Labour Day Weekend

This past weekend was a long one (Labour Day is the 4th Monday in October down here), and we managed to take full advantage of our three days off. 

First up was checking off the last big item on our To Do After Moving list - we bought a car!

This baby comes fully loaded with new tires, a tape deck, and only 193,000 km (about 120,000 miles) on the odometer.

We found this 1999 Toyota Vista Wagon at a dealer in Devonport. It met all our requirements - less than 15 years old, less than 200,000 km, and less than 4,000 NZD. Oh, and it's a brand/name we recognize/know/trust not to break or cost lots of money to repair and the A/C works. Also, Toyotas are so popular here that we can resell it for not much less than we paid for it. The best part is that we paid cash for it, so it is ours - no monthly car payments to worry about! Also, I happen to secretly love wagons, and you know I'm thrilled that it's green!

Coincidentally, my first car was also a 1999 Toyota - a little red Corolla. Of course that was in 2000...

We immediately put our car through the paces. The rest of Saturday was spent running errands that require a car, and then we met up with some friends Saturday night for beer and dinner (in that order).

Sunday we woke up early and we were off!

I have a feeling this place is going to quickly become a weekly tradition.

We started our day at the French Market in Parnell to pick up some road snacks. In true Megan and Rob style, we picked up some meat, cheese (Pierre Robert!) and bread for a snack and some wine for the evening.

We drove out toward the Coromandel Peninsula, and oh the sights we saw. We drove up the coast to just south of Coromandel Town, then headed East on the 309 Road, which turned out to be about 30km of windy, gravel moutainy roads (told you we put the car through its paces). We stopped for a short hike to see the Waiau Falls and then kept driving along the road, praying it was not a dead end (by this point we'd lost all cell phone reception and the GPS didn't recognize the 309 Road as a road).

Top: Views from the road. Bottom left: A sign for the "quirkiest attraction in New Zealand!"  Bottom right: What the Waterworks looks like from the gravel road. Not very reassuring, but apparently someone ranked it in the top 20 of something. I'll let you guess what that might be, but I'm pretty sure it involves tetanus.

 

After escaping the 309 Road with all our tires and axles intact, we drove down toward Hot Water Beach, as suggested by google. We had a vague notion of camping somewhere, so had packed blankets and pillows, and picked up all the other essentials along the way - flashlights, toilet paper, towels and wine. Hot Water Beach has a pretty fancy campsite, so we reserved a spot, parked our wagon, changed into our togs and grabbed a shovel before low tide.

Hot Water Beach is just what it sounds like - the beach has thermal activity under it (or something like that), so if you dig a hole during low tide, you have an instant hot tub! They are not joking about the "hot" part either - according to a sign, the water reaches temperatures of 140-170* F! In some parts, the water was bubbling hot, and I nearly burned my foot trying to take a shortcut. We were a surprised to see so many people there - this is the biggest non-rugby-related crowd I've seen in New Zealand!

From top left: Hot tub digging at Hot Water Beach; my foot after standing in the water for just a few minutes; sunset on the beach; Rob's new beach towel.

After the heat and the crowds got to be too much, we headed back to our lovely wagon for dinner (consisting of popcorn, goldfish, peanuts, chocolate and wine) and some rest. Unfortunately, we hadn't read the manual yet and so didn't realize that this car has a very specific way you're supposed to sleep in it. We chose the other way, and woke up thinking it might be time to buy a tent. We slept spread out on the laid down back seats and trunk. Apparently you're supposed to configure the front and back seats together into a much more comfortable bed. Next time!

Cozy in our wagon bed - at least at first

Long Lost Foods - Found!

Three months may not seem like enough time for something to qualify as "long lost," but for me, that's a long time to go without some of my favorite foods - especially seeing as I believed they didn't exist in this country, and so was going to have to wait a lot longer. 

I have been looking for poutine* in Auckland since before my arrival, and google revealed that the only place that served it closed when the owners moved back to Canada. We spent one last weekend in Ontario before moving, and I ate 4 different poutines in 3 days to get my fill (and I wonder why none of my clothes fit on arrival - just kidding, I know exactly why they didn't fit - and it was delicious!). 

I didn't realize how much I missed poutine until I started looking for cheese curds so I could make some for Canadian Thanksgiving. I couldn't find them anywhere!  Then, at Thanksgiving, our Canadian friend Clare casually mentioned that she'd heard that an American/Canadian deli had opened up in the CBD that serves poutine. I wanted to go immediately (despite being so full from Thanksgiving), but thought it might be better to wait a couple days for my arteries to recover.

