Around the Town

Tēnā koutou!  That's Maori for hello. Maggie here.

After so many weekends of driving to the surrounding areas of Auckland, we decided we needed a weekend in town exploring Auckland's neighborhoods.  There are many lovely neighborhoods, most of which are on the coast.  When you live in a city with as many inlets and bays as Auckland, the chances of your neighborhood touching water is pretty high.

Saturday we decided to walk around the neighborhood of Devonport.  It's one of the 'fancy' neighborhoods with streets of cute cafes, well-maintained parks packed with children, and upscale housing that actually have yards larger than postage stamps.

Kiwi houses are practically built on top of one another.  When you walk down the street you will frequently see three driveways in a row.  One leads to the house closest to the street, another leads to the house directly behind it, and the third to a house behind that.  So the streets are pretty far apart, houses are crammed together, and yards are pretty dinky.  I don't know what in their history prompted this housing style, but there it is.  Auckland is also extremely hilly, so some of these driveways are INTENSE.  They are lucky they don't get snow here because Aucklanders (Aucklandites?) would be in trouble.  We are talking steep.  The front fender of our car scrapes every time we pull into our driveway because of the sharp curve combined with the steep incline.

Some of the tallest isolated hills in Auckland are in Devonport, so the views are 360.  This made them ideal for lookout posts and disappearing guns in WWII.  One of the original guns in still in place and you can walk through some of the underground tunnels, barracks, and kitchen during certain hours.

North Head Hill:

3D map of Devonport

3D map of Hauraki Gulf (encompassing Greater Auckland)

James and I ate lunch at the top.

Well, I ate lunch and James slobbered on my wrapper.  Mmm, crinkly.

Mount Victoria:

Old bunker vents are decorated like mushrooms all over the top of the hill.

Sunday we went to the other side of the bay to the neighborhoods of Mission Bay and St. Heliers.  There is a long waterfront walk that connects all the neighborhoods in that area, and also passes by several yachting clubs and the aquarium.  Boating clubs are very popular with the tweenagers here (from what I've observed) so many times when we pass by a yacht club (they're everywhere here) there are little clusters of sailfish playing follow the leader.  We've watched them come in before and it's fun to see how the boats break down and transport.  My parents gave Lance a yacht club membership for his birthday, so we need to find a yacht club close by.  They aren't exclusive and highfalutin like in the States.  Pretty much every neighborhood that touches water has one.  We've been told most of the clubs rent out the little sailfish for $5-10 to members.  Score!  We've also been told about something called the Rum Races, but that will be a different story for another day.

This picture doesn't look like much, but the trees lining the whole path were beautiful!

We have to appreciate the beauty of the city itself, not just it's surrounding areas.  No complaints here!

Shout out to the Weber Crew / Happy Thanksgiving

After a bunch of posts by Maggie, I'm (Lance) finally getting back into it.  As Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching and may be here by the time this post gets up / gets read; Maggie, James, and I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

A special shout to the Weber Family who this year will be congregating at Aunt Susan and Uncle Tim's again up in Frankenmuth.  It's been a few years since I've been able to be home for Thanksgiving, but it doesn't hold any less special place in my heart.  The entire Weber Family has been getting together since I was born, and we take turns rotating the hosting duties between Frankenmuth and Shelby.  I wish you all the best this Thanksgiving and hope that someone can occupy Olivia and Tyler enough so that Kyle can fully soak in the Bears loss as the Lions (in a rarity) dominate on Thanksgiving Day.  I'll be watching on Slingbox out here- might have to go in late for work that Friday to catch the game, especially since I haven't been able to see one yet this year.  There's really nothing better than a Holiday that incorporates the 3 Fs: Food, Family, and Football.  The Kiwis can say what they want about sitting on a beach in November, but Americans really make Lemonade out of Lemons in celebrating such a great holiday at such a lousy point in the year (weather wise).  (Buckle) Hats go off to you, Pilgrims. You set the foundation for greatness, and like always Detroit followed it up with excellence.

James and I have been trying to get in at least a little bit of College Football since the games on Saturdays are technically on Sunday here.  Even though it's a been an atrocious season (most disappointing in my lifetime), James and I are still bleeding Maize and Blue.

So as you all gather around the Turkey this upcoming week and check your iPhones for all the latest Black Friday deals, know that Maggie and I wish we could be with you and give thanks for all the Good Lord has given us.  Here's some of the things that I'm thankful for (Letterman Style for Top 10) this Thanksgiving:

1. Family

2. Friends

3. Good Health

4. #Merica

5. Soft Pretzels
Pretzels.....


6. Coney Dogs
Lafayette is better

7. Fresh Air

8. Cold Beer on a Friday Night

9. Fresh Cut Grass on Bare Feet in the Summer / Fresh Powder Under the Skis in the Winter

10. Keeping on down the road of life!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Go Blue! 
Go Lions!
Go Wings!

Matamataharakeke

Try to say that three times fast.  When learning the pronunciation for the New Zealand Māori language, Lance's rule is, "Whatever your first instinct, assume it's wrong and go with your second guess."  I am really struggling.  Matamataharakeke was the name of the trail we hiked this past Labor Day Weekend.  If I was a responsible camper, I would declare my outdoor location intentions.  The only problem:  I'm not sure I could verbally say the name to tell anyone where the heck I am going!

It was supposed to be a 3.5 hour drive but between construction on a one lane road, careful driving on narrow waterfront roads, and slow going on back-country gravel roads it turned into almost 6.  James was displeased.

We were going with our new friends, Katie and Kevin, and their 16 month old son, Elliot.  Between our equipment and two car seats we weren't able to carpool, so we met up in the city of Coromandel, which was about an hour from the campsite.  The drive into Coromandel was GORGEOUS.  It was part of the Pacific Coast Highway, one of six designated scenic highways on the North Island.  It winds the entire way up the western coast of the peninsula, following the shoreline within a couple of feet.  We made a mental note to make sure we drove the return trip in the daylight because it would be a terror to drive at night.

 Twin Coast Discovery Highway

 Thermal Explorer Highway

 Volcanic Loop

 Pacific Coast Highway

 Forgotten World Highway

Classic New Zealand Wine Trail

After about 45 minutes of gravel roads scraping the bottom of our low-riding vehicle, we arrived at the campsite.  It is relatively secluded but still considered 'car camping' as opposed to the backpacking done more often in Colorado.  We picked a spot and set up camp.  We were definitely the 'poor man's campsite' in comparison to the other campsites.  According to Katie and Kevin, Kiwis do pretty fancy camping compared to what we're used to.  The other groups looked like they were set up for a week minimum.  Huge multi-room tents, full grills, foldable picnic tables with canopy, stereo systems, the works.  We had a portable propane grill and that was enough for our one night excursion.

Katie and I made hobo pies for dinner while the guys took the kids down to the beach.  When the sun went down it got pretty chilly so we really bundled the little ones up.  

 

James had a pretty cozy bed.  He managed to keep his mittens and hat on through the night.  He only woke up once, which is  typical, and overall Lance and I both got a solid night's sleep.

The next morning we packed our lunches and headed out for the hike on Matamataharakeke Walking Track.

 

So green!

NZ trails are marked with orange triangles.

Katie is due with a little girl come February.  What a trooper!

The little guys.

"Mammal Traps" for animals like cats and possums that are harming native bird species.  No native mammals in NZ minus bats.

 

After the hike we relaxed with some Budweiser that Lance was super pumped about finding in the grocery store.  Beer isn't as popular as wine so the selection and quality of beer is still a work in progress here.  Break down camp, visit the beach, and head home.  A nice way to spend NZ's Labor Day Weekend.