My collection increases!
Gov agents permeated into friendzone
This bizarre screed appeared on walls and telephone poles around the neighborhood recently. As far as I can tell, there’s no actual call to action, it’s just a bunch of vaguely scary words. But I wanted to be reasonably sure about that, so I actually read the whole thing. Thus the title of this post.
There’s a guy in Brattleboro who marches back and forth in front of the Post Office every day carrying signs that are eerily similar… obviously the mind control (fluoride? power lines? aliens?) works all over the world.
Rummage sale score
We do miss garage sales here. But a lot of the churches have annual rummage sales, and our own St. Stephens Cathedral just did theirs.
In addition to all the useful bric-a-brac, we won a fine bottle of whisky in the raffle… woot!!
Touch Rugby
I’ve had fun over the last few months playing on the HealthLink touch rugby team. We suck, compared to all but two of the other teams in the league. But it’s great fun. Prov joined us for the two Thursday evenings he was here.
The rules are pretty simple compared to real rugby, so not hard to pick up. Pass the ball backwards, be sure to pass if you’re the dummy, stay onsides and try to stay with your man on defense.
The most important lesson for me, athletic-wise, is that I can’t run fast or change directions hardly at all, and when I try either of those, it hurts.
The Cricket
As one of the last activities with Prov, we went to Eden Park to see the NZ Blackcaps play Australia in the final match of a 20-20 cricket series.
I’m not a serious fan (or supporter as they say here) of any big stadium sport, but I always enjoy going to a game. I found it at least as easy to follow as baseball. The fish and chips was good, the beer was cold, the fans were just rowdy enough.
We lost, sadly, after a rain shower delayed and finally ended the game.
Whitianga Ferry
It’s only about a 3-minute ride, and this trusty boat does it continuously for at least 12 hours a day.
As a result of all that practice, the skippers know all the tricks to get from here to there, taking the strong estuary currents, winds, and passengers into account. After using the absolute minimum required fuel to get across, they mostly don’t even get up from their seat to grab the mooring line and swing into the dock… it’s always a pleasure to see someone make it look easy.
Hot Water Beach
Must be experienced to be understood… after about a half hour drive through absolutely nothing, you arrive at a totally crowded parking lot.
You walk down to the beach, perhaps renting a spade along the way. You elbow your way in between some other groups and dig yourself a little pit, somehow balancing the super hot water bubbling up from the earth’s core with air and cool sand to create a perfect hot tub experience.
We were prepared thanks to our glass-bottom boat guide Shona, so we just watched until someone was getting ready to leave and took their spot. I alternated between relaxing in the heat and playing in the waves.
At first it was weird to be jammed in with so many people, but after a bit it’s like you’re all in the same club, best of friends. Toward the end we were entertained by a bus load of 20-something’s and all their various posturing. To the one guy who was trying way too hard to impress the girls with his digging and engineering skills… we hope one of them noticed but it sure looked like the guys who just settled in to enjoy were making better time.
I would do this again and again. Supposedly there’s another hot water beach south of Raglan… next time!
Cathedral Cove Tour
On Sunday we took a glass bottom boat tour from our base in Whitianga out to Cathedral Cove and Hahei. Great time!
Like many celebrities, the cove looks shorter in person.
Here’s the well-trained school of red snapper in the marine reserve, who are acting as the primary differentiator between us and the sad non-glass-bottom people.
New Zealand’s second largest sea cave.
I really enjoyed our snorkeling stop, even though visibility wasn’t great. I was a little surprised to see this bald guy in the pictures since I didn’t notice him in the water and there were no other boats around.
Our guide jumped in and came up with this awesome crayfish.
Overall, a highly recommended trip!
The Coromandel
Our second road trip with the Provs was out to the Coromandel Peninsula. It’s not all that far from Auckland… four hours or so gets you absolutely anywhere and two gets you a lot of the more settled parts.
There are some specific sites to be seen, breaks to be surfed, venues to be discovered, but mostly it’s this… beautiful countryside stretching to the ocean.
Catapostrophe
There’s a thing that floats around the Internet about words that don’t exist but should. Here’s my entry: catapostrope, the tragic misuse of punctuation.
Beachcombing Coromandel
En route to our Coromandel hotel we stopped on a stretch of beach reputed for some semi-precious stones that wash up. We did find some pretty pebbles (jasper? agate?) and bits of seaglass.
But the most memorable thing we found was also kinda sad… a dead hammerhead shark washed up on shore.
True love
This pohutukawa tree has followed its heart and openly declared its love for a palm. A few years ago, this would have been considered a crime, even here in New Zealand, but today most of the other trees accept and support this unlikely pair.
Sky Tower
After a false start in September, we finally got a chance to dine at the Sky Tower. The food was good, a 3-course menu with four options for each, so we got to literally order one of each. But it turned out to be more than just dinner.
It was Chinese New Years, so there was a show in the courtyard…
We got the requisite toes shot, 50+ stories up…
And a beautiful view from our revolving perch…
Including the Harbour Bridge lights…
And for dessert, a random showgirl who caused the entire crowded lobby – men, women, and children – to stop and gawk as she simply rode up the escalator…
Whew!
Brattleboro Adventure – the Auckland Edition 