Waiheke Island

     Two weeks ago I went to Waiheke Island with two friends. I have been holding off writing about it because I was hoping to do some photo sharing and get some better pics for the blog however that hasn't happened so this will just have to be a little photo sparse.
     Waiheke Island is a 45 minute ferry ride from Auckland but it feels like it's another world. We got up super early on a Saturday morning to go over. Once on the island we got bus passes and went to the Ostend Farmers Market. The market was fun. It was lots of the local olive growers selling olives and many towns people selling crafts, antiques and thrift items. There was also lots of food. I had a delicious crepe for lunch there. Then we hung out at the beach for a little while. Saturday afternoon we got on the Vineyard Hopper tour bus and went to a number of wineries. We went to Stoneyridge first (http://www.stonyridge.co.nz). It was good wine but it was so busy that we didn't get very personal service.  I loved the location. It was absolutely beautiful. Next we went to Te Motu (http://www.temotu.co.nz). It is only a few minute walk through the vineyard from Stoneyridge. I really liked how personal the service there was. They had someone explain each wine to us. I wasn't a huge fan of their wines though. I thought they were all quite strong. Then we ventured on to Casta Miro but it was so busy that we just walked to the next one. There weren't places to sit at Casta Miro and we didn't want to do a tasting at the bar in a packed room. We walked down the hill from Casta Miro to Obsidian (http://www.obsidian.co.nz). I really liked Obsidian. I had a wind there called a viognier. I had never seen it before. It is a white wine that was sweet but not over powering. It was really great. The location was also lovely. It was much less crowded than many of the other places. We left Obsidian in hopes of going to Mud Brick (http://www.mudbrick.co.nz) but there was a wedding so we were rerouted to Cable Bay (http://www.cablebayvineyards.co.nz). We could have done a tasting there but the tasting room was a dark cellar and they have a beautiful outdoor area that looks out onto Auckland City so we choose to have a drink and a chat on the lawn instead of in the dark tasting room.

Little Palm Beach at sunset

   

Bio-Shelter Back Packers

Once we had finished tasting for the day we headed down to Onera Beach. Alvin and I went swimming. Then we hung out on the beach and snacked on chips and home made hummus that Alvin got from the market. Eventually we had to move on so we could check in at our hostel. We stayed at Bio-Shelter Backpackers. Sara came with us to check in even though she couldn't stay the night. Then we all walked to Little Palm Beach together. We got fish and chips for dinner there. Then we all headed back to the ferry. Sara went back to Auckland :( Then Alvin and I returned to the hostel. Now the hostel was a very unusual place. The owner has been making it during his spare time over the past few years. It is made of a stucco like substance, various bricks and stones, odd scraps of wood and lots of decorative bits. There were mosaics in the floor made from broken glass and the ends of bottles in the walls. It was very visually interesting. Alvin and I spent a lot of time looking at things and wondering why things had been put places. I also wonder where he found all of the items. It was such an eclectic batch of things that it doesn't seem reasonable that he has just acquired them on the island over the years but I suppose it's possible. The odd thing for me was that so much work had been spent on making it visually interesting that there were a few moments of potentially bad craftsman ship. I did like that he was trying to lead a very eco friendly life. He had solar panels and the waste from the toilets was composted for the gardens.

View from Cable Bay

     Saturday we got a bike hire. That may not have been our best idea cause Waiheke is a very mountainous place. After getting our bikes we biked into town and had gelato for breakfast. Then we went to Mud Brick. It was really nice. It was higher up on the hill than Cable Bay and you could see more of the shore. The views were absolutely beautiful. The wine was also quite nice. I found a red wine that I quite liked which is pretty rare for me. Then we sat outside and enjoyed the view for a while. After that we decided to go back to Cable Bay cause it was just awesome. We spent most of Sunday hanging out at Cable Bay and chatting. We got a really amazing lunch there. We had mini burgers and grilled paprika shrimp. It was so delicious! Then we biked back to the ferry station and came home. It was super nice to have a weekend away.

