Seafood Festival

This weekend we went to the Auckland Seafood Festival. We started the morning off with Mimosas and then walked to the fish market where we enjoyed wine and different types of seafood from area restaurants. The weather was great, so we stayed at the festival all day long until we met up with some additional friends for dinner and a play in the evening.

This morning New Zealand "sprung forward" for daylight savings. Now we are one hour further ahead of everyone back home. Horray for Spring long sun-shining days!

Eruption

Big news down here in New Zealand. There was a volcano eruption last night.

Remember how Erin and I went skiing on Mt. Ruapehu a couple months ago which is an active volcano. WELL...last night it erupted, a pretty scary thought for sure. Thankfully only 1 person was injured, but some of the pictures are pretty cool. Please check out the following link.

On Sunday, the weather was amazing! We were very excited that Spring had finally arrived that we decided to pack a picnic and go for a walk up One Tree Hill. One Tree Hill is a dormant volcanic cone and was the site of the largest prehistoric Maori settlement in the area. One Tree Hill was named after the solitary tree that was placed on its summit in 1640. Protestors have attacked the succession of single trees, so the last one was removed in 2000.

When we finally reached the top of One Tree Hill we were very sad because the weather "turned to custard" (that's a new saying I've learned here), it started to rain and our picnic quickly came to an end! I was lucky enough to snap a quick photo of Jeremy at the top and the view of the city.




After we reached the base of One Tree Hill, we decided to drive to the top of Mount Eden which is the highest volcanic cone in Auckland and is 643 feet tall. The views were great but the rain was coming down hard, so we'll have to go back to get some pictures soon!

Minus 5

Friday night was the last day for a co-worker who was here on secondment from Fiji. He had been here for 21 months and was heading back to the PwC Fiji office. We had a good night out, which took us to many different bars including our first experience at the bar Minus 5 Degrees.

It's an ice bar here in Auckland and there are a few more around New Zealand and Australia. Before you go in you have to bundle up in jackets, gloves, and ladies who have exposed toes (Erin) have to put on booties. We were allowed to stay in there for 30 mins and had 1 drink each. Except for Kaushick who was heading back to Fiji, as you can see from the pictures below, he did a shot of Jagermeister through an ice sculpture.

This weekend I went for a makeup class with my friend Mascha. The class focused on accentuating your eyes. Here is my finished product:

It's a bit much for the day time, but looked nice at night!

The rest of our weekend was spent relaxing and rooting for the All Blacks. They beat Portugal 108 - 13!

Sickness

It's been a tough past two days here for both Erin and myself. On Monday night we made some very nice salads for dinner with smoked Salmon and all sorts of goodies. It tasted wonderful going down, but about 5 hours later it came back up for me. I spent the night in and out of the bathroom and felt terrible. The next morning it hit Erin and she was in and out of the bathroom as well.

We both missed work yesterday and stayed home today as well. It was our first sick days in NZ and the first time we have both been sick at the same time (not fun). Needless to say, we are probably not going to be having Salmon anytime in the near future.

World Cup of Rugby

The World Cup has finally arrived and the NZ is very excited. I know that we have blogged about the All Blacks in the past, but I figured I would give you guys a little refresher.

The All Blacks are the New Zealand National Rugby team. The origin of the name is still up for debate as to whether it came from the color of their uniforms when they first toured the world in 1905 (black with a silver fern) or a spelling mistake in the paper which was writing about how the team was made up of "all backs" (A back is a position on the rugby team). Not only are they ranked number 1 in the world, they are also know for the Maori traditional war dance called the Haka which is performed prior to any match and is awesome to watch.

The Rugby World Cup is in France and I spent my Saturday parked in front of the TV watching various games. It started out at 7:30am watching France v Argentina (Argentina had a big upset). The All Blacks v. Italy started at 11:45pm (NZ crushed them). At 2am in the morning Australia v. Japan started and it wasn't even close, as Japan looked like a little children playing against full grown men. At 4am USA v. England started. I was unaware that the US had a team, but they played pretty well against England who won the World Cup back in 2003. Unfortunately they ended up losing.

So opening weekend for the NFL and the BFL were non-existent for me as I'm fully wrapped up in the opening of the Rugby World Cup. Stay tuned for regular updates.

Who's heard of Panraven?

As you know we just got back from our trip to Fiji which was our Summer Vacation as well as our 1 Year Wedding Anniversary celebration. We had an amazing time and have captured our pictures and experiences using a Panraven album. We have made our album available to the public so you don't have to become a member, but becoming a member has great benefits.

Please click on the link below and it will take you to Panraven where you can view our album. Just click on the page to make it bigger so you are able to read and see the pictures and use the scroll buttons at the bottom to change pages.

Erin and Jeremy's Fiji Trip

Back to the Grind

We are back from Fiji and back to work. We had a great "holiday" (vacation is only an American word so I was told the other day) in Fiji. We are working on the pictures from our trip and will be posting them very soon, so stay tuned for that.

Auckland missed us while we were gone and both Hudson and PwC almost stopped operating, so both company's were very happy to see us return.

Bubbles and Toast

This past weekend was a lazy one at home. Jeremy did manage to fit in a few games of Poker and a round of golf though! Fun traditions like "Poker with the Guys" and "golf on Sunday" make it easier to adjust to life so far from home. Speaking of traditions, this coming weekend we will celebrate our one year anniversary!



To celebrate, we'll be heading to Fiji for an extra long weekend! Sadly our guest book champagne bottles could not make the trip to New Zealand with us so they will have to be used to celebrate anniversaries 3 - 10, but we'll be sure to pick up another bottle for this year's celebration.

We'll post some Fiji pictures as soon as possible!!

VIP in Action

I headed back to Auckland from a week out of town down in Hamilton today. Unfortunately it was a very rainy day, which made for a difficult commute.

I got hungry so I stopped at my trusty McDonalds for a visit. I haven't used the VIP sticker since I got it a couple months ago, so I figured it was time to put it into action. Every time I go to McDonalds it's always some type of burger that I'm getting. Down here we have "The Boss", it's a tasty burger with 2 big patties and a bunch of other toppings.

Today I decided to branch out and got a Chicken Parm sandwich (it's on the speciality menu). The VIP deal was a Filet o' Fish for 2 dollars. (pronounced fill-it instead of fill-eh as we pronounce it in the US) I have never had the Filet o' Fish, but I recently heard from Andy that it was a "great" sandwich. So...I decided to give it a try. Let me tell you, I was very impressed with the sandwich. The bun was nice and smooshy, but not soggy, the tartar sauce had just enough flavor and the fish was pretty decent. I've never had any type of fish sandwich before so it's tough for me to rank this one, but I imagine it would be right up there.

After a weeked away, we had one at home. This weekend we had our first dinner guests over. Jacqui and Jerry came over for some yummy food. We had "Grandma's Spaghetti" (a recipe from home) , salad, garlic bread, and chocolate trifle!

Once we were completely stuffed, we taught them how to play ZONK!

The weekend was wrapped up with a Sunday afternoon movie. We saw Transformers, which was GREAT!

Whakapapa

A weekend out of the city is always a fun adventure down under. Erin, myself, and Jochen (German friend) headed south around 3pm on Friday. We had about a 4 hour drive ahead of us and we wanted to ensure we beat the traffic out of the city, so we got out of work a little early. We played the alphabet game as well as a few other car games to pass the time.

We arrived in National Park and headed to "hire" skis and then hit the bar for some food and drinks. There were about 10 others from my work that were coming down for the weekend as well and they trickled into the bar during the night.

Saturday we headed to ski on an active volcano called Mt. Ruapehu (Whakapapa). It was an amazing sight and not having any trees on the mountain was pretty amazing. The conditions were good in the morning, but after about an hour, the snow started and visibility on the mountain became very bad (about 2 meters if you were lucky). We skied for 1/2 day and then all 2-wheel vehicles had to leave the mountain so we headed back down to where we were staying and headed to the bar. We did get a percentage of our lift ticket costs back, which was pretty good.

Sunday morning was more of the same, and we didn't even attempt to ski. The upper mountain didn't even open until after 10am, and even then, visibility was still pretty poor. On the way home, we stopped for a "coffee break", hit the driving range, and then got some burgers at Burger Wisconsin. We also found out why they are called Hamburgers when there is no Ham in them. (Charlie Nagreen named his creation after the Hamburg ground beef favoured by German immigrants in his hometown of Hortonville.)

So we are back in Auckland now, and we had a great time away, although we were only able to do limited skiing. Check out the pictures from our weekend here.

Chef Geronimo

I had a dinner with one of my engagement teams down here. We went to this place called Ristorante Andrea. It was a neat place where you make your own food and then eat it. We all got Italian names and Jeremy closely translates to Geronimo, so that was me for the night.

We made pizza, Tortellini, Gnocchi, and Tiramisu. I was called upon to be a desert chef and work on a Tiramisu, it was a lot of fun, and tasty as well.


