BBQ chicken pizza, New Zealand’s best coffee, Devonport, Auckland Zoo, and a million other things before saying goodbye

Hello! I think it is time for me to do my last post from my time in New Zealand. I am now back in Austin and have been extremely busy getting settled here again. School started on Tuesday and it was a bit of an overload for me after having such a nice time away from all the stress in Auckland.

Anyways, I have been putting off posting because I’ve been a busy bee…  but I can’t wait any longer to tell you about my last few days of freedom. =)

A while back I showed you the first pizza Terence and I made…. well, we decided to try again.

We both thought it was even better than our first… which was pretty good. This time we made a BBQ chicken pizza!

Terence took me to the driving range the next morning and taught me how to hit a golf ball like a pro… I’ve never been to a driving range before and it is safe to say that Terence is way better at hitting golf balls long distances than I am! I actually managed to nearly hit some of the people who were practicing near us… opps.

We also went shopping at Sylvia Park which is a gigantic mall. =) However, I didn’t take any pictures of these things!

We spent one evening at an Esquire’s (coffeeshop) that was located pretty much on the harbour and I was quite pleased to finally have a flat white with a design in it. Win!
New Zealand fern! =) One of my favorite things about NZ the first time I visited was the fact that the coffee often is made with neato designs. However, not as many places seemed to do designs on the north island as they did on the south island for some reason. This was the first time I had seen a design!

The next day we went on a drive to try to find somewhere nice to visit.
We went on a nice forest trail through Totara Park. =)

The day after the park, we went plant shopping for Terence’s friends  and while we were nearby… we went to the place I had been REALLY eager to go to…

We went and got coffee at Altura! =) It was voted as having the best coffee in all of New Zealand for 2009 and it didn’t disappoint. Plus, they got bonus points for making a cute bear design in my cup!

In the evening, we went and saw Sherlock Holmes which I quite enjoyed even though I had never read the books or anything.

The next morning we went to the driving range again and I am pleased to say that I did improve from the last time we went. I think my farthest hit was around 95m while Terence was hitting more around 180m I think. I do not believe I’ll be going pro anytime soon but it was neat to try something totally out of my comfort zone.

After our golf fun, we took a drive to Devonport which is a small seaside city north of Auckland and we also had a look at the North Head (a volcanic headland located in Devonport).

The North Head offered some beautiful views.

=)

Last but not least, our final big trip was to the Auckland Zoo. We were a bit hesitant to go and see a bunch of caged animals… but we were not disappointed at all because the animals seemed to be given a lot of space and a good life!

We made friends with an elephant near the zoo’s entrance.

What happened to the rest of the elephant?

Giraffe and zebras!

2 lions that are roughing it to survive…

One very big turtle… (I apologize for the giant pole in the picture… but there was no way to avoid it!)

This was Terence’s favorite… a Serval. =)

Sneaky hippos!

And a beautiful cheetah!

So, there you have it. I have now had to say goodbye to the best month of my life and recognize the fact that never will there ever be a time quite like it again. Terence and I will have to be working in the future or finishing school and it is unlikely we will have another month of complete vacation at the same time. Nevertheless, it was an amazing trip and I now have a ton of beautiful memories to help get me through the time we are apart.

I hope you all enjoyed it and I will try to still update sometimes… though it may be more like once a month unless I am doing some super interesting things! (School keeps me too busy!) I hope you all are well and I’ll talk to you later!

The Kauri Museum, Mangawhai Heads and back to Auckland!

Hello!

I thought I’d fill you in on the last day of our trip. =) We were pretty tired the last day from doing so much and had to drive from Dargaville back to Auckland… nevertheless, we still made a couple of stops.

The first place we went to was the Kauri Museum which is located in Matakohe, New Zealand.

For anyone who doesn’t know… a Kauri is a type of tree that grows in New Zealand. In my last post I had a picture of me with the largest Kauri tree in the world. =)

The Kauri Museum is all about the history of the tree… which is actually a story of deforestation, digging for gum, and lots of tree murder… =( Oh, no!

“Hi, I used to be a beautiful tree… but now I am dead.”

Okay… I’m being dramatic. The museum was pretty neat but it was sad once it became clear that everything the museum housed used to be living!

This room showed how the felling was done… (AKA tree murder! AHH!)

