Well hello my lovelies! I know it has
been far far too long … I blame my Kindle (more on that later).
I'm going to start way back at
Halloween and give you a little taster of what that's like for us
here in New Zealand. I absolutely love Halloween and in the UK would
spend a wee while in the lead up to it preparing my pumpkins and
stocking up on sweets for the kiddies – this all stems from when I
lived with my mum, who used to go all out decorating the porch with
fake spider webs and a spooky pumpkin lantern on a stool greeting the
kids (and occasionally adults dressed up scarily too!)
It's somewhat different here – the
Kiwis haven't hugely adopted the trick or treat lifestyle and in 2011
we didn't have many trick or treaters at all – maybe 2 (I can't
really remember). But 2012 shocked me – we had around 18 callers!
Luckily I had stocked up on enough sweets ('lollies' as they're
called here) to cater for everyone and the costumes were fab.
Because it's coming into summer for us
when Halloween happens the nights are very light so pumpkins don't
have the same effect...they're also out of season so quite expensive
to waste! Needless to say my pumpkins have stopped...but I do eat
them all the time now so that more than makes up for it!as I would
never have dreamt to eat pumpkin in the UK!
Change isn't necessarily a bad thing
though – I also don't have any fear of being egged over Halloween
here...I remember in the UK you would be less likely to pop to Asda
on Halloween night for fear of the gangs of kids deciding you were an
easy target but I have gladly seen no evidence of that malice here.
My pumpkins in the UK - 2010
Witch pumpkin - 2009
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Wolf pumpkin - 2009
Halloween was followed by bonfire night – you can only legally buy fireworks in New Zealand for 3 days of the year (prior to bonfire night) and during those 3 days a number of little stalls pop up on the sides of the road and in shopping centres where you can purchase to your heart's content.
As we live on the North Shore and have
pretty awesome views over the city we decided to just drive up the
road and watch from afar, it was lovely. They don't seem to do
bonfires here though – just the fireworks (not that I have seen
anyway).
Not long after bonfire night the OH
(Other Half) and I had a free weekend and made a last minute decision
to go to the theatre. One of my favourite films is Little Shop of
Horrors (the Rick Moranis spoof version...not the black comedy) and
it Auckland Theatre Company were performing it...and there were 2
seats left for that very night...perfect! When we got there were
assumed it must have been a cancellation as our seats were on the
very front row at the side of the stage...our feet were literally on
the stage! It was an awesome show and we both thoroughly enjoyed it.
We came out of the theatre into the bar area and there were canapes
being served and drinks lined up along the bar...turns out it was the
opening night and we were free to help ourselves! That was a turn up
for the books! The cast were around enjoying a drink with family &
friends and the director got up to make a speech...it was all very
fun and a very random evening! You can read a review of it here.
November was busy in work as I had 80
or so summer interns starting and I look after their initial
induction day – but they're a great, fun group to work with!
In November we also had a total eclipse
of the sun in new Zealand for the first time in 25 years – we were
all watching it out of the window in work but it was super bright!
The day was quite overcast but I managed to get a better picture
through the cloud is it gave some respite from the glare.
Auckland, New Zealand - total eclipse of the sun November 2012
Auckland, New Zealand - total eclipse of the sun November 2012
November usually signals the start of
the cruise liners too – and we have many of those throughout the
summer season. I have a pretty good view of the docked cruise liners
from my kitchen in work.
View from the kitchen in work - often accommodating cruise liners
December starts with the unofficial
beginning of summer – Crates with Mates day. The idea is that you
get together with your mates and all bring a crate of beer to
celebrate the start of hopefully an amazing summer! Quite a nice
start to a season I think (although I'd prefer a nice NZ sauv...)
In December we headed down to
Whangamata for the weekend as we had been invited to a friend's 60th
birthday celebrations. The theme? Americana! So I decided to dress up
as Sandy from Grease and the OH went as Barack Obama (what a couple
eh?!) Christine (whose birthday it was) and her husband John had
arranged to book up all of the baches around theirs and a load of us
headed down for a weekend of celebrating.
