Surfing at Muriwai

A very wet street festival
We always have drinks on the last Friday of the month. This time, we went to a street festival after that. Had an oyster, a burger and an overpriced beer. It was cool, but I didn't stay long. It wasn't just raining. It was pouring down. Flooding the streets.

Rain over Auckland

Couchsurfers
Sin Jat is back in the flat and suddenly it's a lot more lively here. This last week, he invited couchsurfers from Germany, The Netherlands and France. It's cool that he has both the space and kindness to do that.

Bon appetit, Enjoy, Eet Smakelijk, 吃好, velbekomme

Surfing at Muriwai
Sunday I learned to surf. Jenni, James and I had a surf lesson at Muriwai together. Great fun. We had a real surfer dude teach us too. Dylan. Cool as.

I've been wanting to go surfing for a long time, so it was great to have it finally happen. Thanks to Phil for organising it, even though he couldn't surf himself. It definitely won't be my last time. Perhaps I have found another hobby?

It's essential to practice your surfing technique before heading to a European winter 🏄 @jakobbjerreknudsen

A photo posted by Jenni Anderson (@jennirebekah4) on Nov 28, 2015 at 8:18pm PST

Jenni is off to Europe soon (I'll be skip that winter, thank you very much). Travel safe, Jenni. Have a great time!

The ones I miss

Sometimes I miss home.

This morning I spoke with my parents on Skype. They have just sent off a box for me. I don't know what they put in it, but in my mind it contains a hug. A hug sent to the other side of the world to show me that they are not far away. And it's true. They are not far away. In February they will be here to visit me. I look forward to that.

Friends
When I think about my friends, my thoughts travel far. They live and travel in many countries around the world. It's cool to know, that there are many places I could go and know someone there. But it's lonely, because they are not here. Right now, my thoughts go to Marie and Ross, who lived here with me until a few weeks ago.

Ross is in Australia now, and by looks he is enjoying every minute of an early summer at the Gold Coast. Marie is back home in France. I hope she is well.

The sea
When I feel this way, I like to go to the sea. There, I find a place with no time. Only the moment. And in every moment there is a wave crashing onto the shore, never to be seen again. It makes me feel empty and it fills me up.

In my favourite song, the artist sings about this feeling. I like having him describe it to me.

Nephew, "Hjertestarter"

Karekare beach
So I went to Karekare. Perfectly west coast. Stormy. Rough.

"The watchman" is the cliff on the right

Karekare beach

Cliffs frame the sides of Union Bay

"The watchman" has quite the view

Heartrate-quickening, on-the-edge photo

Goat Island snorkeling

This weekend I went snorkeling at Goat Island with Eri and Rob from work. It was extraordinary.

There were colourful fish everywhere. So many that I have never seen before. The largest ones were the snappers. One was almost as long as my arm (seriously, not fisherman's talk). And they are not shy. I touched one and was just as surprised as the fish was.

Caves
We swam around on the leeward side of the island were the waters were most calm. Here there were some caves which begged exploring. Unfortunately I didn't bring a flashlight and the caves were completely dark. Completely. Imagine complete darkness and you in the water. I was done exploring real soon.

Photo credit: Jessicaoneil

A ray and some eggs

At one point I found a cluster of squid eggs. I whirled them up from the sand and a large snapper came by and ate one. That happened between my hands.

Later an eagle ray came by. The way it glides is so graceful. We were reverent. Rays are out of this world. Also, we didn't know if it was a stingray, so we kept a respectful distance as it passed.

The magic of Goat Island is found below the surface

I love driving in New Zealand, its scenic everywhere
Photo by Eri

Did anyone say paradise?
Photo by Eri

I had such a great time. I feel like I should thank the guy we rented equipment from. He had everything we needed. For a fair price we all got suited up and I even got myself a weight belt so I could dive freely. Thanks Octopus Hideaway.

Weekend away

This Friday we went to Waiheke for our much anticipated weekend away. Everyone has been preparing for weeks. Organising, planning events and getting or making their costumes.
 

We met at the ferry Friday morning

Not a cloud in the sky. Perfect island weather.

So ready!

A bus took us to The Venue in Onetangi. Everything was by the beach. Fantastic.

There were orcas playing in the bay, but that didn't seem to scare the Kiwis. We had a nice swim.

Challenges
The events planned by the teams were all fun. We had planned a sandcastle challenge for the other teams. This one is my favourite.

The next team made us dance and perform a play. Our Titanic play was so much fun. Everyone jumped when the iceberg hit.

The final challenge of the day was an engineering challenge. We were given an egg and asked to transport it across a 10 meter gap in a creative way. Ours sailed across with a kite made of paper. Yes, it was marvellous.

The next morning we were a bit worse for wear. It had been a long night of costume partying and midnight swimming. Nevertheless, we completed one final challenge. We created an animal model and performed a haka to honour it. The best one was clearly the shark team. Their massive, sharp toothed mouth chomped to the rythm of their haka.

