Just Another Weekend in Aotearoa

Friday night we went to an Italian restaurant on the harbor to celebrate my birthday. We had an ok meal, but the view and ambiance made up for it! It is still hard for me to be ok with not tipping. I guess I just need to tell myself that they get paid a fair wage and don't rely on tips as part of their income like waiters do in the US. Oh well... We then stopped to get some delicious NZ ice cream on the way home. We then settled in for American Idol Friday night. Cozy.

Saturday Will's coworkers again invited us along on a beautiful day trip. We started off my going to a market in Matakana.

Just like a lot of farmers markets in the US, it is 30% farmers with fruits and veggies and 70% food products like homemade chocolates, waffles, sausage on a stick and buffalo burgers--->

As many of you know, Will has the gift of engaging strangers in conversation (which he gets from his dad). So while we were sitting at this picnic table, we started talking with two couples from south of Auckland. If you are in the country on the weekend from Auckland, you are called a JAFA (just another f***ing Aucklander). I would assume the influx of Aucklanders on the weekend is maybe similar to New Yorkers going to the Hamptons? Anyway, they were very friendly and one even gave us his card and said to call him if we are ever in his area. They took a picture of our group, and we realized we should have gotten a picture with them as well. Here we are....

After the market we took a long, winding drive to another beach. It was typical Auckland with sunshine and rain burst so we got to see lots of rainbows. 

Once we got to the beach we walked quite a way along the shore. I took my shoes off and walked in the water, Will kept to dry land. Even though it is "winter" the water felt quite nice. I really wanted to go swimming!! 

This picture feels like it needs to be in a music video for some boy band :) 

Once we got to the end at low tide there were tons of rocks to climb around on. I left my shoes way back at the beginning so I stayed on the soft sand. Will had a good time climbing on the rocks and hunting for interesting finds (we didn't find anything...)

We had beautiful views everywhere. As I said, it would rain for 5 min, then sunshine for 10, rain for 10.... We had to hide out in a cave for a little while when it came down particularly hard. I wasn't afraid to be in a cave like I would in the US since they don't have many scary animals here. The picture is of Will and May (his coworker)

After a good walk along the shore, we took another long, winding road to a winery. This one was not as fun. They had a few more "rules", including no BYO food, so we just had one glass of wine, then left. Plus, it was again raining. 

Sunday Will and I took a walk to Auckland Domain, which I would describe as the central park of Auckland. Obviously much smaller :) It took us a while to find it. We knew the general direction, but there was a major road in our path so we weren't sure how to get around it. After climbing up and steep hill, then back down the other side, we found that there was a crosswalk across the major road right before we climbed the giant hill. We tried to sit outside and read/ do work, but we learned why New Zealand's Maori name is Aotearoa, which means "land of the long white cloud". There was blue sky all around us, except a long slender cloud that blocked the sun for 30 minutes straight. With no sun, it was a bit too cold to sit outside, so we took the walk back home and Will worked the rest of the day, while I cleaned, cooked and did laundry! 

I'll leave you with a few more breathtaking pictures of the beach.