We got there on the Friday and settled
in with a few drinks then on the Saturday the OH and I headed to the
beach for breakfast and coffee before we all reconvened at Christine
& John's for the activity they had planned for all of us.
Basically it was a treasure hunt around the local town – we got
into groups of 4-6...one person needed a camera and one needed to
drive – the others were to complete the tasks laid out. We were
given our packs and sent on our way! The pack contained an American
flag hat, a list of things we needed to collect (think pine cone,
staple, flexy straw), a map of the local area and a list of the
activities and photographs needed to complete the task...things like
leap frogging over a stranger, pictures with strangers on a
roundabout, etc etc. It was all great fun!
The activity ended with us all having
to go to a local pharmacy which had already been given the heads up
that we were going to be arriving and printing out our photographs
and returning to John & Christine's bach to be judged.
The group are quite a competitive lot
and this was apparent when the judging was announced! We all had to
agree that the creativity of the winners was unparalleled and we
celebrated with a few drinks (and a nap in my case!)
Saturday night was party time and we
all got dressed up and had food and drinks into the early hours. All
in all it was an awesome weekend. HUGE thanks to John & Christine
for the invite and for such a fabulous time.
Whangamata beach
Christmas crept up and before we knew
it we were wrapping up in work and preparing for the festive season
(my office closes down for 3 weeks over Christmas). I had pretty bad
toothache coming up to Christmas and ended up having a root canal a
few days before Christmas day which made it all better! Aside from
that Christmas was awesome.
It usually takes a wee while to wind down after work and ease into the Christmas holidays but this year we started our holiday by driving up to Paihia in the Bay of Islands after the last day of work and spent 2 glorious nights in a hotel up there. The result? Instant relaxation! I hadn't been there since we went for Valentine's day when we were here on holiday in 2010 so it is filled with happy memories for me and this trip was no different.
Lazing by the pool in Paihia
We had been invited to celebrate Christmas day with the
kiwi family (like last year) but hadn't had a Christmas just the 2 of
us since 2008 so decided to do just that. We awoke on Christmas day,
had eggs benedict for brunch then headed for a walk along Takapuna
beach while dinner was cooking. The day was quite overcast so it was
perfect for a roast! Well, it was still very warm but no blazing
sunshine so a roast seemed do-able!
My main gift from the OH was a Kindle.
I absolutely love reading and have never really looked into getting
one for myself – I love cracking the spine of a book, it's all part
of the enjoyment. However, now that I have a Kindle I absolutely love
it. Books are quite expensive here in NZ (you don't get the great
deals you get in Asda!) and the Kindle allows be to indulge in my
passion for reading without costing me a small fortune! For fear of
sounding like a Kindle advert – it's just so convenient to take on
the bus to read on the way to and from work and I head out at
lunchtime to lounge in the sunshine and catch up on my latest
characters. I have just checked my archive and I have read 28 books
since Christmas day (see, I am a real book worm!).
A festive Sky Tower
Festive Lily
Mmm ... Christmas dinner
For New Year we also decided to have a
quiet one and invited Ange & John over for a nice relaxing
evening of bubbles, beer and games! At midnight we took a walk up the
road and watched the fireworks from the Sky Tower and across the
city, then headed back home to teach Ange & John how to play Oh,
Hell (cards) and finally called it a night at around 4am!
New Year's Day the OH and I brushed off
the cobwebs with a couple of hours out cycling in Long Bay on the craziest
mountain bike track I have ever been on...some of the hills were so
steep I was far to scared to ride down them and had to get off my
bike and run down! We did find a nudist beach though which I found
rather amusing (childish, I know!)
At the top of a scary hill
The OH taking on a hill like a pro'
Beautiful views
Beautiful views
The OH was working in between the
public holidays over Christmas but I finally was on leave until 14
January – it's pretty quiet all around Auckland until the kids go
back to school in February (after their summer holidays) as everyone
heads North for the summer.
During the Christmas break our landlady
told us that she was selling her house (next door to us) and going
travelling to the UK and Europe so we consequently decided to move
house. We knew we were going to move in 2013 anyway and thought it
would be good for her to have secure tenants in the unit while she
was away so we just brought our plans forward. We just needed more
space. I may have mentioned previously how crazy the housing market
is here (both buying and renting) so apologies if I am repeating
myself! When you are looking to rent a place here you really need to
get stuck into it because the houses are snapped up within hours.
I started looking while on Christmas
break and found a few places which were gone before I'd had chance to
even look at them but managed to squeeze in a few viewings. We found
a place just up the road from the unit we were living in and it had
just been listed so I arranged to view it at 4pm that same day and by
the next day we had sent in our application forms to live there (yep,
you apply to rent and they choose who they think is the most suitable
tenant) and by the following morning we had it secured. Within 3
weeks we were moved in to our new 4 bedroom house (well...3 beds and
an office space really) with a spacious garden and decking area.
Perfect!
Lily has settled in quickly and loves
all the space she has to roam around, and she didn't go missing
(bonus!)
Lily
January saw Auckland Anniversary
weekend when we headed to the Auckland Seafood Festival with Ange &
John and had a great time eating seafood, drinking bubbles and
listening to music. It was a great day out and I managed to taste my first ever oyster at teh Bollinger & oyster stall! The Bollinger was lovely, the oyster...not so much! To be fair it wasn't as slimy as I thought it would be but it just tasted of the Tabasco and vinegar which I put on it so I didn't really see the point. I may try them again somewhere else 'cause the OH loves them so I'd like to see if they grow on me!
Auckland Seafood Festival 2013
Mmm ... scallops!
Great music
Then Waitangi Day followed closely in
early February – we spent the day at the beach and then headed home
to discover that we were under tsunami watch as there had been an
earthquake off the Cook Islands. We didn't have a tsunami thankfully.
February was crazy in work as we had
our 90 or so graduates starting with us and again I look after their
initial induction day – again, they're a good bunch of new joiners
to work and interact with and a good day was had by all.
We also headed to Devonport food &
wine festival in February with some fellow Welshies Clare & Ben.
Great food, great wine, great company and topped of with music makes
a fun day out! We also randomly met a guy who has lived in New
Zealand for 10 years but is originally from Blackwood (where we lived
before we emigrated) so it was good to chat to him and his wife –
and their friend Scottish John!
Devonport Food & Wine Festival 2013
Throughout summer we also managed to get tickets to see Stephen Merchant live on his Hello Ladies tour - he was absolutely hilarious. For those of you who can't quite place him he co-wrote The Office with Ricky Gervais as well as Extras (which he also starred in). If you get chance - see him, he is funny!
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Waiting for Stephen Merchant - yes the room did full up!
We have been to the Silo Cinema at Silo Park in Auckland a few times over the summer - it's a great Friday evening out. Basically there are tall silos at Silo Park and each Friday they project a film onto it - people head over there with pillows, duvets, bean bags, snacks and drinks and settle in for the night. They have food stalls which serve up some pretty tasty food (the Hungarian breads and clay oven cooked pizzas are personal faves!) and a couple of market stalls too.
We went to watch Top Gun there a few weeks ago and it was like being at the cinema with a HUGE group of naughty (but funny) people...they were swit swoo-ing and whistling when Tom Cruise was getting lucky with Kelly McGillis and singing along to the theme song Taky my Breath Away. It was great fun. We spent Valentine's Day there too as they were showing The Princess Bride (one of my favourite films from my childhood) and the OH had never seen it! It was a perfectly lovely evening.
Silo Park, Valentine's Day
Silo Park, Valentine's Day
In February we headed out to see Auckland Lantern Festival - it was a great reminder of how busy places outside of NZ can be! I don't think I've seen that many people in one place since I moved here...there were literally thousands of people looking at all of the amazing lanterns and the food stalls were swarming with people...it was quite difficult to get around and see what was on offer!
