She arrived early Sunday morning and we were able to take her straight to the hotel (the Sofitel right next to our apartment which was convenient) so she could get checked in. We let her get her bearings a bit, but told her not to fall asleep or her internal clock would be all out of whack! We walked over and grabbed her for a stroll through the Viaduct and lunch at Mexicali Fresh right on the water. Afterwards, we hopped in the car and did our standard 'first day visitor' drive along the coast to Mission Bay and St. Heliers. We stopped at the grocery store to get a few things for the week and then let Sara have the rest of the evening to rest--according to her, she fell asleep immediately that afternoon only to wake up around 9pm, get ready for bed and fall asleep for the night!
Monday, she headed to work with Drew and got to meet a lot of people and learn about the PwC office in Auckland. Drew, along with myself, and our friends Will & Tally (Will also works for PwC) took Sara out to lunch at Waterfront which was nice! The rest of that day, Sara had lots of meetings & introductions with PwC folks and I went out with Tally to do some shopping for an upcoming baby shower for one of our friends. That night, I met Drew & Sara over at the office and we went to Monsoon Poon for dinner...we're always big fans!
Tuesday, Sara went back to the office with Drew for the day, but that night we took her out with all of our friends for Trivia Night at Carpark. Sara came through with some big answers and helped us win first place and a $100 bar tab...we'll just have to get her to come back so she can enjoy some of the winnings!
Wednesday, Sara went out to a client with another team in the office while Drew tried to wrap up some busy season stuff and attend meetings of his own. That night, we took her to another one of our favorite restaurants...Tanuki's Cave...where we had a great dinner and great conversation. Turns out Sara knows an old friend of mine from Athens...small world!
Thursday was Sara's last day at work where she got to sit in on some manager meetings that she said were really interesting. That night, we got to have dinner at Orbit, the revolving restaurant at the top of the Sky Tower. We told Sara she was welcome to do the jump off the side, but she passed--smart girl ;) Dinner was absolutely wonderful and this time is was clear so we got to see amazing 360-degree views of the city!
Friday morning, we met up and walked over to Queen St. to do a little souvenir shopping before hopping on the ferry over to Waiheke. When we got there, we took a taxi to the Beach Front Cafe (which was about 3 times more expensive than we thought it would be...the cab, not the restaurant), but it was a great meal (Sara & I had fish and chips and Drew had the world's biggest cheese steak) and we got to sit right on the water...Sara even got to finally put her feet in the Pacific Ocean! Afterwards, we went to Mudbrick where Sara got to do her first wine tasting--always a beautiful spot! Lastly, we headed to Cable Bay Vineyard and sat outside enjoying some wine.
Then we headed back into the city to change and relax before heading to...where else??...Sal's Pizza! Since it was still early, we walked up to the Auckland Arts Festival downtown, but there wasn't much to see at that time. We decided to hop in the car and drive across to Devonport to see the little town and get some good pictures of the Auckland skyline from across the water.
Saturday, we got breakfast from Paneton before Sara had to check out. The weather definitely took a turn for the worse, so we headed out to Mt. Eden that morning before the rain really set in. Then, we ventured over to the museum to show Sara some of the NZ culture and then got to do the Maori cultural performance...which was great, as usual! The rain kept coming in going, so we opted for Elliott Stables for lunch and Sara finally got to try some NZ lamb! Afterwards, we came back to our place to relax a little bit and then finally made our way to the airport. We did stop at One Tree Hill (which was a first for us) and saw some sheep and some more great views of the city one last time.
We had an absolutely wonderful time getting to know Sara and hope she enjoyed her time here! We know she'll succeed in everything she chooses to do in the future :)
That night, we had one last BBQ at Craig & Leah's (we found out that Leah is moving in about a week and a half and Craig is leaving the first of May--so sad!) But the cookout was a great time with great people...as usual!
Then, on Sunday the bad weather had officially set in so we did an early morning run to the grocery store and treated ourselves to some Dunkin Donuts--yum! We were supposed to go stand-up paddleboarding, but rescheduled that due to weather. Instead, Drew & I went to the movies...something we very rarely do...and saw Broken City which was just ok in our opinion. However, to make it a little more interesting, as soon as we got in the theater our seats started shaking and we learned after the movie that it was, in fact, an EARTHQUAKE! It was 3.9 which is the biggest one in Auckland since 2007, I believe. It was slightly unnerving, but not much you can do about it! Afterwards, we headed to Will & Tally's new apartment where she was making homemade spaghetti & meatballs...sooooooo delish! We did spend a good amount of time discussing an exit strategy should these natural disasters keep occurring :)
Anyway--I'll write more soon...I promise!
Cheers,
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