Breakdowns, Parents and Vineyards

Bright and early on Tuesday morning we successfully met Janine's parents at the airport. We successfully loaded the bags into the car. But we were unsuccessful in leaving the airport park. Janine had left the lights on and the battery was flat. As I was searching for a car park attendant for some jump leads Janine's dad found a bloke to help, he offered to try out his battery in the car. Unfortunately in the rush it went in the wrong way and blew some fuses. In the end after 3 hours and a visit from a mobile mechanic we were all back at the house. Needless to say Janine will never leave the lights on a car again!

The next couple of days we spent showing Janine's parents our favourite places in Auckland. We walked them up Mount Eden, ate with them in the Wynyard Quarter, took them to Piha beach and up Mount Victoria in Devonport. They were thoroughly exhausted after just two days with us but there was more to come.

Comparing the tans on arrival

Topping up the tan

Hello - check out Janine's giant hand

On the way up Mount Eden

Taking a rest at the top of Mount Eden

Waiting for a coffee at Piha

Carol was not too keen to explore the rocks at Piha

Piha

On Thursday we finally made the trip to the famous Waiheke Island. This is about a 30 minute ferry ride from Devonport and houses some of the best vineyards in the world. Carol and Boyd were keen to find a couple of them to sample the wine.  There are spectacular views from around the island, we found a coffee shop, a daily requirement for Carol and Boyd, with an amazing view in the main village of Oneroa. We took the bus around to a couple of vineyards, one had been recommended to us the other were handing out free tasting vouchers at the marina. The first was Stonyridge, apparently they have won a load of awards for one of their reds. We bought a few tastings and settled down in the sunshine to try them out. In our uneducated opinion they were nice. Although the award winning Larose which was $46 for a full glass didn't seem worth it to us. The other vineyard was at bit more rustic and also had a micro brewery which meant I was happy. After relaxing away the afternoon we hopped back to Oneroa for Carol to have a look round the shops before sailing back to Devonport.

$46 a glass, I'm not so sure

Carol sampling a red

We found a beer

Lloyd drank it

Food and wine and beer and cider

This weekend was the Devonport Food, Wine and Music Festival, an Auckland institution apparently. Wineries from all of the country come and sell their wines. There are also lots of amazing food stalls, choosing what to eat was a bit of a problem. The whole day is supported by New Zealand musicians. 

We headed down with Rebecca and some of her friends. It was an awesome day, although we somehow managed to not drink any wine! This was probably due to a beer tasting session where there was a load of free beers. Including one that tasted and smelt like bacon, I was not a fan but Lloyd loved it. Once we had finished the tasting we tried some of the ciders that the brewery offered and lapped up the music and sunshine. The festival finishes early so we picked up a few more drinks to share up Mount Victoria to help enjoy the view.

Sunday was surprisingly hangover free so we headed over to Mission Bay. Its almost directly across the harbour from Devonport but because of the location of the bridge takes about half an hour to get to. Mission Bay is a nice beach and boardwalk but can get a little busy as its so close to the city. We chilled out in the sun watching the kayaking and paddleboarding, a pretty nice way to end the weekend.

No speeding

First cider of the day

Oh no he thinks he's a beer buff now!

Motor City Family Funk - old skool covers

This was a Vietnamese Summer roll

Relaxing with another beer

Cheers

Getting a round in

Chilling out after the festivities

Relaxing at Mission Bay

We made this veggie pie the other day using red kumara (sweet potato). Turns out they are very purple, they matched my top! It was still very tasty though.

Janines first cricket match

This Saturday Hanna had a summer BBQ without a BBQ. It was fun to meet her friends and share a few drinks on her sun deck. True to Waddington form she provided a great buffet.  We contributed a cake and some peanut butter cookies, which are my speciality now.

Mary Berry would be proud - no soggy bottom here

I had been bugging Janine about the the England cricket tour to New Zealand since before we arrived here. The first match was a Saturday evening T20 in Eden Park, I persuaded her to go. Cam and Bec also joined us, in the hope that the BlackCaps would win and make up for the poor NZ performance in the Rugby Sevens the previous weekend. It didn't and England hammered New Zealand by 40 runs. We thoroughly enjoyed the game and the atmosphere was great. Janine admitted she enjoyed it more than she thought she would. Here are some pics from the game, Janine's camera has a really good zoom so we were also entertained trying to capture the perfect shot.

Bec and Cam on the ferry to the city

Thankfully he isn't in the England team

Great seats

2nd ball goes for 4

A six?

Yes it was

Kiwis celebrate a wicket

NZ into bat

Stuart Broad into the attack

Bec and Cam celebrate a rare NZ Six

England celebrate a wicket

Worst mascot ever! - Who thought a cash point was a good idea

Waitangi Day and stuff...

The last couple of weeks have been fairly busy. I got my wish and saw Ghostbusters on the big screen outdoors at Silo park. This time it was a much warmer night and we were well prepared with jumpers and blankets. It was cool to see such a classic film from our childhood on a big screen. Like last time the atmosphere was great with everybody singing along to the theme tune and quoting many famous lines.

On the weekend we took at walk from Okura (about 20 mins north of us) along the track to Stillwater. We stopped on a nice beach for lunch. There is also an old cottage from the 1850s which has been preserved. We found a rope swing from a tree, I don't think its from 1850. It was a very hilly route made more tiring by our decision to run the uphill sections.

Say hello to my little friend

Hanging out

Me too

Path to the beach

Not sure how this tree grew like this

Taking in the view

Squirt shoes before and after to kill disease which affects the trees

Last Wednesday was a public holiday celebrating the signing of the treaty of Waitangi. This was when in 1840 the British and the Maori people agreed governance and land ownership rules. We went to Bethell's Beach with Hanna to explore some of the tracks around the bays. It was a perfectly sunny day, after 2 days of rain it was a relief as we thought summer was over! The tracks head up the coastline and give amazing views of the beach and beyond.

Bethell's Beach from the cliffs

Bethell's Beach

We ended up stopping at O'Neills bay, walking all the way to one end where there were a load of rock pools. After spotting jelly fish and mad looking starfish we found some mussels which were a decent size. Our walk then turned into a mussel mission, we might have gone bit mad collecting 2 big bags full. Only then we realised that we were quite far from the car and had no way of keeping them cool, a real problem on such a hot day. Back in the car we found a shop and Hanna fashioned a cool box with bin bags some ice and a cardboard box. Turned out this worked really well.

Never seen a starfish like this

Baby mussels on a rock

Stranded!

Hanna was proud of her pink spade - she had to give it back to the child who lost it

More stranded

The haul

After some lunch in a cafe made from railway carriages we headed to Muriwai beach for some relaxing.  Turns out we found the busiest beach we've seen in our time here. Still plenty of room though, nothing compared to a UK beach on a hot bank holiday. Muriwai is a black sand beach and we are still finding sand in our ears, this isn't 'cos we haven't washed. Once we'd had enough of the beach we headed back to Hanna's for the mussel feast.

A sandy feast - at least the beers were cold

We cooked up the mussels in lots of garlic and onion, the looked and smelt amazing. Turns out they were very sandy even after a long soak in fresh water before we cooked them. Like the true Brits we are were determined to enjoy them, so we battled on with them for a while, but it was lost cause. Fresh mussel lesson number one; soak them for ages!