Devonport

                Devonport is a small seaside village about a 10 minute ferry ride away on the North Shore. It may not seem like much of an accomplishment that I went there since it’s so close and is basically just a small day trip, but it is. Sam and I always meant to go there when we studied abroad here, but never got around to it for various reasons: classes, homework, hangovers…..whatever. 

                We woke up and it was pretty foggy out and I was a little upset because I didn’t want to go on a day when you couldn’t see anything. Luckily, it cleared up and turned into a perfect day.  We got there around 12 and decided to not get a map and just wing it. Devonport has a lot of small specialty shops, galleries, and cafes so the first thing we did was go to a cute little chocolate shop called Devonport Chocolates because Sam wanted to look for a birthday present for her mom. We then had lunch at Mecca and both got Mediterranean salads which was delicious. We may or may not also have had a glass of wine with lunch. Not the smartest thing to do before climbing Mount Victoria but I couldn’t resist.

              

             Mount Victoria itself is an old volcano which is now basically a big hill. The amazing thing about it is you can basically get a 360 degree view of Auckland and surrounding islands once you get to the top. We walked up it and definitely took our time with a few breathers here and there. At the top, we sat on a bench and took in the absolutely beautiful view! It was very serene. We walked around, taking in all the different views. 

Sam and I pretending to fall off Mount Victoria - not too realistic but we tried

          The walk back down was a lot easier. We then walked around the town and popped into little shops here and there like second hand book stores and jewelry stores. We walked along the beach and put our feet in the water. There were one or two people actually swimming in the ocean, but it is definitely still too cold for me! My favorite part of the day was when we sat on a swing set near the ferry and just sat and swung looking out at the water. It was just a very simple, laidback day. It only took us two years to finally get there, but Devonport was definitely worth the wait.

Santa's Parade

                On Sunday, Farmers (a store here) held a Santa’s Parade. It’s similar to the Macy’s Christmas Day Parade basically. Queen Street was closed down from 12-4 and Sam and I got up early to get good spots. Unfortunately, the parade itself didn’t start until 2 which we did not know and we got a little bored just sitting and waiting there. Not to mention sunburned so we ended up going into a pub called Father Ted’s for a cider. Then finally the parade started. By this time all the good spots had been taken, but an old man let me cut him because he said I was short anyway – sometimes being short has its perks. We watched the parade for a good half hour and there were some cute floats. It’s definitely still funny seeing/celebrating Christmas in the middle of summer, like watching a snow man float come down the street in 80 degree weather, but hey, I’m not complaining. Now pictures from the parade. Enjoy:

“Daddy, I’m So Sorry, I’m So So-So-Sorry Yeah. We Just Like to Party, Like to Pa-Pa-Party Yeah.”

          I have taken my post title from Lady Ga-Ga’s song “Beautiful Dirty Rich” as it basically sums up my philosophy on life. Unfortunately, I’ve got bills to pay now so I can’t party all the time and I had to get a job – two jobs in fact! Sam and I applied to be bartenders at a few places. We got a call back from Fox’s Ale House for more of a waitressing position with potential to turn into bartending. It is a really nice, chill place and the people are really friendly. We can take shots on the job if a table buys one for us and we get a free staff drink at the end of every shift – so obviously, it’s my dream job. It is a sports bar though and they play rugby games that are on at crazy hours like 6am so the shifts are long and can go pretty late into the morning. I also don’t understand the way they serve people here! Basically every waitress just helps out and no one has their own set table so I might get the drinks for one table and someone else gets their food order and another person gets them their bill. It is just weird for me and I have yet to have someone pay the bill from me. I mainly walk around aimlessly and try to avoid making eye contact with customers so they think I’m busier than I am…

