Auckland City Centre

We worked extra one day in order to have a whole day off to explore downtown Auckland.  It is unfortunate that the best weather has been on days we work, and our day off was cloudy and cold.  Boo.

First thing we did was get a rental car from "Rent a Dent" - heh, we liked the name.  This will give us much more freedom and allow us to explore the area more.

Since Chris was still getting used to driving on the other side of the road, we parked the car and walked around Auckland most of the day.  Above is yet another crazy tree close to the museum.

Our first stop was the Wintergardens.

Tropical gardens.

Tropical Pitcher Plants.  Much larger than ours back home.

It was chilly, so we stopped for a mocha.

Queen Street, downtown Auckland.

I've always wanted to cross the street willy-nilly like this. 

They're redone their old industrial waterfront area into a funky new place with lots of restaurants.  This is me in a giant lawn chair, with a information kiosk made out of old shipping containers in the background.  We ate at the "Urban Turban", which recreates Bombay street food.  Delicious.

On our way home we stopped by Mount Eden, one of the many volcamos that make up the New Zealand landscape.  Behind Chris is a huge crater, which was once the opening of the volcano.  In the distance is downtown Auckland with the sky tower overlooking the city.

Auckland is a massive, sprawling city, and these volcanos provide great views.

Workin'

This HelpX experience has been very different from the farm in Ottawa.  That was more of a community, where I felt part of the family.  I was given a lot of freedom to choose what work I did and when, and was able to grab food from the kitchen whenever I liked.  This has been quite the opposite.  Everything is very structured.  Our time working is kept track of to the minute, and any breaks seem to be noted.  Meals are when they decide, and access to the house is limited.  They work us very hard.  Poor Chris has been stuck with a lot of manual labour like cutting down trees and hauling the logs through the forest.  I don't really mind the work, but the strict nature of our hosts makes us feel more like hired help than a guest.  And I'm not really learning much.  It's all basic house and yard maintenance.  Ah well.  Hopefully the next place is a bit more relaxed.

Chris, cleaning and scraping an old loveseat.

Weeding.

Cleaning the car.

My spotless windows.

R. in the workshop.

One neat thing about being here is that R does custom cabinetry with sustainable timber.  After showing some interest I was able to help him with some work.  I did some finishing work, and learned how to join peices of wood together to make panels using a big fancy machine.

Laingholm

While in Auckland we're staying with hosts through a work exchange program called helpX.  In exchange for work, we get room and board, and hopefully learn some new skills in the process.  The plan was to stay on farms, but to ease us into it we are staying in a suburban home first.  These hosts appealed to me because of their sustainable home:  rainwater collection, solar electricity, solar hot water, organic gardens, sustainable forestry, etc.  We're staying in a suburb called Laingholm.  After working for our four hours, we went for a walk around the neighbourhood, which was quite spectacular.

Found this cool tree at the end of the street.

Calla lillies grow wild on the side of the road here.

That's me looking up at a huge tree.  We're on our way down a long and winding road to reach a beach and a little store for an ice cream.

One of the big old trees we found along the way.  Hard to believe this whole area was cleared for sheep and cattle farming only 100 years ago.

The beach was almost completely made up of broken seashells, and you could walk for ages at low tide.

On our way back up the very long, and windy road.

At the top we had water views in both directions.  This is east to Manukau harbour with Auckland city in the distance.

This is the view west towards the Tasman Sea.

Auckland

We arrived in Auckland on Monday, and everyone warned us how cold and rainy it would be.  But so far we have been pleasantly surprised.  It was sunny and 17 when we got here, and has been quite nice ever since.

Goodbye Fiji.

Hello New Zealand.

The house of our first hosts, B & R.

Our own little studio in the backyard.

View from our porch.

Pathway down the hill to the cliff.

Meditation bench overlooking the valley and out to the harbour.

Octopus to Nadi

We leave the island today to head back to Nadi.  Fortunately, our boat transfer doesn’t arrive until 2pm, so we have almost a full day to enjoy the resort.

It was sad to see my backpack being loaded onto the boat.  :(

The boat ride back to the main island gave us another chance to enjoy the many islands in Fiji.

Chris thinks this is the inspiration for the skull rock in Peter Pan.



Back on the main island.  Some photos from the drive back to Nadi.

After a dip in the pool, we headed out to "Sitar" for supper.  I can't say enough about the food in Fiji.  Every meal was delicious, and this was no exception.  I had a Thai noodle dish and Chris had butter chicken.  We shared naan with an assortment of dips, and some Fiji roti... and it was all amazing.

The restaurant had a live band playing.  They were very good, but their choice of songs was funny.  Everything from  Ave Maria to Islands in the Stream by Kenny and Dolly.  Very entertaining. 

Octopus: Day 2

The food here is amazing.  After a wonderful breakfast of crepes, fruit, muffins, eggs, sausage, yogurt and pineapple juice, we parked ourselves under an umbrella on the beach and stayed there most of the day.

We took a walk to the end of the beach, where we found a little local village with chickens running around and pigs in a pen by the beach.  We also found some coconuts to play with.

For lunch Chris had tandoori chicken, and I had a delicious burger.  It was beef, but not ground beef like I’m used to.  This was pulled beef mixed with delicious spices. I wish I could have gotten the recipe.

Then it was back to the beach for the afternoon before watching the sun set.