It's a wingsuit
I was flying all night

Art at the vineyard
To round off the weekend, a few of us stayed on the island. We went to Cable Bay Vineyard to share a bottle of wine in the sun. It was my first vineyard experience in New Zealand, but I have feeling it was not a typical vineyard visit.

I had expected a vineyard to look like an old farm, so I was very surprised, when I first saw Cable Bay. It looks like an art gallery. It almost is an art gallery. I saw two magnificent sculptures there and I am sure there were many more.

From our spot in the sun we had a perfect view of the sculpture "Ratyte" against the backdrop of Matiatia Bay. I instantly recognised the style. I bet there is only one artist in the world who makes sculptures like that. I've been a fan without knowing his name since 2011, when he exhibited Morpheus in my home town Aarhus. Now I know. Phil Price, from New Zealand. I hope I'll see more of his work.

The elegance is in its balanced, ever changing movements
its natural fluidity seems to defy the hard material it is made of

Perhaps if you watch a video you can appreciate it more.
Video of how it moves in the wind

All Blacks parade
This Wednesday we spent our lunch break in a very crowded Victoria park. The welcome parade for the national heroes, The All Blacks, was cool to be a part of.

 

At 2:00 Richie McCaw walks past us with the cup

Maria, our MD, touched the cup and her son got
autographs from 14 of the players
You should have seen her smile when she showed us this photo

A night to remember

I just had the most incredible weekend. And I'm not the only one. I think everyone in Auckland must have had an incredible weekend. This weekend had something for everybody. Party goers celebrated halloween, rugby fans watched the All Blacks make history and runners crossed the Auckland harbour bridge in an epic city marathon.

But who says you have to choose? In one epic night I celebrated halloween, watched the game in a rowdy crowd and ... didn't run a marathon.

Getting a costume
The day begun with errands, like any other weekend day. In the morning, I went to a car mechanic and got my windscreen repaired. When it was done, I started my search for a costume. I had a plan, carefully crafted the night before. I would dress up in the most classic of all halloween costumes. The vampire. But not just any vampire. I would go as Edward, the puritan, teenage dream of a vampire.

I thought I was being really smart. Edward doesn't have wings or fangs and he wears regular clothes. He glimmers in sunlight, but guess what, halloween is at night. How hard could it be? All I would need was a yellow glow in my eyes, fancy hair and an incredibly handsome, pale face.

I'm already very handsome so that part was easy. It was much harder to get the eyes right. I went to Look Sharp in Albany first. It had everything for any costume or party. The only problem was that everyone knows that. It was like Christmas day shopping. Impossible to move. And yellow contacts were sold out.

Next door there was a pharmacy, where they also sold coloured lenses. Here there was no crowd, but crazy lenses were sold out anyway. Undeterred I visited another Look Sharp store and 4 more pharmacies before I found a pair of honey glamour lenses. They would have to do. I also bought some cheap black and white facepaint to get some of that paleness going for me.

Finally got my Halloween costume

Hi Jenni
When I got home, I packed a bag with my new costume and my outfit for the game later. Then I waited for Jenni to come and pick me up. She's a cool girl, that I recently met at a Research Association function. This whole day happened because of her and her man Nic. When I said, that I had no one to watch the game with they invited me not just to the game, but to an entire epic night.

At four, she picked me up and took me to West Auckland, to watch a game of netball. It's the first game of netball I have ever watched. Netball is huge here. So big, that nobody knows what basketball is. The two games are very similar, when you are just watching. Two teams throwing a ball around and trying to shoot it through the hoop of the other team. But from a players perspective I imagine it will feel very different. Basketball feels fast and physical, netball is about technique and tactics.

Well played Jenni

Jenni's team won a crushing victory. Meanwhile, I was being entertained so much by my fellow spectators that I must have missed at least a third of the game. On my right two cheery Maori were telling me all about the game and the players and on my right a flamboyant gay was joking with me. Hilarious.



Dress up
Back at Jenni's place we changed into our costumes. I tried for an hour to apply the facepaint in an even, unnaturally cold blooded way. It didn't work. Jenni succeeded in applying her makeup, but I gave up on the white. But I did get the contrast right. I think some dark shading around the eyes and black eyebrows go a long way to make you look paler. I'll let you be the judge of that.

Yes, it's too subtle and the eyes look almost natural
I should get points for effort though - applying makeup is not easy

The game
After two great Halloween parties, we changed once again. This time into All Blacks fan wear. I felt awesome in my new All Blacks jersey. I borrowed a New Zealand flag from Jenni to wear as a cape and later we put on temporary tattoos as well.

It was a great game. An overpowering performance by the All Blacks. I couldn't have wished for a better game. But I do wish I had been less tired. My eyelids were so heavy during the halftime break I almost fell asleep on my feet. It had been a long day. And night. So all in all, I fancied taking a cap home to my bed more than joining the marathon runners. They were running in the streets as the sun rose over Auckland.