Hi friends! It's now six weeks since I left for good ol' Auckers - which means it's only another 10 and a half months to go 'til I'm back in Blighty. Wow, how time flies...
Anysnooch, since I'm off to Tonga at the end of the week, I thought I better update y'all, and I concluded that rather than boring you with the ins-and-outs of everyday life I'd entertain you with tales of my weekend adventures.
(Still, you should know that things are chugging along satisfactorily: classes are interesting, essays are getting done, band is fun, the weather is getting better, friends are being hung out with and Tim Tams are being all too regularly consumed. The only bad thing I suppose is that one of my good friends, Jessie, went back to America this weekend, which was sad.)
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Right. Well, a few weekends ago now I decided to stay in Auckers and actually check out the city. This took me to the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning - they're really big on FMs here, but none that I've seen so far have anything on Edinburgh's. Although, they are good at honey out here, and I found the blackcurrant honey particularly tasty. Asides that, friends Manuel, Jessie and I stocked up on picnic stuff and then hopped a ferry for half an hour to Devonport, a suburb in Auckland.
I can't say that I thought Devonport was up to much, but a little hill amongst the beautiful wooden beam, pastel-coloured million-dollar houses did offer a good view of Auckland, its sails and beaches, and it was a lovely sunny day, perfect for wandering. After lunch in Devonport we returned to mainland Auckland, as it were, and went to the most amazing chocolate cafe in the nice-shops-and-restaurants area, Parnell (another suburb), where we ate chocolate fondue (see left) until we felt sick. Excellent.
That evening I met up with friend Ben and we (finally) went up Skytower. A little lesson about towers with views people. If you live in a fairly low-lying city where the only interesting thing is a large pointy tower offering views of the otherwise dull city landscape, don't go up that tower expecting interesting views of the aforementioned city. Particularly if it's night, and a lot of that city is hills and park areas without lights. Hmm.
Still, I was glad to have been in Skytower, and perhaps more excitingly Ben and I discovered we were old enough to go in to the casino on the way down. We had absolutely no idea what we were doing, but nonetheless managed to win $12 (£4.50) on the slot machines. Awesome! That's like a free beer each!
Lastly, super early on Sunday I got up and went with Jamie and Amanda up Mt Eden (Auckland's Arthur's Seat, but with a crater and a car park at the top) in time for sunrise. Except we missed sunrise because we decided to get pie and coffee instead. But it was cool anyway, and Amanda had made a super tasty crumble, which we ate sitting in Jamie's super cool van on top of the hill, admiring the view (better with Skytower in it, obv).
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The weekend after that I ditched the tramping club in favour or friends Mark, Lindsey, Jessie and new acquaintance Andrea to go to Coromandel (awkwardly where the tramping club were going...) We had a totally brilliant time, laughing and eating our way up the coast and back again from Friday to Sunday evening.
The weekend was characterised by a constant search for casette tapes in the partially-post-apocalyptic, mostly closed, small town convenience stores we passed through, as Mark had hired a car (dubbed Penny and far too small for her 5 passengers) with a tape player, but we had nothing to play (and the radio in NZ, when you can receive any signal, is godawful). So instead we sung all the way to Coromandel (3 hours). Oh joy. Thank god Jessie knew all 9 verses to American Pie...
En route we stopped for 'legendary' mussel fritters - not a foodstuff that should be frittered, friends - and arrived to find a lovely log cabin-style hostel completely empty except for our party. Hurrah! So we had tea, Tim Tams and became obsessed with completing a 500-piece puzzle of Bond Street at Christmas, well in to the wee hours.
The following morning we ate an enormous full English breakfast (masterminded by yours truly, of course) before going out to explore the nearby beach and coastline. The weather was chilly, grey and windy but it didn't rain during the day and the view - when it wasn't hidden behind fog - looked dramatic and thus awesome, particularly Cathedral Cove (no Jesus statues or stained glass, but we did see a dead blue penguin).
But the real reason we'd come to Coromandel was for Hot Water Beach, where you dig a hole in the sand and it fills with hot water. This only happens at low tide, however, so we decided first to go at 8pm - how amazing would it be to sit in a pool of hot water in the pitch black? Amazing, yes, if in the pitch black (no one had remember to bring a torch, and the car headlights merely created eerie silhouettes) you can find the right (part of the) beach without being slammed against rocks by the incoming tide. After two attempts of digging in cold sand to find cold water, we gave up, and semi-naked in swimming costumes damp from the pelting rain, we returned home for reliably hot showers and a tasty chicken curry made by Jessie. Oh, and more Tim Tams, slammed not in tea this time but in NZ's cheap version of Bailey's, Canterbury Cream. Oh yes.
