The Wool Anniversary

On June 1st, Rob and I celebrated our 7th dating anniversary. We didn't become official until later that summer, but we choose to celebrate June 1st as our anniversary. It was the first time we kissed, and life hasn't been the same since.

People find it interesting that we still celebrate our dating anniversary now that we're married, but it feels strange to reset back to one year when we've spent nearly a quarter of our lives together. And as I've said before - life can get a little boring and routine, so if you get a reason to celebrate - take it!

The seven year anniversary is a big one among knitters, as the traditional gift for this anniversary is wool. It's a pretty fun coincidence that our 7th anniversary also happened to be our first wintery June - otherwise the wool anniversary might not have been as appropriate! I have been teasing Rob all year about my big expectations - but in true Rob form, he blew them out of the water.

First up was a surprise "bouquet" of flowers made from yarn and knitting needles. I arrived at work the day before we were due to leave for Australia to find it sitting on my desk along with a couple other knitting accessories, and it's been there ever since. I don't know that I will ever be able to bring myself to dismantle this bouquet so I can knit with it - maybe if he promises to make me another to replace it?

I was glad he gave me my gift early so that I could give him his before our trip. I have spent the past 3-4 months of lunches and evenings knitting a secret Game of Thrones scarf for Rob. It's double knit, which means it's two layers knit at the same time so it's reversible, and required me to learn how to knit with two colors of yarn at the same time - one in each hand. So not only was I learning this new technique, but I was trying to keep it secret from someone whom I both live and work with!  Thank god Rob's team works later than mine! The yarn is 100% New Zealand wool (of course), and the colors are for the All Blacks.

After returning from Australia, Rob "gave" me the second half of my gift. We had lunch at my favorite yarn store/tea shop, and then headed out to Sheep World, which is basically a sheep farm. They have some animals penned up that you can feed, but the main attraction is the Dog and Sheep Show.  I thought it was going to be pretty cheesy, but it ended up being a lot more interesting than anticipated. They show you how they train their dogs and have the dogs bring the sheep in for shearing and then tell you all about that. And then - I got to shear a sheep!  They let me keep some wool and I'm going to take it to my spinning class in August.

Just 5.5 more years until our seventh wedding anniversary!  I wonder what else we can celebrate the 7th anniversary of....

Top row: Sorting the sheep before shearing, getting ready for my big debut.
Bottom row: Before; me putting the sheep's head between my legs for shearing (apparently that's how it's done); after.

We also got to feed baby lambs.  To the bottom right - Hoppiton!

Australia Part III: Melbourne

We enjoyed Sydney, but we loved Melbourne. A couple people said the only things to do in Melbourne are

You can't fool me fake Target!

eat, drink and shop - and thankfully, they were right! Even though it's not that much smaller than Sydney (4 million people instead of 4.5), Melbourne has a very different feel than Sydney. It felt much more diverse, and the downtown is a network of alleyways that are jam packed with little cafes, boutiques and graffiti. 

Part of me started to wish we'd ended up in Melbourne instead of Auckland, but I quickly realised that moving to Melbourne wouldn't have been the change we were looking for. It has too many of the comforts of  the States (including GAP, Costco, Fossil and Nine West).  It even has a fake Target! 

We had a grand time roaming the "laneways" of Melbourne and stuffed ourselves senseless more than once. Although I'm glad we don't live there, I can't wait to go back!

For lunch our first day, we rode the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant, which was recommended by a friend. The tramcar was operational, and took us to the beach and back while serving us a 4-course, all-you-can drink meal. Welcome to Melbourne indeed!

Nerds doing nerd things - the top row provides a glimpse of my ideal house (to include a row of Vespas), and below is inspiration for our future library (to include a wall of comic books). The Vespa rocking horse is just a bonus item I would like to own immediately. Time for some woodworking classes!

Food picture! Starbucks makes the cut because unlike New Zealand, Starbucks in Australia has iced tea. I cannot express how much I miss black iced tea here - no one here drinks it, sells it or understands it. The place in the bottom right was our last meal in Melbourne, and serves only soups, tacos and tea - perfect!

On our last day in Melbourne, we did a tour of the Yarra Valley that included visits to 4 vineyards, a brewery, a dairy farm and a chocolate factory. Please take a minute to admire the scarf I made Rob for our anniversary (top right) and the beer keg-turned-stools I'd like to own one day (bottom left).

Until next time, Melbourne!