Cyclone Lusi and Beer Fest

View from my window during the storm

     Last weekend we were suppose to have a cyclone. The news papers, radio and TV had all sorts of predictions about the cyclone. There was suppose to be 120kmh (75mph) wind and lots of rain with the potential of flooding in some areas. People kept saying how bad it was going to be. On Friday night it was a little cloudy and kind of windy. Saturday more clouds and more wind with a little of rain but not so bad. The worst part about it was the ocean. It was really choppy and all sorts of stuff washed up onto the beach. I went out to have a look at it the next day. There were piles of seaweed and garbage all over.  All this week there has been an excess of seaweed on the beach as well. I have been surprised at how long it takes to clear. I'm not sure how often they get cyclones here but it seems like it is sort of regular. None of the kiwis seems as conceded as the au pairs were. The kiwis were definitely right to not be overly concerned about it.

Another view during the storm (compare it to the view in
my post Finally to New Zealand)

      Initially when looking at the weather report I had decided that I should skip Auckland Beer Fest and hang out at home instead but due to the mildness of the cyclone I got to go to beer fest! The festival was downtown on Queens Wharf in the Cloud. It is a big plastic structure that is suppose to look like a cloud but I think it looks more like a long white caterpillar. Here is a link (http://auckland.scoop.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/cloud4-600x4003-e1315541026723.jpg) so you can decide what you think it looks like. At beer fest there were twenty five beer vendors and eighteen food vendors. A 165 ml pour of beer cost $3-4. The food prices capped at $15. It made it more affordable. They also had lot of bands. I didn't get a chance to watch many of them though. The bummer was you had to pay $40 for a ticket just get get into the door. It was worth it though I had oodles of fun at beer fest. I met up with Alvin, Sara and Luis there. We tried beer from seven different places. At most of the places we all got something different and shared so we all had more tastes. I really liked the first place we went which was Spring and Fern. I had a really good plisner there. If you want to know more about the festival look here http://www.beerfestival.co.nz.
      Beer fest ended at 8 so we listened to the music until nine when they kicked everyone out. Then we went to a burger place called the White Lady. It was a pretty good burger. It even came with American Mustard on it. It was reminded me of  of Five Guys and Fries but they didn't have cajun fries and the cheese was white not yellow. After our refueling we went dancing. We danced for quite a while. We started at a bar that had an odd DJ but good music then moved to a bar called Cowboys. It was a lot like Big Al's in Spokane minus the mechanical bull. They had quite good music as well so we danced more. When we got tired of dancing we went to a quiter sports bar and chatted. It was such a fun night full of great company and lots of laughs.

Reflections on Watching an Iron Man

     Last weekend we drove down to Taupo to watch Rob compete in the Iron Man race. I hadn't had the joy of being in the car with four children for more than an hour before and I have to say I absolutely love car DVD players. It's just so long for them to be in the car. They got really cranky. The drive was beautiful though. It is similar to the drive to Rotorura that I did the week before. Coming into Taupo reminds me a lot of Flathead lake. It's a huge lake surrounded by mountains.
     On Friday the kids competed in the Iron Kids race. There were three distances a 750 m, 1500m, and a 2km race. Tally did the shortest. Indigo and Kaiya did the middle. Jack did the 2km. They had lots of fun with with race. They each got a t-shirt and a medal. They also got pictures with some of the professional triathletes which may have been more exciting for Rob and Tanya than for the kids. The race was very early in the morning so that the kids that go to Taupo schools could do the race then get to school. After the race we scootered down around the shore of the lake. Unfortunately I was getting sick so I didn't particularly enjoy spending time tootling about. After lunch we went back and I took a nap which helped a lot. After my nap we went down to the lake and the kids swam. I stepped into the water decided it was freezing and got out! The rest of the day was just kind of bumming around and hanging out.

After all the kids had finished
Iron Kids.