Murder weapons.

Trees bleed too.

A Kauri tree… that was killed. =(

The circles on the wall show how big the largest Kauri trees of the past were. The smallest circle is the size of the Tane Mahuta… which is the tree I have a picture with in my last blog. All of the bigger trees are no longer are alive.

After the depressing (though it was interesting/informative!) museum, we made just one more stop… at the Mangawhai Heads Reserve.

The beautiful beach at the reserve!

Me!

That is the end of our road trip! =) Since then we have been pretty busy doing things mostly around Auckland and enjoying our last week together. I will probably be posting my next blog in a few days once I am home so I can focus on my last days here. Thanks for reading! (And don’t forget to comment!!)

To the cape!! Oh, and also to Dargaville, Opononi, and Waipoua Forest…

Hello! I’m struggling to get as many pictures up as I can before I am forced to start slaving away at school again. I think vacations should never have to end. In any case, the next place we traveled to was Cape Reinga (which is the northernmost point of New Zealand that people can visit) and then we went to Dargaville.

My map is getting a bit crowded…  =)

We started off in Pukenui where it was a very rainy morning… sadly, the weather didn’t clear up for a long time but we were very determined to make it to the cape. I tried to keep our spirits high while we drove by constantly shouting out “TO THE CAPE!” which was especially amusing because after a certain point there was really nowhere else we could be going because there was one road and very little around but mountains and forests. 

When we finally got to the cape… we parked next to the best car ever.

It was quite fitting since we had been watching Lord of the Rings the past few days.

Since the weather didn’t clear up… the walk down to the tip of the cape wasn’t full of beautiful views of the sea.. but rather beautiful views of fog combined with cold rain. Yum.

Nevertheless, I proceeded to still shout “to the cape!” which made other people who were also walking to the cape give us strange or amused looks.

We made it to the cape! However, we could see NOTHING but fog…. I looked online later and saw what we were missing…

I got this picture from Wikipedia. It looks great! But… we definitely could only see fog and rain. Yikes.

Me… very cold and soaked at the lighthouse.

Terence and the awesome sign that says the distances of the Cape to other locations.

After the cape we had to drive south to get to our next place of accomodation… Dargaville. The drive actually took us pretty much all day (though we of course were stopping places). We tried to cut off some of the drive by going on a whim and taking an unplanned route via a car ferry.

Me in the car (who we named Lester) on the car ferry across the Hokianga Harbour.

View from the car ferry.

Also taken from the ferry… it was still a bit cloudy out.

After we got off the ferry we continued driving but just had to get out at this place called Opononi… because the views were incredible.

We took a nice little walk around Martin’s Bay.

The sun had come out finally! =) I was a little squinty-eyed..

We then hopped back in the car to continue on to see what I had been looking forward to… the Waipoua Forest! However, it was a bit painful to get there because the road was nothing but curves for 20km and I have a tendency to get  bit car sick.

Waipoua Forest.

The forest was beautiful… but what I was really interested in seeing was the Tane Mahuta…  (thanks, Terence.. for your wonderful hand gestures)

The Tane Mahuta and me! Tane Mahuta means “Lord of the Forest” in Maori and it is the largest kauri tree in the world.

We ended the day by checking in at our accomodation in Dargaville. I realize now that I never actually took any pictures of Dargaville… but to be honest… there wasn’t much to see. It was a TINY little town where all the stores and restaurants close ridiculously early… =( Nevertheless, it was still a really nice little spot… just not somewhere we needed to be at very long!

The next morning we headed back to Auckland… and I will close up our adventure from that last day in my next post!

Lots of bays, beaches, waterfalls, and glow worms!

It is time for me to begin sharing my road trip adventure! Our first stop was Whangarei and then Pukenui which are located in the northernmost area of New Zealand. I have my travel map below which shows where the cities are in relation to Auckland as well as shows the other places I have been to previously in New Zealand. =)

The first place we visited in Whangarei was a place called Matapouri Bay.

It was pretty popular and the weather was amazing!

Terence and I had a nice walk down the beach.

We then decided to spend the late afternoon at the nearby Whale’s Bay.

It was really peaceful and it was a lot less crowded than Matapouri Bay.

Some more of Whale’s Bay! =)

The next morning we went and saw the Whangarei Falls.

