Having booked a professional development (PD) workshop and then realising that it was going to be held in Auckland, My visit north was brought forward. So after booking the $30 (£18ish) flight and coach back, I persuaded Hannah's friends Louise and Giles to let me crash at theirs for a few days.
Met a lovely Israli on the flight up which made the 1hr flight fly by very quickly. As I arrived late Louise and I chatted for a bit then off to bed. On the Wednesday, as I had nothing to do I went to Rangitoto island which is a 30min ferry over to the islands off the shore of Auckland. As it was a late start I didnt see the full extent of the island but I got to the summit and down before the last ferry home. Rangitoto got rudely shuved out of the earth 600yrs ago in the crazy volcanic activity of the area. Welly shakes, Auckland spews lava but the difference is all the volcanoes around Auckland are claimed to be dormant - less exciting? - I will let you guys decide! Anyways...so the shore line looks like dug-up tarmac and the ecosystems are all a bit sckewed with plants that should grow on trees growing on the floor and alpine plants at sea level and Mangroves in arid soils - exciting stuff if you are a ecologist but also interesting and pretty for the average punter too :-) On the way back I met a German lady who was having a bit of home-sick/travelling overload so I said she would enjoy Welly and gave her the facebook invite.
Thursday I had a meeting at Magnet - the Youth section of Deaf Aotearoa which was great and a pretty successful meeting too - so fingers and toes crossed please everyone! In the evening was the workshop with SLIANZ (association of sign langugage interpreters) at the Marae (meeting house) at Kelston Deaf Edcuation centre. We had the pōwhiri ceremony (welcome into the Marae) in sign language then some kia (food which I helped prepare) then some Maori sign language tutoring. I have to admit I got about 70% of the language part - NZSL, Maori spoken and sign language all at once was fun as the sign for morning is like ASL (sunrising) but they used it frequently at one point where the word morning just was out of context - later I was told it was the sign for Gisbourne - a lot of place name confusion. Another time asking what a Maori word meant - nope it was also a place name - yay the fun of learning the Maori and NZSL for places across NZ.
Friday was a bit of a lazy day. Had to sought a lot of shipping crazy paperwork and other stuff. But went to the Domain to have a look round. I had actually visited all the green space in Auckland on my holiday last time! As I found out, the petrol is less refined here in NZ so even less good on the old lungs. So my desire to stroll the streets was also reduced. In the evening Louise and Giles go to regular board game evenings - new experience and concept for me - so they invited me along and was good fun staying up late playing a board game :-)
Saturday we got up late after a late night playing board games - yes yes I know Im such a dirty stop out and I should calm down a bit!!! Anyways - the weather didnt help persuade us to go for a walk but we eventually left and headed to the Waiatarua national park. We followed an old pipe line through the bush and the rain cleared enough to get some views of the coast though we did get a tad soaked. We drove instead to Piha and ate a sandwich with steamed views from the car of Lions Rock (which you can climb) and Nunns Rock (which Im sure you could too but with a bit more rope). As Genevieve was in town I met up with her for a hot choc on the way back which was good fun. She will also be joining us for some of our Christmas trip.
Sunday was spent reading a good chunk of my book and watching beautiful scenery on the coach home (12hrs). The only disappointment was that Mt Ruapehu was shrowded in cloud which was a shame. And now back in Welly is a good feeling. I am feeling a tad of the home-like feeling with coming back to Welly :-)
In a rating of whether Welly was the right choice to set up sticks compared to Auckland I am 100% sure I made the right choice! The trip was great but lets leave it as a place to visit :-) Next comparison is to Christchurch soon which I reckon will be more of a contender.
Note to self...dont go food shopping if you are in a bit of a grump (due to hunger) and have people pack your bags at the check-out - they got it all wrong and had to help them repack it! - Im so not used to people packing for me!
