Auckland Anniversary

The weekend before last happened to be Auckland's Anniversary; to commemorate the arrival of Auckland's first governor in the Bay of Islands in 1860 and the subsequent establishment of a colony here. The day is a public holiday and part of the celebrations include the worlds largest single day regatta...

It also happened to coincide (almost) with our first month anniversary since arrival. Since Amanda had a few days off in a row we made the most of it and ventured a little further afield, if not quite as far as we would have liked...

Friday, the weather was appalling, raining all day. Which was the perfect excuse to remain holed up in the Auckland Museum. Lots of Maori artefacts, snapshots of colonial Auckland and some interesting maps (Amanda & I are suckers for an old map). Finished Friday off with a bottle of local white and an Indian takeaway!



The weather improved a little on Saturday and we headed to a nearby market, the largest Polynesian market in the world. Very multicultural, lots of fruit & veg, food stalls and other typical market fair. Worth the visit if not as bohemian as we had been led to believe.

A short drive East brought us to Howick, an old colonial farming town and also home to a market. If Otara market was East end, this would be the Brighton Lanes. Artisan cheeses, salamis, French pastries and arty / crafty objects d'art etc. We took lunch in a café decked out like an old Apothecary. Fine food and fine coffee and a relaxing spot to write some postcards.


Sunday we checked out our local swimming pool. Quite a find with both indoor and outdoor pools, diving boards, jacuzzi and sauna - all for a couple of quid. Many families were making a day of it, having picnics in the shade around the outdoor pools. You see that a lot more here. Caught some live Latin music afterwards in the park adjacent to the pool. We would have stayed but were invited to share our first BBQ in New Zealand with some new friends. An entertaining evening finished off with an amazing banana cake.




Monday we headed into the CBD and spent the afternoon at the Auckland Seafood Festival. Lots of awesome food available (although Amanda was not that keen!)-pick was the Macadamia crusted Monkfish. We also had a lesson in making Sushi, caught some of the Regatta and spent the afternoon relaxing in the sun (and shade - very hot day!) while listening to some more live music.

In the news recently, was the announcement that this year's 'The Big Day Out' (Australasia's version of Glastonbury) would be the last. Since the music scene is quite a bit quieter here than the lively Brighton one we are used to, this was bad news indeed. Still while taking a break from the Seafood festival and wandering around the viaduct quarter (where we found this piano) we stumbled upon a somewhat smaller Indie Festival. We could not get in, but we will now be ready next year...


Finally, wrapped the weekend up with a nice chilled glass of Leffe Blonde. Choice!

Devonport

Decided it was about time we did a bit more sightseeing this weekend so we made a trip to Devonport village on the North Shore of Auckland. Devonport is a harbour side suburb across the water from the CBD and as such offers great views of the city. It also home to a Naval base and many houses from the colonial era.






It can be reached by car, driving over the harbour bridge but we decided on the more scenic option and took the ferry. Amanda was a little nervous being the type that can get sea sick walking through a puddle; the crossing was fairly benign however as the ferry never got up much speed and the water was relatively calm.

Once in Devonport we decided on a quick walk before a spot of lunch. First destination was Mount Victoria, the highest on this shore and offering great views around Devonport. We also found an old world war two bunker that is now home to the Devonport folk club, could be a real gem and we plan to come back for a forthcoming gig. The little mushrooms are in fact air vents for part of the bunker complex.






From here we walked on to a nearby beach with the aim of eating there. Unfortunately, Rich's decision to wear his Vibram Five Fingers for this walk turned out a bad one. He has been wearing them almost constantly since arriving and mistakenly thought he was now ready for a long walk. Aching feet and blisters proved him wrong and the pace of the walk slowed considerably.

As such lunch was not to be had until almost 4pm. But how was it worth the wait as we stumbled upon a little café/restaurant that had a Turkish chef - which was reflected in the fine (and very filling) salads we had.






The rest of the afternoon was spent reading on a bank with a view of the city before us before venturing back into town to check out a shop selling imported English groceries. Rich just resisted the temptation to buy some HP sauce but Amanda could not resist the lure of a pack or two of Fruitellas!