Australia Part II: Blue Mountains

Our second day in Sydney we ventured outside the city to Featherdale Wildlife Park and the Blue Mountains. We didn't want to worry about renting a car, and the train didn't go to the wildlife park, so we signed up for a tour with Dingo Travel. We got pretty lucky and turned out to be the only people on our tour, - bonus private tour! I cannot say enough good things about the tour we were on - Menashe was even better than the reviews promised.

Our first stop was Featherdale Wildlife Park, which is basically a petting zoo, only with crazy Australian animals instead of farm animals (which they also had, but which we didn't spend any time with).  Wallabys, Kangaroos and birds were roaming the property while koalas were hanging out in the trees. Our tour was perfectly timed - we were the first people into the Park, so got first dibs on the koala cuddling!

After the Park we headed to Scenic World to ride the gondola and walk around in the rare Blue Mountains rainforest. The Blue Mountains are named after the blue-tinted eucalyptus leaves that grow in this area. We were meant to go on a bush walk after a delicious Thai lunch, but it was raining so heavily that we opted to head home instead.  By then we'd seen and done so much that we were ready for a nap!

First!  So many animals.

With Rubin the Koala and his eucalyptus branch.

Koala selfies!

Feeding the kangaroos and wallabys.

I tried to feed the emu and it beaked me right in the palm!  Bottom row shows some of the other birds at the Park, including the Tawny Frogmouth on the left and the Little Penguins waving hello in the middle. I'm not sure exactly what one-eyed jack is, but he looks like he's recently retired from Azkaban.

Wombats and dingos and tasmanian devils, oh my!  Oh yeah, and a python...

At Scenic World.

After Scenic World, we went to an Aboriginal Hut, where we saw a traditional show. Somehow we both ended up on stage impersonating the animals we'd met earlier that day. I am attempting an emu while Robert is supposed to be a kangaroo (or a wallaby? I still don't know the difference).

Australia Part I: Sydney

June 2nd, was the Queen's Birthday, which is a national holiday in New Zealand, and we used the opportunity of having an extra day off to take a trip over to Australia. We spent roughly four days in Sydney and four days in Melbourne, with some day trips in between.

As people don't like slideshows, we'll be doing this in a couple of posts so as to not overwhelm with photos. So be sure to check back later this week for pictures of koalas, wallabies and more!

We couldn't go to Sydney without visiting the Opera House! While we didn't take a tour, we did some independent exploration and stuck around for a drink in the sun. The bottom left is the view from our hostel and the bottom middle is what the outside of the Opera House looks like up close.

We were there during the Vivid Festival which mean that among other things, a light show was projected on the Opera House. Our first night we took a ferry to Manly for dinner, and got these shots on the way out and back. We also spent one glorious evening sitting on our hostel's rooftop deck with a bottle of wine and watching the show!

True to form, we did a lot of eating and drinking. In the top left are two items I haven't had since moving to New Zealand - delice de bourgogne cheese and Mariage Freres French Breakfast tea! We found a store in Sydney that carries both, and I might have brought $100 worth of Mariage Freres back to Auckland. Also, one of those meat tastings is kangaroo.  Can't say I recommend it. Kind of tastes like a zoo smells.

We also did some nerd things - including admiring a chocolate Iron Throne, visiting a bunch of comic book stores and seeing Godzilla (what else?) at the world's biggest IMAX theatre. Not pictured - the yarn store we found.

Our final day in Syndey we took the bus out to Coogee Beach and took the 6km walk along the cliffs and beaches to Bondi Beach. Despite it being a Tuesday in winter, and the signs bragging about the ocean's deadly creatures, there were dozens of surfers out - and with good reason! We also passed one of the most beautiful cemeteries I've ever seen and one of the most unique swimming pools!

The Coogee-Bondi walk was my favorite part of Sydney - especially considering what was waiting for us at the Canadian bar  in Bondi! If you don't know what put that curd-eating grin on my face, you haven't been paying attention. Despite the warnings from the bar tender, we each got our own poutine, plus an order of fried pickles and some hot wings. And then we didn't eat anything for 24 hours.

Updates and Changes

We have been experiencing some technical difficulties lately - namely that our only computer crashed, making blogging pretty impossible.  But we are back online and ready to blog again!

During this hiatus I did a bit of thinking about the format of the blog, and I've decided to shake things up a bit. Visually, it should all look the same, but I'd like to get more organized and expand the content. Along with blogging about our adventures, I'd like to introduce some more regular features/columns, such as a DIY column, a favourite things column, and even a monthly feature from Rob.  I think I'll be doing this through the use of labels/tags, so we'll see how that works!

Up first will be posts about our recent trip to Australia - so be on the look out for those soon!