We then began driving to our next location and on the way we saw a sign for glow worm caves. We couldn’t resist the temptation and ended up going to the caves. Sadly, pictures aren’t allowed in the caves but we were able to see thousands of little glow worms and took about a 35 minute tour through the caves which were up to 25 million years old in some places! Our guide told us that glow worms are only located in Australia and New Zealand.

We made it to Pukenui and checked in where we were staying before hopping into the car again. The next place we explored was 90 mile beach… which is literally a beach that goes on for 90 miles. There were a few cars driving down the beach which explains the tire tracks. The beach itself was amazing though… it was really flat and went on forever in both directions. (Of course, when I say forever… I really mean that it went on for 90 miles!)

Some people like going in circles.

Me being silly… please note all the shells on the beach… it is a perfect place for avid shell collectors!

More of 90 mile beach.

We finished off the day by visiting yet another beach called Henderson Bay! The weather had gone about cloudy but it was still really nice and there were literally no people there.

I will have more about our trip in the next post! =) Talk to you all later!

Gloputt, Auckland Museum, Making Pizza, and New Year Celebrations

I hope everyone is enjoying the New Year! Terence and I have just returned from an amazing road trip around the northernmost part of New Zealand. I will have pictures of our trip in the next few posts. =) First, I have to tell you about how we ended 2009 with flair and welcomed in the New Year.

We decided to go mini-golfing at a place on the north shore called Gloputt. It was a glow-in-the-dark golf course!
Most of the pictures didn’t turn out that great… but you get the idea! It was so neat!

I ended up beating Terence… at a “man’s” sport. Whoops.

The next day we went to see the Auckland Museum! It was in this gigantic neoclassical building.

There were lots of neat models.

And a huge part of the museum was dedicated to Maori history and culture.

This is inside a traditional Maori wharenui (meeting house).

Shoes aren’t allowed in the wharenui because it is a sacred space.

Old school dentist chair and tools… eek!

Wall of popular candy from the past.

Typical Terence picture… he thought this penguin was super cool.

Terence liked all the birds… but I was scared of them.

In the evening we put our chef skills to the test. We have been experimenting with cooking different things and we made pizza!  (This includes making the pizza dough!)
 It looked better before we cooked it… but it was delicious despite its interesting and misleading appearance.

On New Years Eve we went to Portofino for dinner… a really nice Italian restauraunt that overlooked the harbour.

Pretty moon in the background!

After dinner we decided to drive up Mt. Eden to see the fireworks… however, we weren’t the only ones who thought that was a good idea. The traffic up to the summit was completely stopped and with only minutes to spare everyone started getting out of their cars and just climbing up to the top.

Luckily, we made it to the top in time and got to see a lovely fireworks display!

 
I also took some video!

That’s it for now. Thanks so much for all the blog comments and please keep them coming! I really look forward to reading them and they motivate me to keep up with posts. =) More updates will be coming soon! I miss you all!

Auckland Art Gallery, Albert Park, Waipa Delta Cruise, A Big Manly Beach, and Shakespear Park

Hello from 2010! =)

I hope everyone has a great New Years! I am a bit behind on posts so my New Years post is not going to be up for awhile! =) In any case, Terence and I have been doing lots of exciting things lately! We went and saw the Auckland Art Gallery earlier this week though I didn’t take any pictures. All of the art was done by New Zealand artists and we learned that a new, huge art gallery will be opening here in 2011.

After the gallery we went and explored the beautiful Albert Park.

Sorry for the blur. The park had a few cannons and several interesting statues.

The next day I had a suprise for Terence… he had thought maybe I was going to suprise him with having us bungy jump from the sky tower. I even walked him in the direction of the tower for quite awhile… but then confused him when I turned off the route. =) Eventually we ended up at the harbour…

My favorite ferry building.

The big suprise ended up being…
A lunch cruise around the harbour on the Waipa Delta boat! =)

Sometimes I make strange faces…

And sometimes… Terence rolls his eyes at me.  =)

We cruised around the harbour while enjoying a yummy lunch.

Some views from the boat…

We stick with a “mature” crowd. Very classy.

Picture of the city from the boat.

On the dock after the cruise.

In the afternoon we did a bit of shopping and then had coffee at Esquire’s… which seems to be the big coffee chain here in Auckland.