The following morning, aided by daylight and past experience, we were more successful in finding the hot water part of the beach, and despite the incoming tide doing its best to fill all holes hastily dug by the more enthusiastic members of the party (i.e. everyone but me), we did indeed enjoy some hot water (in fact, at times it's so hot it burns your feet). It was undeniably 
awesome.
Some home-made lemon scones later and we were back on the road heading home to Auckland via the 'legendary' (don't trust Lonely Planet's use of this word) 309 route. It involved a lot of windy, gravelly roads which upset both Mark and Penny, but did include some wonderfully terrible, rarely-visited 'points of interest' (easily recognised not by their attractions but by their big signs declaring them to be points of interest. Those signs lied). However, the route along the coast was very pretty, so that was more rewarding, and we made it back to Auckland in good time.
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The next day - I'll just add - was my birthday. I woke up in Hamilton, having made my way there after we got back from Coromandel, and spent a most enjoyable morning making chocolate cupcakes with pink icing and edible glitter with Rachel, and opening presents with JJ (still the most beautiful child in the world). Then it was back to Auckland, armed with the cupcakes, for Proto-Polynesian Linguistics. We ate the cakes and I was presented with a card, home-made by Mark, in which the greeting 'happy birthday' had been somewhat dubiously reconstructed. Aw, guys...
In the evening I had very tasty dinner with Jessie, Amanda and Steifan at a nice Middle Eastern restaurant and then a lovely gang of chums came to my flat for drinks (and Tim Tams). We were going to go out but never made it, and various people came and went and we stayed up drinking 'til 3am. It was a great birthday! (Tho obv strange not to see Mum or Dad.)
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Last but not least, this weekend I was in NZ's capital, Wellington, with Steifan and Lindsey. On Friday I ditched Film Studies to spend a wonderful 12 hours on the Trans-Scenic Overlander train from AKL to Windy Welly (luckily not too windy whilst I was there). The train was very comfortable and only about half-full, with enormous windows and a viewing lounge in the last carriage (basically the back of the train is glass). We passed a huge range of scenery and saw an amazing sunset, Lord of the Ring's Mt Doom (all snowy), a shitload of sheep, some windfarms and a few viaducts, as well as making friends with a Canadian called Graham.
Just walking through downtown Wellington to the hostel we already felt it had a different vibe to Auckland, and took an instant liking to it. It's smaller, and the architechture is nicer, and the city is laid out better, and everyone is a lot cooler, and the scenery of the harbour is gorgeous. We had dinner in a French restaurant, bid farewell to Graham who had an early start, and went for drinks in a couple of cool bars, including one with a pretty damn good covers band.
Saturday was the most glorious sunny day, and began in a funky little cafe with a big-ass brunch of waffles with bacon, banana and maple syrup, and some strong coffee. Then we wandered through town to the harbour and on up Mt Victoria, a super steep hill (probably a volcano) with incredible views of the city. Back down that, back through the city, pausing for more tasty eats and to check out some vintage shops and buy some beers, then up a hill on the other side of town, courtesy of a short-lived but, I suppose, charming little red cable car. Despite a bit of a chill, we sat in the botanical gardens atop this hill watching another lovely sunset, before retiring to the hostel for a nap, followed by Malaysian grub, watching the end of the All Blacks vs. Wallabies match and drinking drinking drinking in the hostel bar and a club called 'Sandwiches' (worst club name ever?)
Sunday also began with an awesome brunch - long may it live in my memory (rather than on my body). In a cafe reminiscent of Edinburgh's Forest Cafe, I enjoyed a 'bacon hashstack' - two fried eggs on two homemade hash browns on two pieces of fried toast, accompanied by two fried tomatoes and a pig's worth of bacon, with home-made hollandaise sauce and salsa. SO. GOOD.
Over the road was a second-hand record store which we spent a while in, and I was excited to discover a large collection of tapes. Better late than never right? Then we went to NZ's enormous national museum, Te Papa, a beautiful building housing an impressive collection of artefacts concerning NZ's geography, history, art and culture as well as a 'colossal squid'. We only made it through two of five floors, and I hope to return and finish the rest at some point. After four hours of museum-ing tho we needed refuelling with coffee, then checked out the parliament building ('The Beehive') and had a quick dinner, before I had to scarper to the bus station for an all-night bus back to Auckland.
All in all it was a lovely, fun, laid-back weekend with good company and excellent eating (who needs more than that?) and I look forward to going back to Wellington - perhaps for Christmas, or to do an internship if I can wrangle that.
But in the mean time, I better do some work! I hope you're all well - please Facebook or email me with your news. I'd love to hear from you.
Lots of love, A x
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