    On Saturday Tanya got up and went down with Rob to watch him start. I hung out at the apartment with the kids. When Tanya got back we made some signs for Rob then went down to watch the bike. The bike route went right in front of the apartment so it was really easy to watch. Tanya had bought the kids noise makers from the $2 shop. They were really fun. The noise makers were particularly helpful for for me being as I had completely lost my voice. After seeing Rob pass us on the bike we got some lunch and headed down to watch the run. We watched with their triathlon trainers (Boost triathlon training). The kids had lots of fun yelling at the runners and giving them high fives. They also climbed trees and scootered in the car park. It was a super long day for the kids. We took a break from cheering to get some dinner then went to the finish to see Rob finish.
     I simultaneous enjoyed and hated the day. It was fun to watch the kids being supportive and the racers. There were lots of really nice people around to chat with. I just felt ill and had no voice. It is quite difficult to cheer without a voice. I tried a few times but it ended up being more of a squeak than a cheer. Probably not the most motivational thing to hear. I hadn't realized exactly how much cheering there is. For the most part the kids and Tanya were yelling or clapping from the time we got to where we watched from to the time we left. I also hadn't realized exactly how many people go to watch an Iron Man. There was an enormous number of spectators. Many had people in the race but there were also some that seemed to just be there cause the race was in their home town and all the streets were shut down so why not.  Another surprising thing for me was the number of people that traveled internationally for the race. On their running numbers they had countries listed. There were people from Australia, UK, USA, Canada, Japan and many other places. I knew that this is one of the Iron Man Competetions that attracts a lot of international racers but I didn't realize exactly how many it actually attracted.
     For those of you who aren't familiar with an Iron Man Competition it is a 3.8km swim, 180 km bike and a 42.2km run. If you're not so savy with kilometers it's a 2.3 mi swim, 112 mi bike and a 26 mi run. I had a hard time figuring out what all the distances meant. Time wise the pro's do the race in 8-9 hours and it is super variable for age groupers but some finish close the the pros while the maximum time allowed is 18 hours. Rob finished in 12.5 hours and was very happy with it.
   Here is a link to the coverage of the Taupo Iron Man Competition.
http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/coverage/detail.aspx?race=newzealand&y=2014#axzz2v9y2ga9p

How to Talk Like a Kiwi

    In the past two months (nearly) I have learned a number of new words and a number of words that are used differently than in the U.S. Initially it was slightly confusing but I think I've figured it out...for the most part

New Zealand                    US
Togs.................................Swim suit (I asked the three year old to put on her swim suit and she replied
                                                           "We don't wear suits to swim here.")
Petrol...............................Gas (If you say gas they think of digestive gas)
Jandles.............................Flip flop (I was told it came from Japanese sandals which were popular
                                                         before flip flops. Not sure if it's true though.)
Holiday............................Vacation
Batch...............................Holiday house/Cabin
Courgette.........................Zuchinni (say courgette bread just doesn't sound right)
Capsicum.........................Peppers
Lollies..............................Candy
Rubbish...........................Garbage
Ring.................................Call
Nappy..............................Diaper
Car park...........................Parking lot
Baby capsule...................Baby car seat
Motorway........................High way
Angle tomatoes...............Grape Tomatoes
Trolly...............................Shopping Cart
Rubber.............................Eraser
Bench..............................Counter
Fluffy..............................Steamer (warm milk and flavoring)
Ice block.........................Popsicle
Bush walk.......................Hike
Muesli.............................Granola
Plaster.............................Band aide
Jumper............................Jacket
Faffing............................Goofing off
Sorted.............................Figured out
Plate................................Braid (I was informed that you braid rope and plate hair by the oldest)


I feel like I've missed a few. I'll just have to add them another time. In the mean time tomorrow we are off to Taupo to watch Rob do an Iron Man competition. For those that don't know it's an enormous triathlon. Should be a fun trip.

Rendezvous with Marilou and Andy

Marilou and Kirsten in a hobbit house!

     This Friday I drove down to Rotorura to meet up with Marilou and Andy Mitchell (my aunt and uncle). They are on a three week tour of New Zealand. Initially we didn't think that I would be able to see them but after some creative scheduling, a late night three hour drive and a hostel full of American exchange students we were able to meet up!
 
