Microblog 3 - Jan 18

Have been crazy busy since being back home. Happily reunited with my love, we have been busy with lots of social and not so social activities.  I introduced Aric to silo cinema (an outdoor cinema in Auckland where they project onto an old silo). We watched ‘I Am Not Your Negro’ which was very good but I was tired from the flight still and fell asleep half way through.  The following day we hosted a games night at Aric’s with some of his colleagues  which was a lot of fun.  Games are such good ice breakers. Then on Sunday we bought some plants in an attempt to be more green fingered, went to a photography exhibition in the museum, had a picnic in the park with Amy, Colin and Sam and then went to the Cakes and Ladders board game cafĂ© to play a game called Carcasonne which was fun.

Following Thursday was Franzi’s birthday so we did this thing called ‘Taste of Colour’ which was so much fun – a) because I haven’t seen my friends for over a month and b) because it was a painting class.  We painted the Eiffel Tower which was very hard and amusing watching people’s concentrating faces as they painted (or tried at least!) straight lines.  Seeing as 8 of us who went all live in houses together we now have 2 houses filled with paintings of the Eiffel Tower haha. 






The next weekend was a public holiday so Aric and I went away camping up to Doutbless Bay, an area neither of us had been to before. It was nice but I think there’s just as nice beaches only an hour away from Auckland so you don’t need to travel so far.  Northland I find a bit dull to be honest compared to the rest of New Zealand – it’s not as pretty or as many things to do. We went up to Cape Reinga which was awesome, and tried to kayak but the onshore wind was too much and it didn’t make it pleasant so we gave up. We stopped off at Matapouri 'mermaid pools' which have been on my bucket list for AGES and I am happy we finally made it there. It's essentially this huge rock pool on the side of a cliff and it's beautiful - a pretty climb and descent to it too. 












Then this weekend we had ANOTHER long weekend with Waitangi Day on the Tuesday, so I booked Monday off.  Aric’s parents were in town, so I got to meet the ‘finlaws’ who are bloody awesome. We went for a brilliant dinner on Thursday eve at Woodpecker Hill in Parnell which is very good food, then Friday Aric did a BBQ at his house with some of his friends, Saturday we went to Tawharanui and Matakana markets, and Sunday we drove down to Mt Maunganui where Aric had hired a bach (holiday home) for us and his parents.  I have had a large dose of them but I have enjoyed every minute – they’re so easy to get along with and very funny.







Aric has now gone to Samoa so I have a weekend without him finally (haha I joke – I already miss him) so taking his parents to the airport tomorrow morning, hopefully going on a hike tomorrow if the weather isn’t terrible and going to have a life admin Sunday. Then I join Aric in Samoa on Wednesday – I am very excited!! This will be the first time I have left NZ in over 2 years for as holiday (I don’t count the UK as a holiday). However I looked at the weather and it currently says thunderstorms and 100% chance of rain every day. Boo. 

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