Anyway, Friday night me, Rob and the Canadians headed to the Federal Delicatessen to confirm these rumors. There was poutine! And it was delicious! The chef came out to see who ordered three large plates of poutine (me and the Canadians) and a pastrami sandwich (Rob).  

The poutine was a little strange at first because the cheese curds had been cut into cubes, but after being mixed all together, it started to get a bit melty and delicious. It's no Boomer's Gourmet Fries, but I will definitely be back!

Also... Clare told us the saddest story ever. Her parents are health nuts and she wasn't allowed to eat junk food as a kid. When she was about 8, she went to a ski lodge and her parents gave her money for lunch. She bought some poutine (it was to be her first), but before she got to try it, her dad took it from her and threw it away!  And then didn't give her any money to replace it!  So she had no poutine and no lunch.

The other food I have really been missing is Delice de Bourgogne**, which is a triple-creamed brie that is basically like butter. We used it in lieu of butter on bread for eating with things like chili or spaghetti.  We couldn't find an adequate substitute anywhere - until we finally made it to Auckland's French Market. The cheese stand there sells Pierre Robert (it's fate!) and it's very similar to Delice de Bourgogne. It's a bit more pricey, but oh so worth it.

*Poutine is a traditional Canadian dish of french fries smothered with cheese curds and gravy. If you didn't know that before reading this, you should go get yourself some poutine so I don't have to feel sad for you anymore.

**Again, if you haven't had this, go get some now. You can find it at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, and it's not that pricey. Trust me on this one.

Canadian Thanksgiving

Last Monday (14 October) was Canadian Thanksgiving, and we decided a proper celebration was in order. On Saturday night our Canadian friends, Chris and Clare, graciously decided to host our gathering of 6. The other guests were Kiwis who've never celebrated a Thanksgiving before. On a mission to make it as memorable as possible (for the stomachs of all involved), Megan prepared a trio of southern Thanksgiving dishes, and boy were they good! The southern hemisphere definitely gained a few sweet potato (*) casserole fans.

(*) sweet potato is known as kumara in New Zealand.

Green bean casserole, corn puddin' and sweet potato casserole (with brown sugar, pecans and toasted marshmallows)

I need to take a moment here to commend Megan on her fantastic preparation. Everything was truly delicious, and quite a lot to prepare in our miniature kitchen. Look at how far we've come in the last 2 months!! 

Rob in Chicago.

We followed up dinner with a hilarious game of Cards Against Humanity (how I've missed you). In honor of the occasion, we christened our Canadian Conversion Kit. Much merriment was had by all. 

Rob is thankful for:

1. Megan of course! My beautiful wife of 1 yr is responsible for so much excitement in my life. As anyone who know us (and/or follows this blog) knows, Megan's a gal who makes things happen. From the giant things (moving to NZ) to the everyday (arranging weekly quiz nights at the pub), she does it all, and I'm much the richer for all these experiences and sharing my life with her.

2. Sal's Authentic New York Pizza. No lie, it's legit and the perfect stop off on the way home from Friday post-work drinks.

3. Magic fairy dust on the internet that lets us procure Parks and Recreation within 24hrs of airing (not again NBC!!)

4. The long summers I used to spend at Nana's house in Haileybury, Ontario. Nana had a huge garden (more or less the entire yard) where my brother and I would spent hours wandering between giant raspberry bushes, ostensibly to pick a few buckets of berries for a raspberry crunch desert, but mostly just to eat
them directly off the bushes. Shirley Marguerite Barry (née Scott) passed away this weekend at the age of 92. Love you and miss you Nana.

Birthdays for People who Make Things Happen

As mentioned in my last post, I am a planner - I pride myself on making things happen. I largely credit this trait for us being where we are today. A lot of people talk about wanting to move abroad, but not many people follow through on it. That said, I feel pretty comfortable making the blanket statement that most fellow ex-pats we run into are also people who make things happen.

This past weekend we attended two birthday celebrations planned by ex-pats, which means we had a pretty busy weekend.

Friday was our friend Katie S's birthday, and she wanted to do a Silent Disco Flash Mob. For those of you who don't know what that is (as I didn't before I was in one, here's Katie's description from the invite:

  

"In short, it's a form of flash mob where people dance to their own music (with headphones on) at their own pace in a public area all at the same time."