 We met agh the Rotorura Tourism Information Site to get on the bus to Hobbiton. Andy wasn't particularly keen on the tour so Marilou and I set out for a girls day. We had just over an hour to chat on the bus before getting to Hobbiton. It was great to catch up with her.

   Once we got to Hobbiton our tour guide, Wyatt took us through the shire. We got to see the gardens, go in a hobbit hole, see Bilbo/Frodo's house, hear about the making of the movies and last but not least have a drink and lunch at the Green Dragon.  For lunch we had something called a Mouse Trap. It is bread with a fruit chutney, ham and cheese that is toasted. I really enjoyed it. I had the house amber ale and Marilou had the cider. A drink comes as part of the tour.
   
Some things I learned from my Hobbiton tour:
         Hobbiton is located on the Alexander farm. They still raise thousands of sheep each year.
         The New Zealand Army helped make the road through the Alexander farm to the Shire.
         New Line Cinemas owns the inside of the Baggins house. This is the
              only hobbit hole that is full done on the inside and unfortunately
              one that you are not allowed into.
         The moss on everything is made out of yogurt and dye
         They used children from the local school to cut the wood so it would
              be the right size
         Children also played some of the hobbits
         There are six full time gardeners to keep up the site
         The tree on top of the Baggins house is fake. It was originally a real
               tree but they cut it apart  moved it and put it back together for the
               filming of Lord of the Rings. The tree died shortly after so a
                replica was made in Wellington. It is made of steel and silicone.
         Every time that Gandalf is hugged in the movie it isn't Gandalf. It is a 7' 2" police man from
                Auckland.
         The original set made for Lord of the Rings was quickly torn down because of Peter Jackson's
                  contract with the family that owns the farm. Later it was all rebuilt using permanent
                  materials instead of the temporary ones used initially.

The fake tree and Baggins home!

     After returning to Rotorura we decided that it would be a great time to explore some of the geothermal parts of the region. We went to Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. It is one of the biggest cohesive basins in the Taupo Volcanic Band. One of the things that Marilou and I noticed was that the geothermal areas are so spaced out here. We are used to going to Yellowstone where once you are there everything is quite close. Here it is very spread out. There are a few pools here and a few mud pots there but nothing like the gyser basins of Yellowstone. That being said the coloring of these pools was slightly different. There were the orange/reds and teal/greens that we are accustomed too but there was also a lot of bright green. One of the signs
 said the green was due to the high levels of sulfur.
 The green pools were absolutely gorgeous!

This pool is water that has run off from
the Crystal pool. As it runs down stream
it collects ferrous salts and sulphur giving
it the bright green color.

This is the Crystal pool. It's runoff creates
many of the other pools in the basin.
As the water runs off it collects other minerals
changing the colors

 

Maori man during the opening haka.

      After a quick shower and a small rest we headed out to Tamaki Maori village for dinner and a cultural presentation. Our korotiwaka (tour guide) on the waka (bus trip) to the village was hilarious. A man had to volunteer to be our chief. He was responsible for accepting the peace offering from the people of the village. When we arrived at the village there was a te wero (challenge); where the Maori men did a haka and laid out a peace offering. The chiefs from the buses had to accept the offering and then do the traditional Maori greeting called the hongi with the chief. A hongi is when noses are pressed together two times to greet someone. Then we were allowed into the village. They broke us into groups and gave a series of presentations where they taught us about wood carving, battle training, stick games, weaving, the haka and poui. Andy, Marilou and I all volunteered for something. Andy did the haka. Marilou used the poui to created rhythms to a song. I played a stick game which they used to increase agility and hand eye coordination. Then we moved into the Wharenui (meeting house) for a presentation from the Maori. They did dances and sang traditional songs. It was so cool. After that we had dinner. We ate chicken and vegetables prepared in a hangi. It is a hole in the ground where coals and the food is placed and then it is covered again. It was absolutely delicious! Unfortunately dinner was the end of our night and the end of my time with Marilou and Andy.

Playing the stick game. The purpose
was to respond to when right or left
was called in Maori and run to the
other stick on the left or right side
and catch it before it fell.

This is a popular Maori love song. Due to camera microphone quality it is not the best recording.
I also ran out of batter so it's not the whole song.

