Exploring the areas just outside of Auckland
It's been hard getting people to commit to weekend breaks away, so I have had to settle for convincing people to spend the day with me instead.
Last weekend a bunch of us drove out to the Hunua Ranges, an hours drive south east of Auckland, and tackled a 3 hour hike starting from the Hunua Falls. As it's been raining lots recently they were pretty torrential and muddy, but they look like they'd be fun to swim in when summer comes by (though apparently lots of people die there, so maybe not actually).
Amy showcased her wonderful sense of direction by trying to lead us round in a circle but luckily there were other people in the team who did have navigational skills :-P. We stopped to have lunch at a picnic bench overlooking a reservoir - me and Amin had clingwrapped bakery sandwiches, and Amy and Colin pull out delicacies such as pumpkin and feta quiche and salted caramel doughnuts and fudge! They sure know how to picnic.
It was a pretty walk and finished following a little stream which we had to rock hop over at the end.
On the Sunday it was pissing it down all day, so I read the last of the Harry Potter books in my pyjamas all day! Oh my gosh - HARRY POTTER. What an amazing series. It was funny! I didn't expect it to be funny. And it made me cry. What a silly billy I was for not reading it when I was a kid. My only complaint was JK Rowling didn't put enough emphasis on PE in the Hogwarts curriculum. I dunno, maybe wizards and witches don't get fat.
We've moved to a different floor at work so the last week has been troubleshooting people's stupid questions and trying to remain calm because they didn't read instructions properly, and shifting things about on trolleys. I managed to smash an entire bottle of wine in the lift, then the lift broke because some of the glass made the doors stuck. Whoops.
On Friday we had an impromptu games night which was so much fun. Adam's friend Darcy brought along a game called Resistance, which is really similar to Werewolf/Mafia if you know it. You get given a card that tells you if you're a spy or a rebel. The spies get to know who eachother are, but no one else knows who they are. Then basically everyone has to work out who the spies are and it's really good - it causes a bit of friction and doubt amongst you, it's great fun. Then we played the most amazing game ever. I am already a huge fan of Cards Against Humanity, and didn't think it could get better....but - we pimped our game to make it the most fun game ever. We chose a bunch of the more normal white cards, then split into 2 teams. We then had 4 rounds where each team had to guess the word on the card in 1 minute, by the other person describing the word on the card, using just one word to describe the word, acting out the word, and then using noises to describe the word. I highly recommend this at your next games night - having to come up with a noise to get people to guess 'stray pube' is amusing! We played till 1am it was that fun.
This weekend I wanted to go to Raglan, but the weather is pretty poop (we're getting the rest of the storm that knocked out all the power in Oz this week) so today I rounded up a bunch of people and we headed to the Waitakeres again. It's such a pretty area - heaps of nice bush and coastal walks. We did a nice quick 1.5 hour walk to Fairy Falls - it's a gorgeous little bush walk then you end up following a gorgeous waterfall down to its base.
We then headed to Piha and climbed Lion Rock, then walked down the beach for a bit, discovering caves and starfish along the way. I LOVE having all this to explore only an hour away, it makes not being able to get away for an entire weekend that much sweeter :)
Last weekend a bunch of us drove out to the Hunua Ranges, an hours drive south east of Auckland, and tackled a 3 hour hike starting from the Hunua Falls. As it's been raining lots recently they were pretty torrential and muddy, but they look like they'd be fun to swim in when summer comes by (though apparently lots of people die there, so maybe not actually).
Amy showcased her wonderful sense of direction by trying to lead us round in a circle but luckily there were other people in the team who did have navigational skills :-P. We stopped to have lunch at a picnic bench overlooking a reservoir - me and Amin had clingwrapped bakery sandwiches, and Amy and Colin pull out delicacies such as pumpkin and feta quiche and salted caramel doughnuts and fudge! They sure know how to picnic.
It was a pretty walk and finished following a little stream which we had to rock hop over at the end.
On the Sunday it was pissing it down all day, so I read the last of the Harry Potter books in my pyjamas all day! Oh my gosh - HARRY POTTER. What an amazing series. It was funny! I didn't expect it to be funny. And it made me cry. What a silly billy I was for not reading it when I was a kid. My only complaint was JK Rowling didn't put enough emphasis on PE in the Hogwarts curriculum. I dunno, maybe wizards and witches don't get fat.
We've moved to a different floor at work so the last week has been troubleshooting people's stupid questions and trying to remain calm because they didn't read instructions properly, and shifting things about on trolleys. I managed to smash an entire bottle of wine in the lift, then the lift broke because some of the glass made the doors stuck. Whoops.
On Friday we had an impromptu games night which was so much fun. Adam's friend Darcy brought along a game called Resistance, which is really similar to Werewolf/Mafia if you know it. You get given a card that tells you if you're a spy or a rebel. The spies get to know who eachother are, but no one else knows who they are. Then basically everyone has to work out who the spies are and it's really good - it causes a bit of friction and doubt amongst you, it's great fun. Then we played the most amazing game ever. I am already a huge fan of Cards Against Humanity, and didn't think it could get better....but - we pimped our game to make it the most fun game ever. We chose a bunch of the more normal white cards, then split into 2 teams. We then had 4 rounds where each team had to guess the word on the card in 1 minute, by the other person describing the word on the card, using just one word to describe the word, acting out the word, and then using noises to describe the word. I highly recommend this at your next games night - having to come up with a noise to get people to guess 'stray pube' is amusing! We played till 1am it was that fun.
This weekend I wanted to go to Raglan, but the weather is pretty poop (we're getting the rest of the storm that knocked out all the power in Oz this week) so today I rounded up a bunch of people and we headed to the Waitakeres again. It's such a pretty area - heaps of nice bush and coastal walks. We did a nice quick 1.5 hour walk to Fairy Falls - it's a gorgeous little bush walk then you end up following a gorgeous waterfall down to its base.
We then headed to Piha and climbed Lion Rock, then walked down the beach for a bit, discovering caves and starfish along the way. I LOVE having all this to explore only an hour away, it makes not being able to get away for an entire weekend that much sweeter :)
<3 miss you!xxxx
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