell (Erin's dog) is put to sleep. He has lived a great life and brought plenty of joy to Erin and her family.

Driver's License

Jeremy was thrilled when I brought the mail as his official New Zealand Driver's License arrived today. I'll be applying for mine in a month when I don't have to sit for the exam. The licenses are good until 2018 and I reminded Jeremy so kindly that he would be 40 then! :o)

Kiwi Country

On Friday we took the day off of work to enjoy an extended weekend. We started the day off nice and slow - Jeremy did some work from home while I slept and then did a little bit of cleaning. We packed some sandwiches and hit the road around mid-day for the Bay of Plenty. The Bay of Plenty has a mild climate year round, so we were really looking forward to a nice sunny (and warm) get-away!

Our first stop on Friday afternoon was the town of Te Puke which is home to Kiwi 360. Kiwi fruit is one of New Zealand's main exports and is grown in the Bay of Plenty. We climbed aboard a kiwi cart and went on a tour of the kiwi orchards. Not only do they grown kiwis, but also a variety of other things such as avocados, macadamia nuts, apples, and lemonade lemons - which we got to taste on the tour. We also enjoyed some samples of kiwi wine and liqueur before buying some kiwi jam to take home.
We then hopped back into the car to head towards our final destination, Ohope Beach; one of New Zealand's best beaches. (We can't say we've really seen a bad beach yet!) We checked into the holiday park and quickly put our stuff into our cute little hut before heading out for dinner.

We decided to stop for some "take-aways" (the kiwi term for takeout) at a fish and chips shop down the street. There was so much to choose from, and our tummies were rumbling so we settled for fish burgers, chips, and a mussel fritter. The food was delicious. We were stuffed, but very satisfied. We finished the night off with a few games of Yahtzee before tucking in for the night. We had an early boat ride awaiting us on Saturday morning as we had booked a trip to White Island, New Zealand's most active volcano.

Erin Point

For the past couple of days we have been in full weekend mode. On Friday night, we settled in early with some pizza to watch the Warriors beat the Roosters in a Rugby League playoff game. On Saturday and Sunday mornings we were up early and at the gym...getting in beach body mode as the beach is just a few weeks away. Saturday afternoon found us shopping in the city. We stopped into Borders to pick out some travel books for our trip to Asia in 2009. We felt completely overwhelmed and decided to start with a advice from a travel shop instead. We have a tiny plan in place and will attack that over the coming months. We also ran into a few Australian Netball players during our shopping spree. They were in town for the NZ/Australia game. Once again, NZ dominated the court. We met up with Sander and Mirjam (from the Netherlands) for some coffee in the afternoon.

After our session at the gym today we relaxed for a while in the sun. By 2pm we were stir crazy and decided to go for a walk around the block. 2 hours and many steps later, we were back home. Our walk took us from Viaduct Harbour, where we live to the Auckland Harbour Bridge, up a big hill into Herne Bay and a place called Erin Point. We explored the point before stopping for a snack in Ponsonby and returning home for a homemade feast of slow cooker Curry Chicken.





We both have a busy week ahead and we'll be heading off to the Bay of Plenty next weekend to see New Zealand's most active volcano, White Island.

One More Work Conference

Jeremy arrived home from Florida very early on Monday morning. He brought back a few American treats like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (have we really gone 18 months without them?) and some face creams for me that are literally half the price at home. He quickly got back into the swing of things, returning to work Monday afternoon and has been going strong ever since. We did have a few early nights as he adjusted to the jet lag.

Yesterday we decided to check out a French market in Parnell, which is the town next to ours. The market was great! We enjoyed samples of cheese, bread, dips and wine and then purchased some fresh veggies, hummus and bread. We enjoyed that while I cooked up a new recipe (Oven Roasted Salmon with Pesto) from the You Are What You Eat cookbook I got a the book sale a few months ago. To my excitement, after many kitchen disasters, the recipe worked and looked just like it did in the book!

We finished off the night watching the All Blacks beat the Wallabies, yay!

Jeremy left early this morning for another work conference. The one is for PwC New Zealand's managers and partners, so we'll at least be in the same country this time around!

Busy week

I have been in the US for the past week at a conference in Orlando. The conference was very well done and had 1900 people attending. The Marriott which we stayed at is the largest in the world with 2004 rooms. I arrived on Monday night after 25 hours of travelling and had a few Bud Lights with Dennis and Eric. The next day we actually went to Blizzard Beach for some fun in the sun/water and the conference began that evening.

It was a great time reconnecting with all of my US colleagues during the various sessions during the day as well as over some beers and drinks at night. The B52's performed at the hotel for us 1 night which was pretty cool.
One night, my break-out group rented the House of Blues out and we had dinner and a show there. The nights were long and the hours of sleep which I was able to pull over were very few (ranging from 3-4 hours a night).

The conference ended on Friday afternoon and Dennis was nice enough to extend his stay and hang out with me on Friday. We went to Disney Quest as well as saw a Cirque Du Soleil show (La Nouba). I'm currently sitting in LA waiting for my next flight to take me back to Auckland. It was a great week and great to catch up with everyone.

Erin had a good week in Auckland (despite me not around). This included going to the gym, hanging out with our friend Diane and her son Matthew, going for a massage, and doing research for our trip to Australia in October.

Hope everyone is well and let the Football season begin!!