Even though we've lived here for 7 MONTHS already (time really flies!), there were several things that we still hadn't done together...so we figured there was no time like the present and took advantage of a nice, end-of-summer weekend!
Last Friday, we got together with a group of PwC people...most of whom were new to us! Several of them were Kiwis, one guy was from London and one couple (the husband works for PwC) is from Scotland. We met up with them for happy hour drinks at a restaurant called Waterfront that we've been to a few times before for dinner. The weather was perfect for sitting outside...so we did! We chatted for a while and enjoyed to some drinks before Drew & I grabbed some pizzas from a gourmet pizza place in Parnell called Crust--yum! It was even better because we had a coupon for buy one, get one free--score!
Saturday morning, we got up and decided to explore some of Auckland. We headed to an aquarium in Auckland called Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life Aquarium. Again, we had a BOGO free coupon so we figured we'd check it out! It was actually a pretty cool aquarium that's all underground and eye level with the water so you can look out at certain points and see the ocean. It is also apparently home to the biggest Antarctic penguin habitat in the world...love those cute little guys, but Drew swears that if I tried to cuddle one, it would rip my face off!
After that, we threw on some swimsuits and headed to a new beach--Long Bay Beach! We really liked it because it was a good combination of several of our other favorite beaches. It wasn't crowded at all and it was relatively close by. We only stayed out for about an hour, but boy did we get some sun! Even though summer is quickly fading here, I'm sure we'll be visiting that beach more often in the future!
That night, we headed to the Auckland Lantern Festival in downtown Albert Park. We left our place with Amy & James, stopped by and 'picked up' Leah and walked to downtown with thousands of other Aucklanders to check out the weekend event. It was a very cool concept, but they city had not adequately prepared for THAT many people to be there because it was just absolutely too crowded. We tried to maneuver through the food stalls they had lined up, but it was borderline suffocating! We saw a dragon dance performance and walked through some of the lanterns before opting to actually go sit down and eat dinner at a Malaysian restaurant nearby.
We had some wonderfully yummy food and a great time chatting and sharing family stories with our friends. Once it was dark and we were confindent that the crowds had died down, we headed back into the festival to see all of the lanterns once they were lit up...good call on our part! It was a really cool thing to do, but I'm not sure I need to go back next year :)
Sunday, we just relaxed, went on a walk around the harbour and Drew had to do a little bit of work...gotta love busy season!
More to come soon!
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment