Beaches, pools and a silo cinema
I've just got in from a real nice afternoon spent on the beach - me Ben and Sam took a drive up to Tawharanui (said Taffa-ra-nooee) and chilled out on the beach, climbed some rocks and had a good yarn. We didn't get out there till the afternoon as some of us were recovering from a pretty awesome pool party at Sam's house last night. I never imagined I'd be piled in a sauna fully clothed with 14 other people singing Bohemian Rhapsody. I now bare a scar on my bum from getting a bit too close to the heating elements in the sauna, ooops. Colin got very drunk and was probably my highlight of the evening - along with finding a snail in Sam's bedroom and putting it on Shanyn's face.
The past week has been pretty boozy actually, though I have been trying to be sensible. On Wednesday I had my work xmas do - we did lawn bowls and had to get into teams and do fancy dress. Our team name was 'The Bowling Stones' (courtesy of a google search) so we dressed as rock stars. I'm not too terrible at bowls it turns out - but I also think that most of my good rolls (technical term) were flukes. We then had dinner at an Italian restaurant down the road, and I managed to persuade everyone to come to Family Bar (Auckland's premier gay bar) for some mid week karaoke, where I was drunk enough to perform No Diggity by Blackstreet - my first karaoke performance in New Zealand!
On Tuesday the weather was pretty decent, so we skipped climbing and took a wee walk up Mt Eden and chilled out for a while watching the sunset, then headed to a nearby cafe for a late night snack. I LOVE the summer here - it's so awesome that I can come home from work and then walk up a volcano in the sun.
Last weekend was bloody awesome - Friday I was feeling pretty grumpy and tired and nearly bailed on joining my housemates at Silo cinema, but forced myself to go and I am glad I did! Silo cinema is basically a load of disused silos in Auckland by the water, and every summer they have food trucks and markets and they project a movie onto one of the silos and people get beanbags and blankets and watch the film. I happened to fall asleep half way through but I was very comfortable and snug and it was a really nice relaxed evening which I could have spent at home feeling sorry for myself, so I was glad I went out. The food trucks were really good too - there was a booze bar where Amy and Colin got apple crumble cider which tasted amazing, Shanyn got fried bread and I got a hangi (basically a Maori roast dinner).
On Saturday afternoon Amy, Colin and I headed down to Whangamata with our tents, body boards and wet suits. We camped at a dead cute camp ground in Opoutere which had beach access, so after dinner we went and sat on the beach watching the stars come out. I love doing that - especially on a beach where you've got nothing beyond the horizon and the sky is huge and dark and dotted with constellations. We were spotting satellites and the occasional shooting star, when a huge flash of light grabbed our attention, and streaked across the horizon, with sparks coming off it. It lasted about 10 seconds and we thought it was going to crash in to the ocean but it burned up just before. It was the most amazing thing we've ever seen and we haven't stopped talking about it since. Things like that really put things into perspective - you sure do realise how big the universe is and how insignificant your problems are.
The following day Amy and Colin were slumbering in their tent so I went for a little walk along the beach, which was totally deserted. I walked up to the end where the DOC had roped off an area for bird nesting - and though I avoided the area by walking in the sea, the sea gulls nesting clearly didn't think I was respecting their distance enough and started to dive bomb me so I screamed and ran all the way back to the other side of the beach. Birds are scary!
We headed down to Whangamata and donned our wetsuits and spent the next hour catching waves on our body boards. I've never used one before and thought they were just a flotation device but wow they're so much fun when you catch a wave and get propelled back to shore - it was a bit of a shock the first time I caught one, didn't realise it would happen!! We had lunch, chilled on the beach some more (I sport some pretty cool tan lines) then drove home on Sunday evening, determined to return as it's such a cool little spot!
The past week has been pretty boozy actually, though I have been trying to be sensible. On Wednesday I had my work xmas do - we did lawn bowls and had to get into teams and do fancy dress. Our team name was 'The Bowling Stones' (courtesy of a google search) so we dressed as rock stars. I'm not too terrible at bowls it turns out - but I also think that most of my good rolls (technical term) were flukes. We then had dinner at an Italian restaurant down the road, and I managed to persuade everyone to come to Family Bar (Auckland's premier gay bar) for some mid week karaoke, where I was drunk enough to perform No Diggity by Blackstreet - my first karaoke performance in New Zealand!
On Tuesday the weather was pretty decent, so we skipped climbing and took a wee walk up Mt Eden and chilled out for a while watching the sunset, then headed to a nearby cafe for a late night snack. I LOVE the summer here - it's so awesome that I can come home from work and then walk up a volcano in the sun.
Last weekend was bloody awesome - Friday I was feeling pretty grumpy and tired and nearly bailed on joining my housemates at Silo cinema, but forced myself to go and I am glad I did! Silo cinema is basically a load of disused silos in Auckland by the water, and every summer they have food trucks and markets and they project a movie onto one of the silos and people get beanbags and blankets and watch the film. I happened to fall asleep half way through but I was very comfortable and snug and it was a really nice relaxed evening which I could have spent at home feeling sorry for myself, so I was glad I went out. The food trucks were really good too - there was a booze bar where Amy and Colin got apple crumble cider which tasted amazing, Shanyn got fried bread and I got a hangi (basically a Maori roast dinner).
On Saturday afternoon Amy, Colin and I headed down to Whangamata with our tents, body boards and wet suits. We camped at a dead cute camp ground in Opoutere which had beach access, so after dinner we went and sat on the beach watching the stars come out. I love doing that - especially on a beach where you've got nothing beyond the horizon and the sky is huge and dark and dotted with constellations. We were spotting satellites and the occasional shooting star, when a huge flash of light grabbed our attention, and streaked across the horizon, with sparks coming off it. It lasted about 10 seconds and we thought it was going to crash in to the ocean but it burned up just before. It was the most amazing thing we've ever seen and we haven't stopped talking about it since. Things like that really put things into perspective - you sure do realise how big the universe is and how insignificant your problems are.
The following day Amy and Colin were slumbering in their tent so I went for a little walk along the beach, which was totally deserted. I walked up to the end where the DOC had roped off an area for bird nesting - and though I avoided the area by walking in the sea, the sea gulls nesting clearly didn't think I was respecting their distance enough and started to dive bomb me so I screamed and ran all the way back to the other side of the beach. Birds are scary!
We headed down to Whangamata and donned our wetsuits and spent the next hour catching waves on our body boards. I've never used one before and thought they were just a flotation device but wow they're so much fun when you catch a wave and get propelled back to shore - it was a bit of a shock the first time I caught one, didn't realise it would happen!! We had lunch, chilled on the beach some more (I sport some pretty cool tan lines) then drove home on Sunday evening, determined to return as it's such a cool little spot!
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