So me, Rob, Katie and a bunch of other people met up at a bar after work to build up some liquid courage, headed over to Aotea Square, and danced our hearts out in public. Unfortunately I don't have a video of this, but highlights include Rob jumping around like a crazy person and our friend Drew doing the electric slide for a full 5 minutes. For those of you who are curious - I was dancing to "Valerie" by Amy Winehouse and "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus, and Rob was dancing to Skrillex.

From top left: Silo Park; lamp cut from jade (I want it!); biking past a container painting; parked at a photo contest; entries in the photo contest

 Saturday and Sunday we celebrated our friend Mike's birthday. Mike is a Kiwi, but his girlfriend Kalli is American, and she planned an entire weekend of activities. Saturday afternoon all the boys got together for a whiskey tasting at Sam Snead's House of Whiskey. Then we all met up together for some dinner, drinks and dancing. But we couldn't stay out too late because Sunday morning we took a 4-hour bike tour through Art Week. Finally, we met up with some more friends for brunch by the harbour with bubbles, and then headed straight home for a nap.

A kinetic sculpture that moves in the wind

A work colleague commented that I have more going on than she does every weekend even though she has lived here for years and has tons of friends. I replied that we don't know very many people yet - but obviously we know the right ones!

An exhibit in the Britomart train station with letters people wrote to those they love - these two were my favorite.

People write what they love about Auckland on the chalkboard and artists depict it in paintings.

Scootin' around

I do almost all the planning for anything Rob and I do. For the most part, I enjoy planning. However, lately we have been doing a lot of things that require a lot of planning. In addition to our normal day-to-day activities-around-town, we have taken two trips and started booking our Christmas travelling. Oh yeah – and we moved halfway around the world, which required previously unsurpassed levels of planning.

A bit overwhelmed, I asked Rob if he could plan something for us to do last weekend – and man did he ever! I was expecting a nice meal or maybe a picnic, but he surprised me by renting scooters for the entire weekend!! We had been told that you can't rent scooters in Auckland Central, but Rob called all the scooter stores in town until he found one that would rent us two scooters. And so I present to you the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of scooter-ing around Auckland:

The Good:

Weeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!

Scooters are so much fun. The first time I rode one was in Sorrento, Italy in Summer 2007, and I’ve wanted one ever since. I even designed my wedding dress around the idea of riding a scooter in it! Rob and I got our motorcycle licenses before leaving Chicago (because they are much easier to get there than anywhere else) so we could buy scooters wherever we ended up moving.

The price

We rented our scooters from Scootling in Grey Lynn. Rob wanted to rent them for Sunday only, but they're not open on Sundays, so we had to pick our scooters up on Saturday and return them after work on Monday. It was supposed to be $36/scooter/day (including helmet and insurance), which is pretty good, but we got an even better deal - they charged us $36/scooter for all three days! That's cheaper than one stick of MAC eyeliner over here!

Of course, now Rob wants a scooter too, so it may end up being the most expensive $72 we've ever spent.

The City

Above is a map of where all we went on Sunday. It may not mean much to non-Aucklanders, but rest assured say - we went everywhere. Or at least everywhere you can go without getting on a Motorway. Scooters are an excellent way to explore a city. You have the convenience of a bike and the speed of a car (well, kind of). In Auckland, scooterists are allowed to ride in bus lanes and can park pretty much anywhere for free. 

Also, Auckland is an ideal city for scooterists. The weather is fairly mild year-round, it isn't too crowded, and most importantly, there are no Chicago cab drivers here. There are a lot of people scooting around, so drivers and pedestrians alike are used to seeing scooters and seem to know how to share the road.

The Bad:

The Scooters 

The scooter rental shop only had two scooters left - two of their Suzuki Mollet 49cc scooters. A 49cc scooter has a maximum speed of 50kph (about 35 mph), which also happens to be the speed limit in much of Auckland. This was especially problematic on Auckland's many hills, as inclines lower the speed even further. As far as smaller scooters go, these particular ones were lacking any acceleration power, which felt slightly dangerous at points. 

Unfortunately for most people, a motorcycle license is required for anything with a 50cc engine or larger. Fortunately for us, we have our motorcycle licenses, and so any scooters we purchase will be at least double that.

