Sydney!

Now, I'll be the first to admit that winters here in Auckland are pretty tame, compared to either Boston OR Idaho. I'm not sure there's EVER been snow here, but if so, it was newsworthy and melted in like 10 minutes - instead, the winter seems to be cool (like, sweater + lightweight jacket weather), with ridiculous wind and random, frequent rainstorms. I've had worse. All the same, when I had the opportunity to go north to Australia for a couple of weeks over winter break, the lure of escape proved strong indeed.

I started out with a weekend in Sydney, where I met up with my friend Lydia (she'd been staying there for about a month). Sydney is the city I'd expected Auckland to be ... large, bustling, and clearly international. It's just a cool city, with a fun culture, plus lots of beaches, etc. Also quite expensive - I was grateful I had a free place to stay. All in all, though, I definitely enjoyed my time there (although the weather wasn't much better than what I'd left behind here in Auckland).

The Harbour Bridge is in the back right corner of the above photo - you'll get a closer view of it in a few pictures.

Very cool tree-lined walkway in the middle of Hyde Park - my memory says it smelled like eucalyptus, but I won't guarantee that.

Really really really ugly fountain, also in Hyde Park.

This is Lydia's "favourite church" - I don't know what it's called, but it was pretty spectacular inside and out. (I always feel bad taking photos inside of churches ... I wouldn't want to show up in someone's vacation photos while worshipping, and assume other people feel the same.)

BATS. Lots and lots of them. Apparently, they've taken over this bit of the botanical gardens and are killing the trees (not maliciously, of course). And they're no longer nocturnal, either ... they were swooping overhead and making all sorts of bat-like noises.

MORE BATS. Crazy, right?!

This is called a "bottle tree." Lydia went on the tour of the gardens and says that it's called that NOT because it's shaped like a bottle, but she can't remember the real reason ... any helpers?

Remuera Changeover

As all of my Rotary readers must be aware, the end of June marks the change in administration in every club and district. I assume that all clubs hold events, but I don't know that any club pulls it off with as much class as Remuera!

The blonde woman to the right is Sharyn, who was in charge of pulling the event together. Good job, Sharyn!!

The actual changeover, complete with an exchange of bouquets between the former and current "first ladies" of Remuera Rotary.

My host counselor, John, and his wife - so my parents finally know who these people are!

New President John and his lovely wife (who I spent some time with at the VIP camp a couple of months ago).

Former President Jim and his wife, wearing the regalia for the last time. (I don't know about Jim, but his wife seemed ready to for a break from the presidential obligations!)

Midwinter Christmas

For anyone who's ever wondered what Southern hemisphere cultures think about celebrating Christmas in sunny December, you'll be relieved to know that quite a few people here think that's silly too. While Christmas obviously still takes place on December 25, a lot of people in New Zealand celebrate a midwinter Christmas as well - and so 41 Park Road (my apartment building) decided to jump on the bandwagon. Me and my friend Brodie got the University Accommodation office to give us some cash to throw our own party, and had a great night of food and drinks and holiday fun!

Preparation ... we had ordered (through the Uni catering services) two turkeys and a ham. And wound up with two hams and six rolled turkey breasts, pre-stuffed with apricot stuffing. Kind of annoying - and disappointing, as we were all excited for real birds - but the food turned out great! You can also see some effort being put into our authentic pumpkin pie (recipe courtesy of my mom!) ... wasn't great, but was the best pumpkin pie some of these people have ever had!

Me in my Christmas clothing! (After I finally got let back into my room, since I locked my keys in there mid-afternoon. The problem with starting the drinking at 3 in the afternoon ...?)

The carving station, post-dinner ... we did a pretty good job on that ham. And by "we" I mean the people who actually eat ham. I made a vegetarian lasagna for those of us who aren't big on holiday meats.

I tried to get everyone to dress in Christmas colors, but this was the only red Ed had. He kept it on only long enough for the photos ...

About half the desserts that made it to the table ... we ate WELL that night!

Coast to Coast thru Auckland

One of my first New Zealand experiences was a walk on Muriwai beach with my Rotary host counselor, John, and his walking group. Last month, I joined the group again for a Coast to Coast walk - an 18 km walk from one coast of Auckland to the other. It was a great opportunity to see some of Auckland that I hadn't seen before (not to mention a great reason to skip the gym!).

This is the monument on the top of One Tree Hill. Notice the complete lack of trees? Apparently there was a tree there, but a Maori activist cut it down because it wasn't an indigenous tree (it was, I believe, a Norfolk pine). Unfortunately, the tree has not yet been replaced, because the city council can't decide which indigenous tree would be most appropriate ...

Sheep. In the middle of the city. VERY New Zealand.

A view of Rangitoto (the infamous volcano island) from the center of the city.

Easter break, redux

To make up for the lack of excitement in my life, I'm posting a few more photos from my Easter break hike and bungee jumping. I've been meaning to post these for some time - they're from Lydia's camera, which I didn't get my hands on until after posting the original series - but work/laziness has interfered. Anyhow, enjoy!

Chipper at the start of the trail (note the clean hair/clothes)!

This was the first of our photos with the camera timer. I'm not sure whose idea it was to jump, but it was suggested for every posed photo (on the side of mountains) for the rest of the trip.

Relaxing before dinner/dark in the kitchen of our first cabin.

"No, Peter, we CAN'T jump - we'll hit our heads!"

The possibly ill-advised snowy mountain side trip.

"No, Peter, we CAN'T jump - we'll fall off the mountain!"

We arrived back in Queenstown from the trek & Milford Sound on Good Friday. Under law, while alcohol can be served in restaurants, it can only be served with food - the language is something like, "Customers must be present for the purpose of eating." Apparently, New Zealand takes these things seriously - police make regular searches of the bars, and we had to hold onto our receipt that showed what we had ordered to eat. Which they looked at. And then questioned us about. ("So how were the nachos?" "Actually, we had pasta.") Lydia thought the whole thing was so funny that she had me pose for a picture to get an illicit photo of the police in the background.

And a few more bungee pictures, just for fun ... I think, in this one, I'm wondering how safe this harness thing actually is.

"Nope, I'm not nervous at all!"

The high-tech towel and nylon strap - I'm chattering away, probably being a smart ass. I would imagine these guys get a LOT of nervous talking in their line of work.