My theory is that given the good weather and such a nice bus, there’s a high probability these people are enjoying their Bayesian tour experience.
Happy New Year
We set an alarm so we wouldn’t miss fireworks from the Sky Tower. Luckily all we had to do was go across the street!
Looked way better in person, especially through the binoculars.
From one of the first places to arrive in 2019 comes one of the last greetings you’re likely to receive: Happy New Year 🎊🎆!!!
Hu’s on first
– Hey I saw this shop for lease down in Newmarket. It would be perfect for your shop. And the agent is my friend Ken. You should call him.
– Cool, i will. Ken who?
– Right! Do you know him? He’s so great.
– I don’t know. What’s his last name?
– Hu.
– Ken, the agent.
– Like I said, Ken Hu!
– You said he’s your friend.
– …
Chimp Selfie
It was cool to come across one of the utility boxes from the list of these I first saw way back when.
Parnell’s Giant Christmas Ball
Even better at night…
Milking it
It’s great when the system works! We planted some milkweed a couple months ago in hopes of attracting monarch butterflies, and here they are.
We now have monarch caterpillars happily munching away, preparing to pupate… if they can avoid getting eaten by wasps first. Apparently the milkweed makes them toxic to many predators, but the wasps are a problem.
Martha’s Backyard
“The American Store”.
We’d heard about this place, and so when we happened to drive by the other day we stopped to check it out.
They have a lot of food and drugstore stuff that is not easy to find here. Plus a bunch of stars and stripes stuff for people having parties.
We don’t lack for good food here, but we did buy some things anyway: the local mac ‘n’ cheese is terrible, and the tomato soup doesn’t taste right. One reality that doesn’t sit easily with some red-state voters: most of the food we miss from America is Mexican.
Goat Island
Our plan for last weekend was to dive Goat Island on Saturday before continuing up to the Poor Knights on Sunday. Goat Island is about as easy a dive as you can do… leave from shore, not much over 20 feet, in a marine reserve area with lots of fish. Perfect for the first time in the water for a while.
But the weather was uncooperative, so we rescheduled the dive for Thursday. Our friend Astrid was off work, so she came along and snorkeled with Lee.
The spot is pretty nice, and the dive operator very friendly, although it took them/us a surprisingly long time to get geared up and begin the dive. GoPro still not working.
The dive itself was pleasant… nothing too memorable, but it was fun to swim around in the kelp and explore all the volcanic fissures. Perfect place to go with a buddy, not much need for a guide after the first time.
After, we had lunch at the Leigh Sawmill Café. It is just about exactly the country roadhouse I would want to own if I owned a country roadhouse. It’s actually an old sawmill, with a great garden courtyard. Good food, a nice craft beer selection, a few rooms for tourists who want to hang out a day or two. And a reputation for good music… in addition to the published lineup, apparently it’s a place where big names show up unannounced from time to time and play a set.
Christmas dinner
We had a sumptuous Christmas buffet dinner with Alicia and Nat at the Stamford Plaza hotel. It cost a ton, but not actually compared to cooking. These cute gingerbread houses were out in the lobby.
Among several helpings of everything else, I did a thing I’ve only done once or twice before: truly ate all the oysters I wanted to.
The true meaning of the season
Boxing Day sales means no more huddling over the laptop.
The last TV we bought ourselves was in 2007. It cost three times as much, used more electricity, had a much lower resolution, no internet connection, etc. Moore’s Law is still in full effect, I’d say.
Run Tutukaka
After diving Sunday, we were headed back to Auckland for Christmas Eve dinner at Tom’s house. That gave me plenty of time for a run to explore the surrounds.
From the hotel, I went past the Holiday Park, but then changed my mind and instead went up a little path we had found the night before. That took me to a park…
which supposedly led to a lighthouse. But I found myself at an impasse, after descending a couple hundred steps…
If I’d stopped to read the directions, I would have known to turn right and continue on, but I didn’t…
I found another little beach with a great bach (the Kiwi term for a holiday house) on it,
and a whole field of snowball bushes. That’s as close to a white Christmas as I can get this year 😀.
By that time it was raining hard, so I headed for home.
Every time we go anywhere we imagine what it would be like to live there… all that peace and quiet, the lure of the sea… But if I’m honest, a town I can explore end to end in a single slow-ish run probably wouldn’t keep my attention for long enough. There’s a reason all those properties are for sale…
Gee the traffic is terrific
Today we drove from Auckland to Tutukaka for a dive tomorrow at the famous Poor Knights Islands. We were girded for bad traffic as Auckland empties out bigly over the holidays, but apparently they don’t come up here… everything went smoothly.
We took the scenic route along the coast and made a couple of stops along the way. The Mangawhai Heads beach, about an hour and a half from downtown Auckland, stretches for miles and is amazingly flat. We’re into peak season so the crowds are shocking. Not.
The volunteer surf lifeguards only patrol a section about 100 yards wide, so the swimmers were all jammed up in there. I dipped my toes in, too cold to go further. For tomorrow’s diving I’ll be in a 7mm suit with a 3mm vest and hood on top of that, so should be toasty.
Found this lazy sea star in a tide pool.
Then we stopped to see the Whangarei Falls, very nice. Assuming that some of the trees are kauris, then we hit the trifecta: beach , waterfall, and big tree!
Now we’re all checked in to the hotel and hoping the rain lets up for the boat ride out to the islands tomorrow.
Merry Xmas
Merry Christmas from NZ!
Messiah, Baby!!
Acting on a tip from one of Lee’s colleagues (front row chorus near the right), I got a last minute ticket to see the Auckland Choral Society’s annual Messiah concert. I paid a hefty price but got a front row balcony seat, in fact just a few seats away from Sir Somebody or Other, who was singled out for his patronage over the years. It was my first time at Auckland’s Town Hall, which is a lovely venue.
This was the 100th consecutive year they’ve done the Messiah, and a few of the choristers have done 50. They have actually been at it for about 150, but missed 1914 (WWI) and 1918 (flu pandemic).
In honour of the centenary, they pulled out all the stops… three choirs, big-name soloists, a commemorative program…
It was great, and helped me into the Christmas spirit for sure.
Brattleboro Adventure – the Auckland Edition 