The next day we had a nice drive around a nearby peninsula and came across a very unique beach… it was called Big.. Manly.. Beach.

Terence is demonstrating his manliness.

No idea what I was looking at… but I am not appearing too big and manly.

More of the manly beach.

After the beach we went to Shakespear park… which was also right on the water.

We met a Pukeko on our way to a nice little forest trail.

Baby waterfall!

Shakespear park!

That is all for now! =) Terence and I are taking a  road trip over the next few days so I won’t be updating for awhile but I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays and that you all have a great New Year!

Mt. Victoria, Karekare beach, Eden gardens, Avatar and Christmas fun!

Kia Ora!

I just thought I would do a bit of updating to let you all know what has been going on! Several days ago Terence and I took a nice evening drive and stumbled upon another volcano… Mt. Victoria! We decided to go to the top.

On the way up.. I became friends with a creepy looking rock man. I’m not sure the camera did his features justice… but you can kind of tell he is a creepy rock fellow… right?

From the peak of Mt. Victoria… you can see what is most likely another volcano…

View of Auckland from Mt. Victoria

The top of the volcano also had some psychedelic mushroom decorations…  I decided to investigate.

On Christmas Eve we took a nice drive to visit Karekare beach which is a lovely black sand beach. I don’t know if I’ve actually been on a black sand beach before… it was so beautiful!

However, before the beach we took a little drive just around the area and found the cutest horse ever.

In order to get to the beach you had to cross this little inlet and take a short walk to the shore.

 Sadly, the camera doesn’t show the rich, dark true color of the sand (it really is black!)… but you’ll just have to take my word for it.

It was windy…. but sunny and beautiful!

My attempt at trying to get a better picture of the sand…

There were a lot of cliffs surrounding the beach.

You can see the beach/ocean from the road.

On Christmas Day we exchanged gifts and also were finally able to open the mysterious gift sent by Terence’s family… which we had placed under our enviable Christmas Tree.
You’re just jealous.

I match the gift! It was so thoughtful and kind of Terence’s family to think of us!

After opening presents we decided to spend our Christmas afternoon visiting the Eden gardens.
waterfall!

Exploring the gardens…

I match the flowers! =)

On Christmas evening we went and saw Avatar at the IMAX in 3D! It was super awesome and I think everyone should check it out…. the effects are great!

Talk to you all later!

Best suprise ever and going to new heights… literally.

Hey everyone!

Terence and I have been super busy these past few days. First of all, I made him go see New Moon with me… which was very entertaining. I definitely like New Moon better than the first Twilight movie.

When we were walking home from the movie I took a picture of the Sky Tower which is lit up at night.
I also did some shopping one day and took a picture of the awesome Santa and reindeer outside of a store.

We also went to see Mt. Eden which is the tallest natural point in Auckland and it just so happens to be a volcano. Hurray! =) I took lots of pictures…

On the way up to the big crater…

 View of the city from Mt. Eden with the Sky Tower!

On Mt. Eden!

More views from the volcano.

The crater with the bus on the far side for a size perspective

After Mt. Eden, we took a nice drive around just looking at sights. Later in the day, Terence suprised me with the nicest evening ever after an already amazing day. He told me we were going out for dinner..but  he neglected to tell me that we would be dining in the highest building in the Southern Hemisphere… the Sky Tower! =) There is a revolving restaurant at the top of the tower. It was amazing.

Before dinner we just walked around the observation level and took in all the sights of the city.
The dark buildings in the foreground of the picture are the “futuristic” buildings I took a picture of in my last blog. They look so immense in the earlier picture… but from the Sky Tower they don’t seem very big!

Roads!
Standing on glass and looking below while up in the Sky Tower… very intimidating!

Lots of views of the city in this blog… =)

Harbour!

Sailboats!

We then took the elevator up to the restaurant… apparently the elevator has a glass floor as well! Yikes!

Playing with our reflections at the restaurant…

The food was absolutely delicious and we had an ever-changing view of the city since we were constantly rotating. We also were able to watch the sunset.

After dinner we went back down to the observation level and watched night fall over the city.  

Ignore the “Exit” sign.. I had a bit of reflection from the window glass… the city is beautiful though. =)

Giant Christmas tree in the lobby for the Sky Tower.

