Auckland

Hello blog!

I’m writing to you on Monday, August 19th - only a couple days until mid-semester break finally begins!! eeeeeeppppppppp! I am so ready to see my family and have an entire week off of school! Now all I need to do is find the motivation to finish all of my schoolwork before my parents arrive. One of my professors rudely assigned another 3,000-word essay due on the Monday we return from break (really dude??), so I’m trying to finish it before they get here. Please pray that I get it done in time #ridingthestrugglebus

Keep reading for an update on this weekend:

This past weekend was completely different from all of my experiences in New Zealand so far - I went to a big city! My friend Lauren (who is one of my sorority sisters from DU and who also goes to Otago with me), went with me to visit our friend Alex who goes to the University of Auckland. Three Denver gals reunited half way across the world! Our flight out of Dunedin left on Friday the 16th at 3:30pm and we arrived in Auckland at around 5:30pm.

When we arrived in the city, we took a taxi to Alex’s apartment and immediately regretted our decision to attend Otago instead of Alex’s university. Her apartment was classy, clean, spacious and fully furnished with anything a college student could need. It looked like a fancy hotel on the outside and the inside was even better. Alex’s place made my flat look like absolute trash (not that I don’t appreciate my flat, but come on!). The one downside to her apartment was that she lives by herself. I can’t imagine moving to a foreign country and living by yourself, without flatmates to talk with, cook with or plan things with. How is one supposed to make friends?

Anyways, we put our stuff down at her place and left to find a spot for dinner. This next portion of my Auckland experience made me appreciate all of the vacations my mom had diligently planned for my family in the past. I never understood the value of having dinner reservations planned until we had spent OVER AN HOUR walking around Auckland looking for a place to eat. Im not entirely sure why it was so difficult to find a place, but I really wished we had planned better.

Eventually we sat down to eat at around 8:45pm. I had an eggplant parmesan sandwich with fries and a milkshake - it was delicious. By the time we had all eaten and walked back to her apartment, it was around 11:00pm. Next we watched Bridget Jones Diary and got some rest in preparation for an early morning on Saturday.

On Saturday morning we left Alex’s apartment at 8:00am and walked to the harbor. We had planned an epic day which involved taking a ferry over to Waiheke Island where we would do a zip-line tour, three winery tours and an olive oil tasting (lunch included). We got on the 9:00 ferry to Waiheke and could barely hold in our excitement for the days activities - wine, olive oil, zip-lining and food?!?! It almost seemed too good to be true. EcoZip picked us up from the ferry dock and took us to the zip-lining destination. We zipped for two hours in a small group and it was so much fun!! This zip experience was different from any other I had done in the past. They had two parallel zip-lines set up on each zip so that two people could go at the same time. It was wild! After the zip-lining was over, we hiked back up to where the tour had begun and got in a van which took us to our first winery.

The first winery tour was at Stoneyridge - the biggest winery on Waiheke Island. The Stoneyridge tour was wonderful, but also seemed very commercial. We were able to taste three different wines while we walked around the winery. Next, we were served a delicious lunch at the winery restaurant which consisted of (vegetarian) quiche and a salad - with a ton of bread and olive oil to share. Its like they knew I was coming??

The second winery we visited was called Casita Miro. This particular tour and tasting seemed more exclusive than the first; we were all seated in a private tasting room with four wines set up at each place setting. They had also included a description of each wine and a small portion of food that paired well with each specific sample. Slowly, we made our way through the four wines they had set up for us, bit by bit, taking a bite of the food and then a sip of wine. It was delightful! The last wine in the line-up was the most peculiar wine I have ever tasted. For the life of me I cannot remember the name of the wine or what kind, but all I know is that it tasted like straight sugar! Very odd. I didn’t hate it though?

The final winery we visited was, by far, my favorite. Mudbrick winery doesn’t have the most glamorous name, but it was the most beautiful place on the whole island. It’s no surprise that there is a two-year waiting list to get married at this amazing location. There were flowers everywhere, rolling hills, and aesthetically pleasing, rustic architecture. It was also at this winery that I tried the very BEST wine I have EVER tasted (and thats saying something considering our family background). This wine was a Onetangi Valley Syrah/Petite Verdot and it was mind-blowing. So mind-blowing that I drank my own class and then the glass of the women sitting next to me who hadn’t finished hers (don’t judge - I could not let this amazing wine go to waste!!).

Finally, we ended our Waiheke island experience with an olive oil tasting and more bread than I ever thought I was capable of consuming in one sitting. It was an absolutely lovely day - 6 hours of zip-lining, wining and dining. What more could a girl ask for???

After the ferry took us back to the mainland, we stopped and grabbed poke bowls for later and went back to Alex’s to nap and shower. We lounged around her place and napped until around 9pm when we started getting ready to hit the town. We got all dolled up and headed to a pregame with some of Alex’s friends. Next we went into the city, hit a couple different bars, and danced our hearts out until around 4:30 in the morning! Whoops.

On Sunday, we all woke up at 11:30 and wondered how we stayed up so late the night before. it was definitely way more intense than what Lauren and I were used to back in Dunedin. The big city definitely did not disappoint! For breakfast we all enjoyed some restorative smoothie bowls and drank large amounts of water. When we made our way to the airport at 1:30pm I was already in desperate need of a nap. The flight home to Dunedin was entirely wasted on sleep, which means I did not make any progress on the school work I was supposed to be doing. Yikes.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend filled with familiar friends and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. I could not have enjoyed myself more!

Thanks for reading :)