A very special thanks to Marilou and Andy for letting me hang out with them for the day and all of the fun things we got to do! You guys are awesome!
 

       

Auckland Lantern Festival

     This weekend was the Lantern Festival in Auckland. It is a large festival located in Albert Park in the Central Business District of Auckland. It is about half an hours drive from my house. I am trying to add maps to my posts. Let me know if it's helpful.
     The festival is a celebration of the Chinese New Year. There are hundreds of lanterns as well as two stages with martial arts demonstrations, karaoke, dance and cultural presentations. It is put on by the Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED) and Asia New Zealand Foundation. It has been running for 15 years. During the day there are also events for families such as kite making, tea ceremonies and crafts.
     I tried to meet some au pairs at the festival Saturday night but due to some technical issues we never met up. The cellular networks here are not so great and when there is lots of traffic on them they sort of shut down. It was difficult for us to communicate via text or call cause nothing would go through.
    Sunday T and I took the kids. It was kind of stressful to have four kids at an event with thousands of people but they actually did very well listening and staying near us. They really liked the dancing performances. We had dinner with them tonight.

Tree decorations.

     If you want to see the official blurb on the event here it is http://www.aucklandnz.com/lantern
     Here are a bunch of photos from it. Please forgive the quality. I forgot to bring my camera and took them all on my iPod.

They had lots of trees covered in lanterns of
flowers, bugs, traditional lateens and other shapes

There were areas that had scluptulrs like these.
They were amazing to look at during the night
but easier to photograph in the day

The sign next to this said it was a traditional type of lantern
even though it is a sculpture because the fisherman symbolizes
prosperity. 

Day version. Night is shown at right.

Many of the stairs up to the park were decorated
with this type of lantern. 

There were lots of dragon lanterns. This is one
of my favorites. 

They had a whole section of animals
doing people things.

This is one of my favorites. I could only
get a tiny bit in a picture. The whole thing
was quite a bit longer than a Ford Explorer
and about as tall.

Bay of Islands Adventure!

    Last Thursday (Feb 6th) I headed up to Bay of Islands with seven other au pairs. Thursday was Waitangi Day (a national holiday giving us the day off). It is the celebration of the signing of a treaty between the British and the Maori. The treaty was signed near Pahia where we were staying. There were some Waitangi Day events there but by the time we got to them most of it was over. The weather was also not ideal for out door activities. We walked over to the Waitangi day celebration. There were lots of Maori boats and cultural exhibits up. Unfortunately we didn't spent much time looking at them because it was very rainy and windy. None of us had enough rain gear to stay dry in it.

We went up the East side of the country to get to Pahia and
came back the long way so we could see some more things.

    On our way to Pahia we stopped at the Kawiti Glow Worm Caves. These are actually maggots of a type of fly. They live in caves over water. They created a sticky string beneath them and use their light to attract small bugs that will fly up from the stream. According to our guide, the brighter the glow worm is the hungrier it is. They glow by combining an enzyme with oxygen. We were unable to take photos because the flash can hurt the worms. If you want to see some photos here is the link to the tour http://kawiticaves.co.nz.

    We were staying at a really cool hostel. They called it a backpackers resort which was exactly what it was. All eight of us crammed into a small apartment. It was nice that they gave use the apartment when we had reserved/paid for dorm rooms. Having a kitchenette and bathroom made everything so much easier. The hostel also had a swimming pool, hot tub, e-mail and laundry. It definitely made the trip nicer to have such a nice place to be staying.

   The day after arriving we took the ferry to Russell. It is a 10 minute ferry ride from Pahia. It was a very quaint old town. It was once the capital of New Zealand. It also has the first hotel licensed to sell liquor in New Zealand. It was given its license in 1840 after the British took over and changed the law to require licenses for alcohol sales. It was still raining so it was difficult to see all of the historic sites in Russell. While in Russell one of the girls picked up a pamphlet for a twilight kayaking trip. I'm so glad that she did because it was awesome.

All seven of the au pairs!

