Entertain Us

Over the last few weeks we have been to multiple shows and even an amusement park. Before moving here we were warned that we might find New Zealand to be a bit lacking in culture, but we've been pretty pleased so far with the offerings available to us.

We got a groupon to Rainbow's End, which is New Zealand's biggest amusement park. I think there were something like 7-8 rides, but there were also very few people there, so we got to ride them as many times as we wanted. Also they played "Timber" in line for the enchanted log flume (which turned out to be very strange indeed).
 

Not pictured: The Power Surge, aka the scariest ride I have ever been on. 

 I found out Dolly Parton was coming to town soon after we moved here, but Rob had no interest and I didn't want to go alone. So I was thrilled when a friend let me know she had a last minute cancellation and therefore an extra ticket. I loved Dolly before the concert, but now I love her even more. She sang old songs and new songs and told stories and played all kinds of instruments. Age has definitely not slowed her down.

It is important to me that you know that they played "Hello Dolly" just before Dolly came on stage.

We are kind of Shakespeare nerds, so when we saw signs around town for Shakespeare in the Park, we got some friends together to go see it. It turns out we are also Shakespeare snobs. According to the experts, Othello is a Shakespearean tragedy, but this cast (unintentionally?) played it as a comedy. I miss Stratford (Ontario) already.

The outdoor theatre was pretty neat, even if it did start to rain.

Auckland has a pretty great movies in the park program, and we have been to two movies so far - The Graduate in Silo Park and The Great Gatsby (the 2013 version) in Milford Reserve.

From top left: View from Silo Park back to the city; Graduate on the silo; one man's creative seating arrangement (Erin - I thought of you!); Gatsby on the big inflatable screen; Rob and I nerding out with our dual Gatsby shirts.

I don't know who makes Rob's shirt, but if you are jealous of my Gatsby shirt, you can get yourself one through Out of Print clothing (it also comes in sweatshirt form, and their sweatshirts are super cozy). That is also a handy link to have if you ever want to buy me a present.

Finally, we celebrated 6 months in New Zealand on February 9th with a hike up Mount Victoria, which is the big hill in our back yard that overlooks the entire town of Devonport (our new home, which I promise to tell you more about soon). I was intending to write a big long post about being here for 6 months with lots of profound thoughts about our first half-year of living abroad, but my thoughts about it are actually pretty simple:

We love it here. We miss you there. We're glad we picked this winter to leave Chicago.

Celebratory picnic on top of Mount Victoria overlooking Rangitoto.