Auckland Lantern Festival 2013
Auckland Lantern Festival 2013
Auckland Lantern Festival 2013
Auckland Lantern Festival 2013
So summer is now over for us and we are
heading into autumn...you'd never know it though, we have had an
absolutely outstanding summer (even according to the kiwis I know!)
and the sun continues to shine – much to the dismay of the farmers
who need the rain. We have been officially declared a drought zone
due to the lack of rainfall. I am absolutely loving the weather but I
do feel for the farmers and the animals who are out in the dried up
baron lands.
In March we headed to Diamond Day at
Ellerslie again (we went last year with the OH's parents and the kiwi
family) and enjoyed dressing up to go to the races with friends Ange
& John and Andy & Heni. It was a beautifully sunny day and a
couple of people had wins which is always nice!
Diamond Day at Ellerslie
Diamond Day at Ellerslie
The day after Diamond Day I had signed
up to run the Round the Bays fun run again along with around 70,000
other participants. I wasn't sure if I'd feel up to it after a day at
the races but I got up and ran the 8.4km and even knocked 3 minutes
off last year's time. You can't really be competitive with the run as
so many people prevents it – you don't usually get to the start
lines until around 5-10 minutes after the start gun has gone off and
for the first 3kms or so you are ducking and diving between people to
find some space. It's great fun though and all for a good cause. The
OH declined running it this year, opting instead to have a coffee and
sit in the sun on the decking!
I was able to spend a fab evening catching up with a friend who I used to work with in 2008 last month - Stacey - who was here with her work. It's so nice to see a friendly face from the UK. You always take for granted having lots of family & friends around and when you emigrate it becomes apparent how much you miss just being able to catch up with people as and when you feel like it!
One thing I must mention (it would be rude not to) is the amazing rugby match that Wales won on 16 March 2013 to secure the 6 Nations winners title again for the 2nd year running. They played a spectacular game against England (who were looking for a 6 Nations grand slam) and beat them 30 - 3! Simply amazing - well done Wales! Now I'm not a Daily Mail reader but you can read a pretty spot on account of it here and a more accurate moment by moment replay courtesy of the Guardian here.
A couple of weeks ago the OH went out
on a stag do and I went on a hen do for friend and her fiancé who
are getting married next weekend which was good fun. The stag do
consisted of early morning golf (the OH sat that one out) then a day
at the cricket, then drinks in town and the hens night was quite
sophisticated starting out at a very nice Italian pizzeria , closely
followed by drinks in town and ending with her dancing on a bar ...
'nuff said. So we are looking forward to our 1st kiwi
wedding next weekend – should be fun!
But first things first it's Easter
weekend this weekend. Last night (good Friday) in the absence of
family we had friends over for dinner and drinks – I managed to
successfully cook a leg of lamb and potato salad followed by my very
rich chocolate mousse. Ending the night at around 2am singing Delilah
with guitar makes it a good night by my books!
We're out for dinner this evening with
our fellow Welshies – heading to Tanuki's Cave in Auckland … awesome place,
amazing food & great atmosphere!
Tomorrow I am hoping we'll get chance
to catch up with a friend who is here on holiday with her husband and
son. Also planning to head to the beach over the weekend for a nice
stroll or two as next week is going to be a little hectic in work –
I'm heading to 3 of the other offices to facilitate a programme in
the space of 2 days so I am planning on resting and recuperating as
much as possible over this long weekend.
Luckily, Easter in New Zealand means
that you are forced to relax – none of the shops are open on Good
Friday or Easter Sunday by law which I think is great. Coming from
the UK where you can pretty much shop 24/7 (even Christmas Day sees
some local shops open) it's lovely not to have that option available
to you. The dairies and essentials are allowed to open but none of
the big supermarkets are open and many of the bars close at midnight
on Thursday before Good Friday and reopen on Tuesday morning. You are
not allowed to buy alcohol anywhere on Good Friday or Easter Sunday.
So I am now going to head off and
relax. I wish you all a happy, healthy, relaxing Easter … with a
bucket load of chocolate thrown in for good measure.
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