Devonport South African War peace memorial - note how Rich's feet are no longer shod in Vibrams!

Rich's restraint was soon rewarded however with a pint of Kilkenny at Devonports "English" pub -The Patriot. After drinking NZ "ale" for the last few weeks, never has a pint of Kilkenny tasted so good!

As a parting comment, this trip allowed us to acquaint ourselves with the Auckland rail network as we took the train in to the CBD from Onehunga. Cheaper than the local buses and quicker of course, but still incredibly slow. The trains sounds as if they are on their last legs and can't ever have exceeded 30mph!

Where I lay my head is home...

Ok, we've been living here about a week now so it's probably about time we filled you in on the lovely place we now call home. Like our cars, this is the third place we have rested our heads since our arrival in New Zealand.

Our first week was spent in a serviced apartment in the city centre. Very convenient for all the errands we had to run and for wishing in the New Year down at the harbour. But, a tiny kitchenette and poor internet, not too mention relatively pricey rates meant it was time for a move.

Unfortunately being the holiday season there was not really any rentals or flatshares available - thankfully Amanda's cousin Diana and her partner Rob put us up for a few days in their spare room. Lovely house and lovely couple; this also gave us a base to start looking for our own place and start getting used to life in the 'burbs.

This proved harder than expected. We had decided to only look at flatshares as this would save us money and allow us to meet more people. Both very useful during our first few months here. Problem, lots of potential landlords were still on holiday or did not acccept couples.

Still a couple of options presented themselves and we were able to view them both on the same day; one in Mount Wellington and the other in Onehunga. Both are suburbs in the south of Auckland and with a similar demographic.

The properties were anything but similar however. The first in Mount Wellington, had only just been moved into and had no furniture and smelt like it had been shut up for some time; the kitchen was also tiny. While the live-in landlord was nice enough we felt a little underwhelmed.

The next place in Onehunga was the complete opposite. When we arrived the front door was open as were all the windows and a strong waft of incense greeted us shortly before our soon to be French flatmate and landlady did.

This property is a gorgeous 1920s wooden villa with polished wooden floors and high ceilings throughout. The garden is very spacious, well kept with potted herbs and a very large decked area which is a great place to have an al-fresco meal. Having breakfast here in the early morning sun is a particular treat - just a shame the papers are not that good here! There is also a hammock and swing chair for relaxing and of course a nice gas fired barbie.




The house is spacious and full of light, but the icing on the cake is how our flatmate, Emilié has made it her own place, despite only living here for 9 months. The whole house has antique furniture and little decorative touches, all finished off with a piano in the living room. The cherry on top would be her impeccable taste in music - a mix of little known modern tracks and golden oldies ensuring the house is full of soul.







Location wise we are less than 15 minute drive to both the city center and Amanda's work, while a similar time will find us at a nice beach; and like most of Auckland we are only 30 minutes drive from the nearest spot of wilderness.

As for Onehunga, it has a mall, a café voted one of Auckland's best 3 years running, not to mention several more, a recommended Indian restaurant, supermarket, well stocked library and just about everything else we could need. The only real thing it is missing is a good butcher but one of those is just 5 minutes drive away :0).

The icing on the cake or both of us was finding a friendly local bar which has an open mic night and (for Rich) serves a scrumptious pork belly dish. The standard of the music is not quite what we have come to expect in Brighton, but, we have been promised that it will get better; the night we visited being the first night since the Christmas holidays. The cherry on top would be our housemate's taste in music, chilled and soulful; perfect on an lazy sunny afternoon...

The only downside we have discovered so far is the oven - its possibly as old as the house itself, but at the very least, older than both of us and makes cooking a bit of a chore.

More pics soon!

A walk in the park...

We've been here just over 2 weeks now, 16 days to be exact and had yet to get out of Auckland city.

What with cars to buy, bedrooms to view and furniture / crockery etc to buy we've just been too busy. All we had managed to date was some short walks along the coastal areas of the city. Pleasant, but still very much part of the city.

