THE PIPELINE
We went for a lovely walk along a pipeline that connects a few of the beaches on the North Shore. It was so beautiful and the first time I had seen a New Zealand coast. The best word I can use to describe New Zealand is “picturesque”. Every photo was post-card quality. It was stunning. The tide was coming in, so we ended up getting a bit wet on our walk, but it was awesome. On the right, you had cliffs of old rocks, with layer after layer and on the left, you had a view of a volcano and the ocean. It was a wonderful first impression.
Just as I was talking about Willy, this puppy came around the corner! What a wonderful coincidence. Willy is with you, wherever you go.
SKY TOWER
As a true tourist, we went up the Sky Tower, which gives you a great sense of where everything is in Auckland (what’s north, east, south, west, etc). There was a beautiful view of the Auckland Harbor Bridge and I got to see a lot of the main attractions from a bird’s eye view, such as the stadium for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. The Sky Tower itself is over a thousand feet high, so you get a really nice view. A few fun facts from the pamphlet: the tower itself weighs the same as 6,000 elephants and it’s the tallest man-made structure in New Zealand. Apparently, they light it up according to the holidays, etc. For example, they make it red and green at Christmas, and black when the All Blacks (rugby) are playing a test match.
NORTH HEAD
North Head is volcanic hill located on the North Shore. When you go up to the top, you get AMAZING views. It was mainly used by the military for coastal defense, so there are tons of old bunkers and tunnels on it. It was blown away by the views. I loved how diverse the view was, from cottage-like houses and beaches to the sky scrapers of downtown Auckland.
EASTER DINNER
I was lucky to eat some of the BEST meals staying with my family, including Easter dinner. I woke up to some delicious chocolates that morning and was very happy to be spending Easter with family. Appropriately, we had lamb… with mint sauce! Apparently mint sauce/jelly is the thing to have with lamb – who would have known? We also had roast pumpkin, kumera (a sweet potato from NZ that I became obsessed with), and my new favorite – PAVLOVA! It was so delicious, and better yet, it was covered in golden KIWIS! Very fitting. There are two types of kiwis, and I’d only ever had the green ones before this trip (the green ones are furry, the yellow ones are not!) They taste pretty different, but I really enjoy them both. I like the green ones better for taste, but I love how the golden ones aren’t furry. I’ve always ate the skin on kiwis, which is apparently weird? I argued that it was a Canadian thing, but turns out its just an Emily thing. Whoops.
ANZAC DAY
April 25th is ANZAC Day in New Zealand and Australia. It’s equivalent to our Remembrance Day. It’s to honor the Australian and NZ army corps that fought in Turkey during World War I. We went to the museum, which was really cool. I got to learn about the history of New Zealand and it was a really special day at the museum, as it is a war memorial museum. I also learned about how Auckland is built on volcanoes. Here’s a good descriptive quote:
“New Zealand is a land straddling the boundary of two of the Earth’s great tectonic plates, beautiful but vulnerable to the forces of nature. In Auckland, those forces lie deep beneath the surface of the land, forming a volcanic hotspot under the city”. The Auckland Volcanic Field has about 48 volcanoes within an area of 360 square km. Who would of known?
Overall, it was a really nice day – we had ratatouille for dinner and sweet chilli mussels – YUMMY! It ended up being a rainy night, so we grabbed a couple of movies and got cozy in the living room. One of the movies was called “Boy” and it’s a New Zealand movie. I highly recommend it. It’s about a young Maori boy who lives on a farm and takes care of his brother and cousins, and his relationship with his corrupt dad.
Here's the trailer:
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