One of the reasons we came...

SAILING! Other than surfing, we wanted to get out sailing in this 'city of sails'. Its huge here.
Every friday night their is what's called a 'Rum race' (race for a bottle of rum) for fun.
One of the OR nurses families owns a 64 ft. sailing yacht and invited us, along with others, to join her and her family on friday's nights race. Darryl was on cloud nine.
He got to help with the sailing and learn a few things about sailing these bigger yachts and he was like a kid in the candy shop. It was beautiful to be out on the water and able to see all the yachts up close, getting a different view of Auckland city.
Afterwards we got to meet up with some new friends in the via duct (harbour restaurant/pub area) on the marina. It was a great day

Auckland day

This was a long weekend as I mentioned in the previous post because it is Auckland day!!! And D had the day off!!!!!
We headed out this morning to see what there was to see with no real plan in mind. Don't you just love when the "no plan day" turns into a perfect day?!

We started out at a place called Devonport which is the next town over from Takapuna where we are. It is such a cute little town with cute little shops, restaurants and a ferry that takes you the main downtown city of Auckland. The girls love a boat ride so we knew they would enjoy taking the ferry while we would get to do a little window shopping along the way. Turns out that the city had a big festival/regatta type day going on and the pier was full of people and things to see. Buskers, balloons, mini shows, seafood festival, beautiful yachts etc. And the girls favorite part of the day...face painting. My favorite part of the day was finding my new craving...a shot of cocoa. This place actually sells top quality cocoa melted by the shot or in a mochachino (aka chocolate, coffee and more chocolate)!
A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

We headed back to Devenport to do a little more window shopping there and find a place to eat. We haven't been eating out at all b/c it can be so expensive, so this was a real treat. The girls were so amazing all day, so well behaved and to top it off they ate all their dinner and behaved really well for our meal out.

As we headed home we were near Mt. Victoria which you could actually drive to the top for a panoramic view of the city. So beautiful. Their were sailboats everywhere, which D was enjoying the view of :) It truly was the "City of Sails" today.
I enjoyed all the fun pic's I was able to take today, hope you enjoy a few of them too!!!

Beach, beach and more beach...

We went to a place called Coramandel yesterday. Our first real day trip. It was amazing. It is about 2 1/2 hours from us and the twisty and turny roads through the mountains were enough to make even me sick at times. Gorgeous scenery though.
This place is known for its beaches and this weekend is a holiday weekend so a lot of the locals were also heading up there. The nice thing is that it has so many beautiful beaches in the area that none of them are crowded.
Probably the most fun and interesting one we hit was the Hot water beach. Absolutely beautiful on its own but its attraction is that you can go on the beach, dig a hole and hot water springs up to create your very own hot tub! You could see everyone sitting in there dug holes with steam rising from them, not that you needed to keep warm since it was one of the hottest day's they've had since we've been here. As we walked around looking for a place to dig ours, we happened to step in what looked like abandoned pools only to discover the hard way how hot it actually was. Scalding hot springs would be a better description. Poor little Zaiah also learned the hard way and began screaming as she felt her feet begin to burn. The rest of the time at this beach she was afraid to get down out of my arms. I'm laughing as I write this not because its so funny that she got burned or was afraid, but the insanity of it coming through the sand so hot.
Now, we had to dig a hole that would only allow a trickle of the hot water to seep in as we bucketed ocean water in to keep it a perfect temperature. Once and awhile a big wave would crash over the wall of our man made tub and cool it off anyway. Such a neat experience.
So after a couple hours enjoying this natural wonder we headed off to another natural wonder in the area called Cathedral beach. It was a 40 min. hike down to this beach but well worth it on this hot day. As you came to the opening it was like a private beach party for those that were enthusiastic enough to do the hike. Absolutely breathtaking. From the color of the water to the crazy rock formations to the giant cathedral cave you would walk through. We were so hot from the hike that we through down our stuff and jumped right in to the crystal clear water.
The only problem after leaving this beach was the hot hike back up to the car. We solved that problem by stopping for ice cream at the little shop area just down the street. YUM!
We had one more beach to hit and we wanted to see this one merely because in our frodor's book it described it as having a hue of pink to it from all the crushed shell. It wasn't quite what we had all pictured but there was a hint of pink to the sand from the shells.
To top off a perfect day we grabbed some local fish and chips and sat at the top of the beach for a picnic dinner. Double mmmmmmmm!
One of the things that we noticed and thought was pretty amazing is that the whole experience never cost us more than $5 for our shovel to dig the hole. They don't charge for parking or access to these beautiful beaches. None of them, for anything. That is pretty amazing coming from North America where they charge you a whole months salary sometimes just to have access to something so beautiful.

Enjoy the pic's. I'll have more posted on face book if you are on that.

Meeting the locals

The church we found on Sunday has been having a summer camp program all week (I know, funny to us Canadians that it is a summer camp :) so i've been bringing Ella there to meet a few people and provide a little stimulation for her. She loves it, being the little social butterfly that she is. And so then tonight we got invited to one of the life groups kick off BBQ's. Tracy and I went together so we could meet a few people. It was very neat to meet some locals and chat about the fun differences between here and North America and to find out the local hot spots etc. The BBQ ended up being one street over from where we live too which was neat. Everything we need is right here within walking distance of our condo. I love it! Their BBQ's are a little different here in that they do a lot of BBQ sausage, wrapped in bread with butter on it. They also do pork or steak but not often hamburgers and hotdogs.
I'll have to start making a list of all the fun and quirky things we find interesting down here.

A full day

Today was a full day here in Auckland for us. We headed out this morning to check out a church in our neighborhood called Harbour View. It was actually really nice. I have to admit, we did not have the same intentions of seeking a great church and getting involved here in Auckland the same way we did in London because we are only here for 6 months on the other side of the world and there is sooooo much to do and see and D is only off on the weekends. So we planned to check out a few, if we happened on a good one than great but otherwise we were set up with the wonderful pod casts from The Life Centre and Connections Community to have our weekly fill.
So when we actually really liked the first church we went to and it was literally around the corner from our house it was like God was on to us and new he better get us hooked right away :) So far God has placed us in key places and with Key people for a purpose so we are excited to see the things that will come of our time here in Auckland.
After church it was a bit of an overcast rain on/off day so we thought it was a perfect time to check out the local zoo. It was actually pretty impressive. The girls loved it. And to top off a great day we packed a picnic BBQ and headed to a local beach where they have electric BBQ pit's for people to use. I'm pooped, but the good kind of pooped :)