Well, today we finally made it out into the wilderness for our first proper tramp (hike). We decided to head west to a regional park called the Waitakere Ranges, just an hours drive away.

The drive itself was quite rewarding with some stunning views and twisting, undulating roads; although the drive would have been a bit more enjoyable in car with a bit more oomph - some of the steep uphills saw the little engine struggle, while the steep narrow downhills had the breaks very warm.

The place we were heading to was KareKare beach (http://tinyurl.com/6m3z7a2).

Well worth the drive though, as walked out from the small car park into the bay. WOW! What a sight. A wide open beach with crashing surf and volcanic black sand, framed to the right by a large volcanic headland and a dense rainforest behind.

Click any photo to see a larger version...






Not really a place to stop and relax. however, a howling wind was blowing straight off the Tasman Sea and whipping up the sand and stinging exposed flesh. Stopped to watch some people swimming in what is the smallest stretch of lifeguard patrolled beaches I think I've seen. The flags were about 20m apart!

Pressed on and followed the beach for about 2K, stopping frequently to take another photo or marvel at something on the beach.







The flat beach gave way to large undulating dunes, topped with reeds and shrubs, before changing again, becoming more bleak and moon-like. A little further on we entered a tunnel, which could easily have been a portal to a bygone era. The flora and fauna had changed again and we now appeared to be on the set of 'Jurassic Park' - though thankfully without the terrible lizards (although Amanda did find one terrifying specimen, fortuitously captured on film - see below...)



A quick rest here to avoid the midday sun and then on again. The scenery changed again as we headed inland towards the rainforest, large black dunes turning into marshland. It was at this point that the weather changed too, the brilliant sunshine quickly replaced by a torrential downpour.

Sheltering under some (silver?) ferns we donned waterproofs and sat out the worst before ploughing on into the cover of the rainforest. Now things got really interesting. Essentially we now needed to climb approx 200m to get to the top of the ridge we had been walking alongside.







No mean feat since the 'path' was almost non existent in some places, often just following somebody else's footprints. The recent weeks of rain had also turned the track into, essentially, a mudslide. Thankfully tree roots frequently crossed the track and provided some footing. The track was very steep and with some interesting drops in some places so every foot step had to be carefully placed and each little slip led to a yelp from Amanda. Despite being only a 200m climb it may well have been more challenging than our recent ascent of Mount Snowdon in Wales.







Unfortunately the whole track was like this from now on, although thankfully not as steep. It meant that progress was very slow, but with the rain now replaced by sunshine once more, a lot better than it could have been.

As we approached the end the track started moving out from the rainforest again and afforded some quite remarkable views of the bay and beach where we were just hours before.

All told, we walked about 10km in approx 4 hours. We were covered in black sand, mud and suncream but what an introduction to NZ tramping; and we have only ticked off 10km of the 250km+ in this park alone.

Vintage Audio

Despite sporting such modern conveniences as electric windows, power steering, ABS, Aircon and even airbags, our little Toyota is sans CD player and to date we have only managed to tune two radio stations. One appears to play little more than hip-hop and the other not much more than the insights of the disc-jockeys.

It does however have a tape deck, yes, remember them? A trip to the local "op-shop" (charity shop) turned up these three gems. At least I hope they are, for some reason the name Alan Parsons Project rings a bell so I'm sure they have been recommended at some point.

In any case, they will provide our driving soundtrack for the foreseeable...when we get bored of talking about how sweet it is to be out in NZ that is... :0)

A tale of three cars...

So, we have not even been here two weeks yet and we are already on our third car!!

I can already guess what some of you are thinking, but no I have not had a prang and neither has Amanda. Just had a bit of bad luck, or in hindsight, some good fortune.


Car 1: Nissan Avenir 'Salut'

As some of you know we put a small deposit on a car out in NZ. The car ticked all our boxes and was being sold by a friend of a friend, 'D', and so, we thought, would mean less hassle. Even better the owner kindly offered to pick us up from the airport in it (and has also been very helpful since).

When 'D' pulled up at the airport pick up point the car looked as good as it did in the photos (less sniggering at the back - you know who you are) but despite our jet lag we could not help but notice how filthy the inside was, nor the strange pong.

