Birthday Week

My birthday week was started when Janet and Will came back to Auckland for their final weekend in NZ. On Saturday we took the ferry over to Waiheke where we did several amazing wine tastings (my new favorite hobby...) The weather was perfect, it was so werid to go from "big city" Auckland to an island with very few people on it, most of them hippies. Compareble to Laguna, Corina and I decided our mom should move there.

Arriving at Waiheke

View from one of our wine tastings.

wine tasting nibbles.

My actual birthday was pretty low key. But the following weekend was a four-day weekend for Easter and Kasey, Kellie, Elle, Corina and I all went up North to Whatuwhiwhi (still not positive on how to pronounce it). Corina, Rambo and I drove up on Friday, even though we knew it would be like a 5 hour drive, it still felt like it lasted forever. Partially because Corina and I thought we were lost for a solid hour.

A random rooster walking around at the gas station

Saturday we went up to Cape Reinga, which is the very top of the North Island. It was stunning. And of course, Corina and Kasey ran into someone they work with.

Corina, Kellie and Rambo admiring the view.

The Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meeting. You can't really tell from this photo, but the waves were crashing into each other head on.

Cape Reinga lighthouse

According to Wiki

"According to mythology, the spirits of the dead travel to Cape Reinga on their journey to the afterlife to leap off the headland and climb the roots of the 800 year old tree and descend to the underworld to return to their traditional homeland of Hawaiki, using the Te Ara Wairua, the 'Spirits' pathway'. At Cape Reinga they depart the mainland. They turn briefly at the Three Kings Islands for one last look back towards the land, then continue on their journey"

Luckily, no dead people sightings.

My favorite Rambo photo.

The walk we didn't do because we didn't bring the appropriate shoes.

I also got a lot of driving practice while up North, the roads were perfect. Except I was going too slow and almost turned into the wrong side, but only once! Needless to say, it was nice to be driving again.

That night was filled with a roast chicken, mexican food with curry seasoning (I bought and used curry powder instead of cumin, Corina later pointed it out), and lots of wine! Eventually followed with a chick flick.

The next day we went to KariKari Estate Winery where we did a wine tasting. And then we found this amazing beach that was completely empty! We didn't see one human on the beach the entire time we were there.

Views from our bach

If you look very closely you can see Rambo jumping here....

The drive back wasn't as bad, partially because we stopped Paihia for lunch, a cider and a stroll. Where as luck would have it, Elle ran into someone she knew!