Us and the Xmas Tree! =)

I hope you all are doing well! I am a bit behind on my posts simply because we have just been so busy! I am having an amazing time. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Back in New Zealand! And… it is SUMMER!

Hey everyone! I am now in Auckland, New Zealand! =) I arrived here Friday morning after a long layover in LA and a REALLY long plane ride.

To give you an idea of where Auckland is I have squared it in red on the map below. The map also has all the other locations I traveled to when I studied abroad in New Zealand last semester.

It was so nice to see Terence after nearly 6 months of nothing but talking on skype. My first day here was one of mostly getting settled in, going to the grocery, and trying to get back in to the time zone here which is quite different.

Yesterday was more exciting because Terence and I took a nice drive around the city and then went to Kohimarama beach. Because it is summer here… and we can. =) 

(I just realized that I didn’t really take any pictures of the actual beach we were walking on… opps.. but I did take pictures of some cool things around the beach)

Reunited!

Yay for beautiful summer weather!
On the beach there was this one part made of a bunch of shells that stretched out in to the water… which we of course had to walk out on.

Me on the shell rock.. thing.. deal. You can see some of the beach on the right.

We then continued driving and saw a place that looked rather promising so we stopped. It was called Achille’s Point…

It had this cool view of this small bit of land that some people were actually wading out to go explore.

It got a little cloudy for awhile so I’m sad the sun isn’t shining… but here is a view of the Auckland skyline with the sky tower. The tower is the tallest building in New Zealand.

In the evening Terence and I made sushi. Well, mostly he made sushi and I observed/learned. It was very impressive… but I didn’t take pictures of that!

Then today we walked around the city and saw some of the stores on Queen Street which is the main road in Auckland.

Sky Tower
The tower from below… was quite impressive. It definitely reminded me of the Tower of the Americas in San Antonio.

I just thought these buildings looked futuristic…

Cruise ship in the harbour.

In the afternoon we stopped at a nearby park and I watched Cricket for the first time… ever. (Opps!) Terence explained it all to me and it was really neat to learn about something new.

I hope everyone is doing well! Talk to you later!

Keep Austin Weird

Hola mis amigos!

I am leaving tomorrow afternoon for Auckland, New Zealand to see Terence! Yay! I have been waiting nearly 6 months for this moment so I am extremely excited. I will try to continue updating while I am there!

In other news… =) My last blog was about my birthday and I’d like to expand just a little more on that with some pictures of the beautiful roses Terence suprised me with. They arrived at the perfect time because I had been very stressed out with tests and papers.

They arrived beautifully arranged and with a pretty bow!

I didn’t have a vase so I improvised with an oversized Castillian cup.
About two days after I received the roses they bloomed and opened up even more. So pretty!

I have been insanely busy the last two weeks with final exams and essays. However I decided that I deserved a nice little break so I went and saw the famous 37th street Christmas lights in Austin. It is a tradition that every year the residents of 37th street go all out with their Christmas decorations… and they definitely stuck with the “Keep Austin Weird” motto of the city. I was amused.  Here are some of the best pictures.

The first house I encountered made me realize that I was not going to be seeing just traditional Christmas decorations. I have no idea how a giant tin foil shark has to do with Christmas… but it was cool!

I then came across this sign which was pointing toward a house that wasn’t directly on 37th street. I was interested in what exactly a stuffed animal petting zoo was… so I investigated. I was not disappointed.

There were a few little fenced in groups of stuffed animals like this. All of the animals had descriptions on the side of the fence that told the animals’ names and descriptions. Whoever lives here must be awesome.

I love it!

Not a Christmas tree… =)

This was a bit more traditional… these people were obviously baseball fans… they also had made a big baseball diamond on their front lawn.

Apparently decorating random objects is how people in Austin celebrate. Only in Texas… do people decorate their lawn mowers for Christmas.

Here, have a Christmas oven.

Monkeys at the manger.
Golden eggs?
There are always over-achievers.

And hippies with peace signs.
I think this was my favorite though. A super neat motorcycle with pink flamingos surrounding it.

In any case, I had a great time enjoying the creative light displays. =)

Yesterday was my final exam so now I am all done with school and ready to leave on a jet plane. I hope everyone has a great holiday!