Living with the Kiwis: Labour Weekend

(just thought I'd spell it the way they do here! Also they just call it Labour Weekend leaving out the "Day")

Anyway! Saturday morning I ferried into Auckland at 9:25...the last ferry before 3:25pm on a Saturday or Sunday. We met at 11:30 to head to Waiheke Island on the 12pm ferry. Luckily, Jenny's family's friend had an appartment right in the city center and wanted to swap beds with her for the weekend so we had a sort of "home base" in the city! The weather was absolutely beautiful and we could not have chosen a better day to visit the island! First time since I've been here that there hasn't been a single cloud in the sky! It was also beach weather, lots of people swimming! We didn't make too many plans of things we wanted to do, just see the main beaches and what there was to see of towns, Waiheke is a really touristy-centered Island with TONS of wineries and vineyards to visit, but also very pricey and we all wanted to have an inexpensive weekend! When we got off the ferry it was kind of just a whole ton of people trying to pile into the buses and then of course car and bike rentals and some other random side business men trying to load up their vans with tourists as well! We decided this one guy (Kayak2 on the license plate) was entertaining enough to let him drive us to the first beach for $2 each...he told us a few stories, for example, his son came 5th in the Olympics for kayaking (hence the name on his van and in his phone number), the first non-European to place. I guess it was worth it to ride with him the first short little way, to avoid being crammed like sardines into the bus...but then we would have had to call him up to drive us somewhere else if we wanted, which would have got pricey and he was also willing to cram lots of people in his van! So we walked down to the beach and then up to the town to the bus stop. They're supposed to come every hour, but tend to run on island time...we had each packed some type of lunch/snack to eat for the day as well so by this time most of us had eaten our lunch. The bus finally showed up and we traveled to Palm Beach from Oneroa Beach, both very beautiful! It was actually nice just to ride the bus across the island just to see the views and houses. Next stop after palm beach was Onetangi beach where we actually just laid in the sand for awhile. We caught the 6pm ferry back to Auckland (dropping off Laura in Devonport) and met up with 5 new girls at 7 for dinner at Mexical Fresh (a chipotle-like great find right in the waterfront next to the ferry). So now there were a total of 10 of us. After eating we were almost taken out in a limo with some guy who was celebrating winning salesman of the year that night, but he didn't quite have space for all 10 of us...we instead went back to our home base appartment where I introduced our new foreign friends to some of the many camp games in my knowledge base. We thoroughly enjoyed tally ho, chicken goggles, and ferrari. We had a great night out with our new group of friends!

Sunday was another gorgeous day and I spent some of the afternoon sitting by yet another beach. A little cooler and breezier so not ideal for swimming, although there were people in the water! Then a bunch of us from Saturday night went to Nina's house for a BBQ. Her family was away for the holiday weekend and made sure she knew how to work the pool/spa and grill before leaving so that she could entertain people. Everyone brought food so we ended up with more of a feast than a BBQ! Her family lives in Orakei, also with a view of the Auckland skyline from the yard, very nice-looking neighborhood.

Today, as it was a public holiday, I did not have kid duties so An and I went to Mission Bay (although we didn't quite make it all the way to the town because we parked pretty much in the next town over because there was so much traffic) to go to a market that was today only, 10-4. It was yet again, another beautiful day, apparently a first to have such a nice Labour weekend weather-wise. We wandered around strategically, making sure we saw each and every booth. I ended up purchasing a turtle to add to my collection, figured I needed one from NZ! And An bought a very cute little apron for her sister's daughter, who apparently is always trying to put her mother's on and help in the kitchen. There was also a stand selling dog/cat accessories from colorful collars to leashes with visors attached and hats and clothing for your animals. There were even three dogs sitting at the booth in chairs just modeling the items. Either they were really hot and lazy or rather enjoyed showing off their strange looks! It was another great, eventful weekend and the plans have already started for celebrating Halloween next Saturday night! Although we're trying to decide what dress-up is like here in New Zealand! We've heard a few different things from Kiwis...the Europeans always go scary, where us Americans dress up as anything at all! Hopefully we come to a consensus and everyone else out is dressed up as well!