Adventures in Auckland

Hi folks!

Sorry the blog posts are becoming fewer and further between! I definitely want to keep you all posted with the goings-on in New Zealand, but now that we're settled in and used to everyday life, I'm afraid there aren't always exciting things going on. The good news is that we ARE settled and feeling like this is our (temporary) home.

THINGS OF NOTE:

-we celebrated our 1st anniversary last week (see previous post)
-Drew decided that I needed to watch all of the Lord of the Rings movies since they were filmed in NZ and we're going to Hobbiton next weekend (it's part of the movie set where they give tours) I was not so thrilled with this idea, especially since Drew had borrowed the EXTENDED edition of all of the movies...each one was between 3.5 and 4.5 hours long

-I joined a gym and have been absolutely LOVING the classes I've taken so far
-I was officially offered the position of Webmaster for the American Women's Club so I will be in charge of updating their website, helping with member login, and helping to update their Facebook page
-because of aforementioned position, I got to attend an AWC board meeting last week and am super excited to get involved with the planning side of things
-Drew had a team-building event last week where his team went out for pizza & played laser tag
-I attended an AWC coffee morning hosted by my friend, Joan, at her spectacular house! I met a lot of lovely new ladies...some of whom were friends with my mom's sorority sister when she lived in NZ (truly is a small world!)
-we have booked a long weekend trip for the end of January that we're super excited about...we'll be flying down to Christchurch (middle of the south island) and spending a night there,     then taking a 5-hour train tour up the Pacific Coast to a city called Picton (top of the south island), we will hop on the inter-island ferry for a 3-hour trip up to Wellington (bottom of the north island) and stay there for 2 days before flying back to Auckland)

Last weekend, we just got to spend some good time together exploring and relaxing...

FRIDAY:
Drew worked tirelessly to get a client wrapped up and to celebrate, we went to dinner with our friends, Scott & Erin (it's becoming a Friday night tradition!) They joined us on this side of the bridge this week and we tried a new restaurant called Jack Tar. It's in the same Wynyard Quarter area by our apartment that we've been to several times before. The dinner was good and the company was even better. After dinner, they came back to our place for drinks and some funfetti cake!


SATURDAY:

We slept in...finally! Then we got up and went walking downtown on a mission to find Halloween costumes. We came up with a good idea, but it's a secret for the time being so be on the lookout in a few weeks to see what we conjured up! Drew decided he needed a haircut, so it was Mr. Barber to the rescue...I have to say, they did a good job! We had lunch at Wendy's because it was the only US chain that we hadn't tried, so we figured we should try it in the interest of being fair...it did not disappoint!



We bolted up to the PwC floor of the PwC tower to get a view of the harbour. It must be getting warmer because the cruise ships have arrived!

Then we went for a drive over toward the eastern side of Auckland through some cute little towns like Mission Bay and St. Heliers. Both areas have little towns on one side of the street and parks/beaches on the other. It was nice to see another part of the city and put our toes in the sand...although it was a little chilly for an actual beach day.

Then we headed back home to relax a little bit more. We decided to take advantage of the pool/hot tub/sauna area at our complex and we had it all to ourselves. We took some drinks down there and just relaxed. It's really cool be cause it looks out right onto the harbour.

That night, we tried some yummy pizza from a new place called Crust. Drew got the meat lovers pizza and I got the philly cheese steak pizza...and we splurged and got the parmesan pesto cheese bread to share...it was soooooooo good! This is the only evidence we had left....

SUNDAY:
We tried a new church just to see what else is out there that we might like. The church we tried will not be named, but we'll just say that we got up and left about 20 minutes in. We realize that 20 minutes into a church service back home, you'd probably be done with singing and announcements and about to start in to the sermon...but, here, 20 minutes in we were only done with 3 songs. Needless to say, it wasn't quite our speed but to each, his own. We came home, and got to Skype with Nick, Megan, Catey and the girls which is always fun! Drew had to work most of the afternoon, so I was forced to watch the last Lord of the Rings movie...all...four...and...a...half...hourrrrrrrs of it. Never again. At least I had some microwave popcorn to make it a little more bearable.

So that's about all for us here! I will update again this week and then we should have a lot to post from our trip to Rotorua and Hobbiton this weekend!

Cheers!