October Catch-Up

I've been trying to maintain some continuity on the blog by doing the 5 on Friday posts and I really like them! Although, to be fair, a lot of those items have to do more with me and not so much about what Drew and I have been up to lately. So here's a post to catch you up on some of the things we've been up to this past month...

(Figured I'd start the post out with some beautiful views out our windows)


The week after we got back, we jumped head first into friend time back in Auckland. I had a good girls' dinner out and we also got to go out to dinner with the Bruffys while Katie's dad and stepmom were in town. That weekend we met some friends at the French Market (a new favorite), caught up with some Aussie mates and watched* Aussie rules football, then went to see Behind the Candelabra at the boutique theater right near our apartment. I must say...if you've seen the previews for the movie, there is no need to pay to see the whole thing. That's just my opinion though.

The following Tuesday, Drew & I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary...still hard to believe it's been 2 years already! Check out my 5 on Friday post all about that if you haven't already! The next night we had an AWC happy hour at a new hotspot called Orleans. It was a great night out, but the food left much to be desired I'm afraid. It wasn't bad...it just wasn't as great as people here think. Friday morning, I headed over to reunite with Tally (whom I hadn't seen in almost a month with both of our travel schedules.) Will's sister and her husband were in town and Tally was taking them out west of Auckland to go skydiving...so I went with her and we went and did a wine tasting while they jumped out of a plane. Good choice, right?? I've never done a wine tasting at 10:30am, but it was great! 

That Saturday (October 5th) was so gorgeous that we couldn't pass it up. We wandered around the Viaduct for a bit, had lunch in Mission Bay and then had some friends over for afternoon drinks on our rooftop deck (see post about that here.) That night we went to dinner at Prego (an old favorite) with our friends, Megan & Rob. It was there first time there and lovely enough to sit outside and eat--all in all, a great day! Sunday morning we met some friends at Judges Bay to do some stand-up paddleboarding. We all took turns and enjoyed the sunshine! 

It's hilarious to people that our boards are bigger than our car!

          

Then Drew and I went over to the Bruffys' house to watch...wait for it...college football!!! I was never a huge fan of it when we lived in the States, but now that we don't have the chance to watch it, I miss it...go figure! 

The weekend of the 11th & 12th was a fun one for sure! The 11th was Katie S.'s birthday and in typical fashion, she picked an awesomely obscure way to celebrate it! We all met for drinks downtown and then a group of about 20 people meandered over to Aotea Square in the heart of the CBD for a silent flash mob. What's that, you say?? It's just like a flash mob except everyone is wearing headphones and listening to their own music...so to onlookers, everyone is dancing around but it's totally silent. We were all skeptical of how it would turn out, but it was actually really fun! See for yourselves...

*NOTE: I'm in the green jacket dancing to 'Party in the USA' by Miley Cyrus and Drew is next to me doing the Electric Slide.

Saturday night, we went to dinner at Elliott Stables with Will & Tally and then headed to the beautiful Civic theater to see WICKED!! It's still my favorite musical to date and it never gets old. Here is the 'commercial' of sorts to promote the show in Auckland:

Last weekend we tried SUP-ing Saturday morning and as soon as we got out on the water it started pouring down rain...even though SUP-ing is a water sport, it is very slippery when your board is covered in rain and you're trying to stand up on it! Instead, we opted to walk around the mall, catch an afternoon movie and run some errands. That night, we got to catch up with our friends, Erin & Scott for dinner which is always great! Sunday, Drew went out for another SUP outing while I went to the store and got things prepared for our dinner group that evening. It was lovely, again, to be able to have friends over. We had a taco bar for dinner which was fun!

Most of the time in between then and now has been filled with day-to-day things. We are definitely loving having tons of windows and fresh air in our 'new' place and we love getting look out at the water all the time. We've been doing a lot of walking and between my walks with friends and my walks with Drew in the evenings, I'm averaging about 5K a day. Drew does a lot more SUP-ing than I do, so it evens out :)

This has been a relatively slow month for Drew at work which has really been nice because we get to have dinner together every night and enjoy a few hours of sunshine when he gets home. Even though it hasn't been overly hectic for us lately, we are really looking forward to having a real vacation! Now we're just packing and getting things together for our trip to Singapore & Thailand this weekend. We're excited and slightly worried about some aspects, but I think if we eat in our resort (in Phuket) and stick to bottled water we should be fine! Be on the look out for a post from that trip once we get back in a few weeks!

Cheers,