This weekend we are heading out of town for a ski trip, so stay tuned early next week for an update and some pictures.

Back in NZ

Well after my 2 week trip to the US and Canada, I'm back in New Zealand. It was great to be home and see everyone again, but it's great to be back in NZ with Erin.

Last week I was in Toronto for a conference. The conference had many highlights, but the biggest thing that happened was getting stuck in the elevator with my colleague Chris for and hour an 1/2 until 3am in the morning.

I left Boston on Friday morning for New Zealand, and although I never experienced Saturday, my flight was very much enjoyable. The best thing that happened was that I got bumped into First Class from LA to Auckland. First Class was quite an experience. I had my own little "pod" area, first class service, food, even bathrooms (they had orchids in them and very spacious for a plane bathroom).

I landed here in Auckland, and unfortunately it was raining, but stopped around mid-day. Thanks to everyone who made my trip back to the US as fun, exciting, and tyring as it was.

US

As many of you know I've been in the US for a full week now. It's been very nice to be back home and visiting with so many friends and family. Although this is our New Zealand blog, I figured I would give a special update for my trip so far. My trip has been filled with plenty of good times including:
-Late night trip to Chinatown for some good food with Corey, Andy, Tim, and J
-Trip to the Maine House for which turned out to be a very rainy day. The good thing was, that we were able to play some Zonk!
-Full days at the office spending time with the PCAOB as well as many colleagues
-Time with my cute little niece Avery
-Drinks and Dinner (Tia's, The Living Room, Sail Loft, Joes, and the Intercontinental)
-Sushi with Charles and Jake
-Red Sox Game and watching Dice-K pitch (Thanks Mr. Katz)
-Road Ralley to Island Pond VT
-Party at the Pond (including volleyball, basketball, bocce ball, flip cup, beruit, hot tubs, and more)
-Dinner with Mom, Dad, Aunt Connie, Uncle Brian, Charles, Carrie, and Avery (we had Luigi's)
-Talking with Erin back in New Zealand!

I'm off to Toronto and will then be heading back to New Zealand at the end of the week.

Our Apartment

The past months (almost 4!!) have gone by very fast. Before we settle in any further, I thought it might be nice to show everyone where we live. Our apartment is quite cozy, but has lots of space for visitors. Please click here to see a slideshow of our apartment!

Home

I'm heading home this weekend for a business trip. It happens at a great time and I'll be able to participate in the Party at the Pond in VT. Can't wait for the 11th great year that I've been attending.

Erin will be bringing home the bacon here and making more and more placements. She got a bottle of wine today for another placement, GO ERIN!

Just because I'm going home doesn't mean that the blogging will stop...don't forget to keep checking.

This weekend kept us VERY busy!

Friday evening started out with after work drinks for both of us. Jeremy's lasted much later into the night, but we both had fun nights!

Saturday started off with a cafe breakfast and then we chatted with Mom and Dad Ciaccia and Avery and then Skyped with Andy. In the afternoon we went shopping at Sylvia Park, which is the biggest mall in New Zealand. It's so huge and popular so finding parking was a struggle. We used our navigational skills and found a spot in lot 12, just a short stroll from our usual entrance - at the food court. We had a quick lunch of sushi and then found our way to Kathmandu, so that I could find a new jacket. After lots of comparing, we purchased my new jacket and hit the road. Upon arriving home, we were STARVING, so we decided to go across the street to Auckland's #1 Chinese Restaurant - Grand Harbour. Dinner was delicious and we settled in for the night to watch Murder By Numbers and Independence Day.

Today we decided to clean the house. After cleaning, we Skyped with Brian and Mom Warden. Then it was time for grocery shopping. When we shop, we try to see how much money we can save with our discount card. Today we saved $40! That's the best we've done since arriving in New Zealand! Once we got back to the house, Jeremy took off with his friends Jacco and Jochen to hit the driving range. While they were gone, I made muffins for tomorrow's morning tea at work. (We host morning tea whenever someone new starts. There is a lot of turnover, so this is my 5th tea already!) When the guys were done with their golf, they decided to get some drinks at The Loaded Hog in the Viaduct, just down the street from where we live. I met up with them and we sat outside, enjoying the sun and lovely winter weather (no rain today - horray!) Our last stop for the day was the gym. We got a quick workout in and now we're here relaxing until the Sunday Night Movie (they show A LOT of movies here) comes on.

We hope everyone had a fun and exciting weekend like we did!!

July 4th Photos