Unmarked motorway entrances

The speed limit on the motorways is at least 80kph, and usually 100kph. Small scooters such as the ones we rented are not allowed on the motorway! So the two times we nearly ended up on the Motorway (I swear - there were no signs warning us it was coming!) were slightly unnerving. Thankfully we realized our direction in time to correct it.

The Ugly:

Roundabouts

Ugh. Roundabouts are the WORST.

However, the good outweighed the bad (but nothing can make up for roundabouts), and we're already scouting out places to move that are a scootering distance from work!

Obviously I'll have to ask Rob to plan things more often. I've asked him to be in charge of planning our trip to Fiji for my 30th birthday/Thanksgivukkah - I can't wait to see what he comes up with!

Two Months Later....

It is astonishing how quickly the foreign and new becomes the familiar. We have been living in Auckland for two months today, and daily life is already beginning to resemble normalcy. Although there is much that is still foreign and new, some things are feeling more ordinary.

For example, I have learned to walk on the left side of the sidewalk, press the crosswalk button every time I approach (they’re not automatic here), and have figured out both the quickest walk to work and the most scenic (the route that passes 3-4 “massage parlours” counts as scenic, right?). I have chosen my preferred grocery stores, figured out which bread/chips/cheese I prefer, and which I very strongly do not.

At its most basic level, the elements of daily life have not changed very much. I wake up, walk from my downtown apartment to my downtown office, work all day, walk home, eat dinner and watch tv/knit/read/putz around on the Internet/hang out with Rob. The hours are slightly different, and I am cooking more, but the basic structure is the same.

I guess what I am trying to say is that after two months, this place is starting to feel more like home. The feeling that we’re just on an extended vacation is fading away, and slowly but surely, we’re getting used to the idea of staying for a while.

One thing I cannot get used to, however, is the seasons of the Southern Hemisphere. Facebook has been overflowing with sentiments like this one:

And it’s making me realize that this new world is one without Octobers. October in Auckland is very similar to October in the Midwest in that the weather is roughly the same (cool, with some warm days, some rainy days, and a couple storms), but that is where the similarities end. Halloween isn’t very big here – I haven’t seen a single pumpkin, witch or ghost outside of the American Store, and no one has asked me about my costume. I don’t even have a costume! Nothing is pumpkin-spiced, the leaves on the trees are stubbornly green, and that cool fall crispness is nowhere to be found. Most noticeably, October in Auckland does not smell like October.

I’m sure once November rolls around I’ll be thrilled about the differences between Chicago November and Auckland November. Same goes for January and February (ugh – February is the worst). A warm Christmas doesn't even bother me that much. But for this one month, the Northern Hemisphere definitely has us beat.

Paper Faces on Parade

Last weekend was our company’s annual ball. Back in Chicago, the firm did a formal Christmas party downtown every year in December, but here they break things up. They have one formal, black tie event in the spring (which starts in September in New Zealand) and a more casual event just before Christmas holiday.

The theme for this year’s annual ball – held at Auckland's old Railway Station – was Masquerade, and almost everyone wore a mask. Most people’s were more traditional masquerade masks, but some people – Robert included – got a bit more creative. A whole team of people had large print outs made of different partners’ faces, and put them on sticks to carry around as masks.  My favourite, of course, was Rob’s Batman mask. He found his at the Warehouse, which Kiwis like to think is their version of Target, but only because none of them have ever been to Target. The one downtown is more reminiscent of Big Lots... but I digress.

Please note: My mask is not meant to be Catwoman. It is a fox, and I bought it before Rob bought his.

They also had a photo booth with different props, and pictures are provided below for your entertainment. Some of these people we work with, some of them we are friends with, and some of them we’d never met before.

Roughly half an hour before the party was due to end, the fire alarm in the building went off. Apparently the back half of the building is apartments, and someone back there was making some smoke. A good portion of the party took this as a sign to go home, but we stayed and after 5-10 minutes were allowed back inside for more drinks and dancing. We went for some after-ball drinks at a nearby bar, and then headed home in the wee sma’ hours...

It was Monday before I remembered that we’d lost an hour to Daylight Savings Saturday night, which helped explain why I felt so tired on Sunday despite sleeping in pretty late. Either way – the time difference between us and North America is slightly different from what it was two weeks ago, and will be until you all Fall back in a couple weeks. The time widget on this blog is accurate, and you can always google it!