This should have been enough, warning but twas nothing a good valet would not take car off and we decided to buy it anyway.

However, when we tried to pay for the car we could not due to our UK money still being in the ether and a few days away from our shiny new NZ bank accounts. Very graciously 'D' let us have the car with a further small deposit, with the balance to pay.

The bank delay, while cursed at the time, turned out to be a hand dealt by lady luck herself. We soon noticed, several small, but irritating problems and this prompted us to get the car inspected. The car would require a $1K+ of work minimum and had not been well looked after. We called 'D' to negotiate but he refused to even talk about it over the phone, preferring IM over Skype and we were soon returning the car. He very decently returned our extra deposit, however; but also blocked us on Skype.

We have burnt our first bridge in NZ!

Car 2 : Nissan Sunny Sedan

We were now without wheels and since we had recently moved to the burbs to stay with Amanda's cousin we needed some again in a hurry.

First stop, was getting a rental car to get about and view cars to buy. After spending a good hour visiting rental shops we finally found one with reasonable insurance and now had use of another Nissan, the good ol Nissan Sunny, again in white. Not as useful as the wagon, but all the windows worked and best of all it was clean and pong free!

Car 3 : Toyota Corolla Sedan

Now to find our new car. Thankfully, this purchase was a lot smoother. We were recommended a local mechanic who also traded cars. We met him shortly after collecting the hire car and got a good vibe from him.

The very next day we were the owners of a tidy ex-rental Toyota Corolla. The first things Amanda checked were the windows and the smell. Check and check. It has lots of miles on the clock, but regularly and frequently serviced,and comes with new oil, brakes, tyres and a solid reputation for reliability; but again in white...gaaarggghh!

It's no looker and as a 1.5 auto no speed demon but it gets us on the road and for just over half what the original car was going to cost! :0)

Let's hope it lives up to it's reputation for uber-reliability...

Our first real NZ beach...

We have spent a lot of time in the city running errands since we got here and so decided it was about time we got out of the city proper. So we headed west to a place called Titirangi. Wow. We have found where we want to live in Auckland ( at least til we find somewhere better ;0) ). A lot more leafy than the suburbs we have seen so far and with great views of the city and bay. A wee bit pricey though, so may have to wait a while…

Still a walk down towards the coast and a tip from a local led us to find our first "real" NZ beach. By which we mean a natural beach, virtually deserted (it was when we arrived). As we approached the beach along a canopied bush track we both thought - this is it, now we are in New Zealand. To top it all off, the sun came out and has been shining since. :0)

New Years Eve

Along with what seemed like the whole of Auckland we welcomed in the new year down at the harbour, watching the firework display off the sky tower…Not quite as spectacular Sydney or even London but made the most of being in the CBD. Next year we hope to be somewhere a little more scenic…

Rain, rain go away...!

Currently staying in a serviced apartment in the CBD and its rained non-stop everyday-that was not in the script! Looking forward to a little sun. Still without a car it's hard to get out of the city and there is loads of errands to run, so perhaps it's for the best. One can still sit down and relax with a eggs benedict and flat white though, so it's not all bad :0)

Slowly finding our way around the CBD and shed a lot of foot leather walking between banks and searching out good bars and cafés. Already have a couple of favorite cafés where the coffee and/or food is exceptional with a good ambience

Have set up our bank accounts and now have a better appreciation of UK banks! Over here you still get charged if you use another banks ATM and the list of things you get charged for is quite long..at least it is with an "electronic" (read, online only) account. Anytime you visit a branch you pay. Still we are now the proud owners of Westpac EFTPOS cards - not that we can use them yet as our money had not arrived yet from the UK!

Finding good ale has proved a bit harder. Several places exist with micro-breweries and their Ales are pretty good. Unfortunately there are several that masquerade as Ales but are little more than malty lager. Just going to have to keep sampling ;0)

A more successful mission was finding PG tips. Our local New World supermarket sells 60 pyramid bags for about £8! Luckily found some old skool rectangular PG tips for pretty much same price as the local brew. Check the old skool packaging...