Calling All Detectives

What can you guess about us from our laundry?

Hmm, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say someone is from the state of Michigan.  Lions, Tigers, and Wolverines, oh my!

Dryers are uncommon here so you see laundry out on the lines all over the place.  We purchased a dryer anyway because drying laundry during their rainy season is near impossible.  Even now I have to strategically plan when to do laundry to catch the sun between shower bursts.  I do use the dryer on occasion, though, when we run out of line space or we have multiple rainy days in a row.  The dryer doesn't vent outside so we have to open all the windows and doors in the house otherwise the whole place fogs up.  But after our last electricity bill we know why no one owns a dryer!  Holy mackerel.  We're talking 5 times our bill in Denver, and I've been very careful about turning off lights and appliances.  We don't even have heat or AC for Pete's sake!  Oh well, looks like more line drying for me!

Piha Beach- no clever title needed!

Maggie here.

October 19th was the perfect beach day.  The strong New Zealand winds were taking a break for the day, the winter rains were starting to fade into sunny spring days, and we had time on our hands.  We had heard about Piha Beach, a famous black sands beach on the North Island.

We had such a fantastic day.  The drive was lovely.  We rolled the windows down and took our sweet time on the windy roads.  Apparently we are super slow, though, because we had to pull over multiple times to let faster cars pass.  They have slow car pull-offs all over the place so it must not be uncommon.  I thought we were going a pretty decent speed, too!  What Kiwis lack in general lifestyle pace they make up for in driving.  Tailgate city.

It is about an hour drive to the beach.  We arrived early afternoon to this view.

There were several hiking paths around the area so we took one that brought us to an overlook of the beach.

It was low tide so we took it down to a cove of sand.  The waves crashing against and through the rocks created a pleasant mist on the sunny day.

We hiked up one of the random rock/hills that we saw upon first arriving.  There wasn't an official path so we just made one up.  The views were amazing.

This is the rock we climbed.  See those little people up top?  That's where we were.

We ate a late lunch on the beach while James played in the sand and water.  He seemed intrigued by the former and unimpressed with the latter.

Of course our little guy couldn't go out in the sun without complete protection- sunscreen, hat, glasses, and rash guard.  He is related to his pale German father, after all.  Surprisingly he left the hat and glasses alone and they survived the entire excursion.  What a trooper!

Not a bad day.

No Tree Hill?

Maggie here.

When talking with some of the folks at Katie's birthday bash the day before, we were told Cornwall Park was a 'must-see' in Auckland.  Who are we to argue with must-sees?

What an amazing park!  It has a high hill with fantastic views of downtown, rolling fields of sheep and cows you can walk through, orchards of Cherry Blossoms in full bloom, and an avenue of overarching trees Scarlet O'Hara would envy.  It is in the neighborhood of One Tree Hill, named thus because of a solitary tree at the top of the largest hill.  This tree was then cut down, so technically it's no tree hill, but what can you do.

Not too shabby for a random afternoon.

Nothing against Nebraska...

....but I prefer the Omaha in New Zealand.

The weekend of October 11th we joined a new friend, Katie, in celebrating her birthday at Omaha Beach.  We drove up early Saturday morning and met everyone at the Matakana Village Farmers' Market.  Farmers' markets are plentiful here, even more so than in the US.  I had to do two walk-thrus to determine what breakfast delights I was craving.  I decided on crepes, a smoothie, and local oranges to share.  Lance got fish tacos.  All of it was yummy.
After the markets was an afternoon of wine tastings.  New Zealand is chock full of vineyards and wineries.  People here love to drink wine.  My kind of people, especially since Lance has never tried wine and continues to refuse to do so.  At this point it is purely out of principal for him because I've asked him one to many times to try it.  Lame.  But I warned him that this means I get to go to vineyards with other people and drink wine while he watches James.  Score!

Hyperion Winery

Omaha Bay Vineyard 

After some tastings we went into town and got some ice cream.  Delicious!  Half of the group stayed overnight in a bach and half went home.  We were the boring home group.  We were new and didn't want to overstay our welcome too early in the friendship. Especially since who knows how James would have been overnight.  Lance and I decided to swing over the beach before heading back to Auckland.  I have to say, there are worse places in the world to nurse.

I think the only thing the two Omahas have in common is the wind!

Happy Halloween!

Hello all!  Maggie here.

Happy Halloween!  Halloween isn't really celebrated much here, although I did see a couple of face paints walking around during the day.  We had about a half dozen kids come to the door, but they weren't even in costume!  James and I rocked it out, him as a scuba diver, me as his bubbles.

I made a shark hat for Lance, but he didn't get home from work until after James was in bed so James wore the hat instead.

Then we attempted to wear my dive mask.  Wee bit big.

There we go!  Adorable.

Do the stanky leg...

Ok, I promised myself I wouldn't be that mom that talks about her child's poop.  But seriously, Lance and I are baffled.  Plus the lyrics to "Stanky Leg" just fit too perfectly.

James somehow managed to poop into the foot of his pajamas.  He was wearing a diaper underneath a footed sleeper.  He bypassed the diaper, slipped past the thigh, over the knee, ignored the calf completely, and went straight to the foot.  Explain how that is physically possible.

That is all.  Enjoy.

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, RangiTOTO.

Maggie here!

After a bye-weekend filled with unpacking, cleaning, and organizing, we needed a weekend of fun.  We decided to take James on his first ferry ride and make our way over to Rangitoto Island.

The island used to be inhabited by dozens of families that had their vacation baches there.  Baches are the Kiwi name for vacation homes.  It's pronounced "batch", so just in case our American accent didn't give us away, our Johann Sebastian Bach shout out sure did.  The baches are slowly being torn down as the owning generation passes away, and it is becoming more and more like the scenic nature reserve the city intends it to be.

There was a solid hike up to the summit of the old volcano crater to get a fantastic view of the Auckland skyline, bay, and many of the surrounding islands.

That was the longest time James had spent in his cuddle pack.  It can get pretty toasty being pressed up against our chests.  He sure enjoyed stretching out and cooling off while we waited for the return ferry ride home!