Saturday, January 26, 2008

6 Month Celebration

This weekend Dave and I went up to Auckland to celebrate our 6 month wedding anniversary. We left home around 10:30. Our first stop was the Auckland Botanical Gardens. We had visited before, but it was during winter and not many flowers were in bloom. It was a lot prettier this time around. They also had random sculptures placed through the garden as a special exhibit. Taking our time, we walked around and took in the scenery.





After the gardens we continued to my next planned even which was the Extreme Indoor Karts. It was a go-kart race track that was indoor and had two levels. You would start at the bottom, drive up a ramp, and also go under an overpass as well. We paid for a 15 minute run and were off. I wasn't quite comfortable with using both feet for pedals which is probably why Dave lapped me once. He had the fastest lap time of 25 seconds. Mine was 27.



After the go-karts we stopped at the Sylvia Park where we were going to see a movie on Saturday morning. Dave's friend had told him about a theater where you sit in bean bags. The cinema was in a shopping center, so we walked around for a little bit in the shops. I saw lots of fun stores that I would some day like to get back to and do some shopping (maybe when my mom comes out). We then headed into the city center to check into our hotel and then head out for the night.
Here is a picture of another shirt I made by hand. It took about 3 days. This one didn't take as long since I didn't have all those strips to sew together for the straps. But the bubble hem was a little complicated since I had to use elastic and have a liner in the shirt. This time I sewed in the invisible zipper correctly, so that was a good thing. All in all I think it turned out pretty well.

Online I purchased the "Big Night Out" package. The package included: 2 drink vouchers, dinner at the Fortuna Buffet Restaurant or a Chinese restaurant called Ming Court, a voucher to go up the Sky Tower, and a $15 gaming voucher at the casino. I purchase one for each of us. That night I had made reservations at the Fortuna Buffet Restaurant. Pretty much the first all-you-can-eat restaurant I've heard of in New Zealand. It was incredibly yummy. It had such a variety of foods. Pasta, meat, seafood, salads, a really tasty seafood/vegetable soup, hot chocolate, coffee, tea, and desserts. I think we each went up about 3 three times and also had dessert. The berry cheesecake was the best. After eating we went up the Sky Tower.


Looking through the glass floor at the top of the Sky Tower.

Dave leaning against the glass. We were allowed to.

We each used one of our drink vouchers at the Sky Tower Lounge. When we got to the lounge and showed the worker our vouchers, he pointed out that they were only good for drinks worth up to $6.50 which was explained in some tiny writing on the bottom. I was hoping for a mixed drink and asked for something on their cocktail list. I think it cost around $12, but the man was nice and gave it to me for free with my voucher. It was really yummy.
We headed to the casino and converted our $15 gaming vouchers for cash. First we played the 2cent slots and then headed to the bar. We used our second drink vouchers at the bar in the casino and sat down to watch a game of tennis for a while. The Australian cup is going on right now. Federer and Djokovic were playing. We took seats by the 1cent slots by the tv and played those for a while. We only used about $20 total on the slots and then walked back to the hotel.


The beanbag theater was really cool. There were 16 beanbags total. A beanbag can hold the combination of either: 2 Adults, 3 Kids, 1 Adult +2 Kids. One beanbag costs $30. The whole theater was really cool. It was huge. It had 10 regular screens, plus the Director's Lounge, Cinemaxx, and La Premiere theaters. The Director's Lounge had big leather chairs that everyone sits in. Cinemaxx is the largest 35mm cinema with a screen size of 30.6 meters wide and 13 meters high. The La Premiere has a few rows of private booths in the back where couples can sit in a double leather recliner and order drinks and a meal. It's pretty much the coolest movie theater I've ever been to.


Once the movie was finished, we drove across to Coromandel. We had been there before and climbed around. This time we were hoping to go snorkeling in Gemstone Bay, but the water was too rough.


We hiked to Cathedral Cove to see how the water was there, but the waves were huge. We decided to just swim in the water.






If any of you have seen the trailer for the new Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian movie, this picture should look familiar. They filmed right here at Cathedral Cove.


Monday, January 21, 2008

Give Me A P

This last Sunday Dave's coworkers held a so-called costume party. We were told that you had to come dressed up as something starting with a "P" in order to get free food and drinks. I went to the local costume store and rented a Xena Warrior Princess outfit. I know it doesn't technically start with "P", but it was in the book of "P" costumes. I had also considered Princess Jasmine from Aladdin. Dave went as a Punk. I found a cool Phantom of the Opera costume, but punk was a lot easier. I think Dave enjoys wearing the occasional mohawk. The party was at a park along the beach. I thought it a little silly to have a bunch of dressed up people along the beach. When we arrived, absolutely no one was dressed up. The organizer of the party had regular clothes on. When asked what she was, she said "Person." I was very disappointed. I walked straight back to the car and changed into jeans and a t-shirt. So much for that costume party.

Xena Warrior Princess


Punk Rocker

I'm so emo.

Anniversary

Dave and I have been married for 6 exciting months!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Overdue Update

Sorry to all you hopefully faithful readers of ours. Things have been busy lately, hence the lack of blogs. Dave and I worked a lot over the holidays picking up a couple extra shifts and working on the public holidays for pay and a half.

My friend Jill came to visit us last week. She was in New Zealand visiting a friend and stayed at our place for a couple days before heading up to Auckland and then Australia. Dave worked most of the time so we ended up going to shopping most of the time. We made it to the beach a couple times, climbed up the Mount and swam by the McLaren Falls. On Wednesday night, Jill and I had a girls night out while Dave went to Hamish's and played video games. The town was kind of dead. We found a bar that was having their weekly quiz, so we joined in with a couple of girls our age and helped them with the "American" questions.