Just a little catch up from this past weekend...
To preface the post, I have to say that Halloween here is not anywhere close to the extent that it is back home. Yes, there are a few stores that sell the plastic orange pumpkins to put candy in...and there were a few groups of people dressed up this past weekend...BUT there is no Halloween candy, no real mention of the day, no scary movie marathons on TV, and certainly no haunted houses, hayrides, bonfires or carved pumpkins. I will say that I'm sure there are a few folks here and there that have the aforementioned holiday goodies, but definitely not an overwhelming holiday culture like it is in the States.
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Friday we headed home from Hamilton in time to catch our breath before heading to dinner at a new (and very delicious) restaurant called Prego with Scott & Erin. The weather was perfect enough to sit outside (under a heater, of course) and the meal was absolutely wonderful! They even ended the night with fireworks--although we're not sure what they were for!
Saturday morning, we got up and...much to our surprise...the weather was actually really nice out! So we decided to stop procrastinating and head down to the Waitakere Ranges which is a series of beautiful wilderness trails about 30 minutes south of Auckland. We stopped by the visitors' center first to get some maps and information. We could have stopped there because the views were so awesome, but we decided to pick a shorter hike and go out exploring.
We chose the Mercer Bay Loop Trail which was an hour-long trail right along the water. The views were incredible and the weather was borderline hot actually!
After we finished, we stopped for some good old-fashioned fast food before heading over to watch Scott play in a rugby tournament. The games have 2 7-minute halves so we got to see a lot of games. Scott's team made it to the finals, but lost unfortunately.
Then it was on to the main event for the evening--karaoke!!! I had purchased a Living Social coupon deal that was for 2 hours in a private karaoke room with 2 bottles of wine for 12 people. Our little room was very nice (although it didn't have any A/C) and we had a great time! It took a little while to figure out how to work the system because most of the instructions and artists were in Japanese!
Throughout the night we had us as Lois & Clark/Superman, Leah as Batgirl, Katie S. as 50 Shades of Grey, Kacee & Jeremy as the chicken & the egg, Melissa as Minnie Mouse, Katie as a giant banana, and Amanda as a 70's disco dancer.
But we all belted out some great tunes and of course had to cap off the night with Gangnam Style.
Check out the video here ----> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nblt2QtAP5Q
We finished up with a final Halloween drink at a bar called Andrew Andrew in Prince's Wharf before heading home. Great way to celebrating Halloween with our American friends (and a couple Kiwis!)
To round out the weekend, we woke up Sunday morning to watch Erin finish her first half marathon! It was quite a big event here in Auckland with the 1/2 and full marathons as well as 5K and other races. The finish line was in Victoria Park which is right by our house, so it was cool to get to look out our windows and see all the runners. It ended up being beautiful weather again and Erin finished her race at the 2:12 mark--so proud!
After the race was over, Erin & Scott had a BBQ at their new house with roommates and friends to celebrate their accomplishments.
This week we've got some fun things to look forward to and we'll be preparing for our friend, Maggie, to arrive on Saturday morning!!
Cheers!
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