 
     Seven of the eight of us went on the Twilight Safari Kayak trip. We got on a large motor boat and started up the river. Part way up we got into kayaks and kayaked to Haruru Falls. Then we got to kayak into the falls. We also hopped out of the kayaks and swam into the falls right next to the rocks. It was so much fun. The rain made it easy to get in the water too. This was definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip. Here is the link to the trip we did http://kayakcruises.co.nz/site/day-twilight-safari/

Ninna (my kayak partner) and I

      On Saturday we had a great stroke of luck because the sun came out! We had scheduled a dolphin cruise and sailing tour. The dolphin tour was fun but a little unfortunate. Due to the weather lots of the tours had been rescheduled so our tour was so packed. Most of the boat was covered and only twelve people could be outside on the bow at a time. It made it hard to get good views. We saw one pod of dolphins. It was quite cool to see them in the wild. We had hoped to be able to swim with them but were unable to because they had a baby with them. New Zealand has very strict rules about proximity to marine mammals. Their Department of Conservation says you can't swim with a dolphin pod if there are any juvenile dolphins, you can't have more than 18 people in the water with a pod at a time, you can't follow a pod in a boat for more than 30 minutes if they have juveniles with them and other things. It was quite fun to see the dolphins. They were very playful. I found it incredibly difficult to get a good picture of them. There were researchers from the University of Auckland on our boat that were cataloging the dolphins using their dorsal fins like finger prints. I thought it was quite cool that you could track pods and movement of dolphins between pods with photos.
   The second half of the day we spent on Lion New Zealand. It is a 80 ft sailing yacht that has sailed around the world multiple times. We transferred off the Dolphin boat the Lion New Zealand then had some time to explore one of the many islands. We got to swim from the boat to the island. The water was so clear and beautiful. It was surprisingly cold though. We took a short jaunt up the hill to see the view. It was absolutely amazing! After our time on the island we had lunch on the boat then set off sailing. As "crew" it was our job to work the grinders which helped us tack and raise the main sail. With a boat so large you can't pull the rope to tack like you can on the J-40 that I"m used to. It was tons of fun to be on such a big boat. They gave everyone a chance to drive the boat for a bit. We saw the dolphins again on the sail boat. According to the skipper (Tom) the dolphins like the sail boat because the keel is so deep that they can dive underneath the boat and be pushed along by the keel for a free ride. It was more exciting to see them from the sail boat than on the dolphin cruise.  We were much closer to them and had a better view. I also wasn't expecting to see them so the surprise was great.

Our group at the top of the island were we hopped of the sail boat. 

Steering an 80 ft yatch

      On the sail boat I got a really bad/weird sun burn. Apparently I need to work on putting sunscreen on evenly. I have all sorts of little spots that are really burned and turning brown. I didn't have any aloe vera and my burn really hurt so Ozmene told me that her mom puts plain yogurt on it to cool a sun burn. So we tried it and it worked quite well. I looked silly laying on the floor with yogurt all over my back but it was so helpful. Yay for Danish sun burn tips!

     On Sunday we drove back down the West coast of the country. We stopped to see the top of Haruru falls (where we kayaked too). It was nice to see it on a sunny day from the top! Then we stopped at a scenic lookout point near Omapere. It was cool because while it was on the coast it was so different than from where we had been that morning. The Bay of Islands is very green and lush while Omapere was very sandy and desert like. Unfortunately I don't have any photos from the trip home because I packed my camera and my bag ended up on the bottom of all of our bags :( About thirty minutes from the lookouts are the Kauri trees. We saw Tane Mahuta which is the oldest Kauri. The signs said it is estimated to be about 2000 years old. It was phenomenal!

    We didn't stop much after that (except for coffee and directions!). The drive through the Waipoua Forest where the Kauri trees are was a huge test of my driving skills. The road was incredibly windy. I could never see more than about 50 yards before the next turn. The road was also quite narrow. My car has corner sensors and when cars passed me going the other direction my sensors would ding. I now feel like a very successful driver.

   We got back to Auckland around dinner time. It was a great trip but it was a long day of traveling on Sunday and I was glad to be home.