                The other job is actual bartending at a place called Provedor. While we were here last time, we had a function there, Jungle Night, organized by Huia. Everyone basically said it was sketchy and called it Provide-A-Whore so as you can tell it’s a pretty classy establishment. It was kind of a funny story of how we got this job. Sam and I went out for nachos with this girl Kasey who went to Loyola and moved out here a year ago. She invited us to a happy hour with a few of her friends. One of her friends knew this guy Ben who basically manages a lot of the bars on the Viaduct. He stopped by during drinks and invited us out that night. We ended going to almost every bar he owns including Minus 5, an ice bar, for free. He set us up with a trial shift at Provedor. It’s nice how small New Zealand is where everyone knows everyone and is willing to help you out. For the job itself, it is kind of fun being on the other side of the bar for a change. I feel like I’m on a little bit of a power trip. But since it’s a lot of backpackers, everyone has accents and I can never understand them. Someone ordered a beer called Sol and I brought them Salt……I still have no idea how to make any drink that isn’t a vodka tonic or rum and coke, or something along those lines where the name basically tells you how to make it. I like that it isn’t waitressing, but I am going to have to choose one job full time. So now the question is, which one do I choose? I mean if I could, I’d actually choose to not get a job and just spend my time on a beach and travelling, so donations are welcome. Please make any checks out to cash. Thank you.

Thanksgiving and Other Catastrophes

                This was the first year I did not celebrate Thanksgiving with my family and I was determined to still have the traditional dinner with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffed mushrooms, the works…It doesn’t help that my roommate is a vegetarian and even with my skill to house food, I don’t think I could have eaten an entire turkey by myself. So Sam settled on a veggie patty for her main course and I decided to cook pheasant (side note: I have never cooked nor eaten pheasant). We made a Facebook event entitled “Loneliest Thanksgiving Everrr” to be obnoxious and only invited each other and even joked about playing “All By Myself” during dinner just to point out even more that it was only the two of us on Thanksgiving. Our friend Robin saw the Facebook group and must have taken pity on us because he invited us to a Thanksgiving dinner at PSV which is their student housing. Unfortunately, they were making chicken as the main meal, but I thought it would be nice to be around people for the holiday. Robin said to come to dinner on Thursday at 6 and the only requirement was that we bring something, and Sam had a recipe for sweet potato muffins that we decided we would make and everything was set – we had Thanksgiving plans!

                During this time, Sam was also taking a new pain medication for her jaw that was making her nauseous. She had to leave work early on Wednesday night and then was still very sick the next day. So I spent the day running around by myself buying all the ingredients for the sweet potato muffins. The supermarket didn’t have canned sweet potatoes so we had to buy actual sweet potatoes and a potato masher – already this was turning into more work than I’m accustomed to. Poor Sam was very nice to still agree to make the muffins and go to the dinner even though she was sick because she knew how much I was looking forward to it. So the two of us started to bake in our extremely small kitchen, and when we were finished it looked like a bomb exploded inside a sweet potato – everything was orange! We decided to leave the dishes for another day, a day in the very distant future. We got dressed up in cute dresses, stacked the muffins on plates for presentation and headed out the door. We were running late as always so we decided to take a cab there. I was not about to miss all that food! I had purposely not eaten all day so I could have a huge dinner (except for maybe a little tiny bit of the muffin batter…okay a lot of the muffin batter). 

                We had only been to PSV once before so Robin gave us directions. We got a little lost but finally found it. I was expecting the dinner to be outside in the courtyard but there was nothing there so we thought maybe he was just having it inside in his apartment. When we got to the door, Robin and his roommate Jed were in the kitchen cooking but they did not look happy to see us. Apparently, Robin had written back on Facebook saying the dinner was actually tomorrow night…on Friday. Needless to say, we did not get that message. Awkwaarrddd. They told us to stay and they would cook dinner for us since they were already cooking. I wasn’t about to turn down a home-made meal and I was starving so we decided to stay. It was a little awkward at first cause they were in the kitchen cooking as Sam and I played card games at the kitchen table, but then it was nice just to sit down to dinner with people and talk about new things (even if we did technically force them into it.) 

                And that was our Thanksgiving dinner! It wasn’t the traditional turkey dinner I had planned; instead it was chicken stir-fry fajitas…with a side of sweet potato muffins. But even though it wasn’t the dinner I had been planning, I was thankful that Sam and I were able to be around people for the holiday and that we were able to come back to New Zealand and have these new experiences. Obviously I missed my family and skyping with them the next day as they celebrated Thanksgiving was amazing and definitely brought a few tears.

Taste of Auckland

               On Sunday, Sam and I went to a food festival called “Taste of Auckland” in Victoria Park. The festival showcased some of the best food and wine Auckland has to offer, so in other words, I was in heaven. The weather was really nice and you could hear the live music even from the outside. Once we walked in, it was a bit overwhelming because there were tents all over the place and we weren’t sure where to start. At first we just walked around sampling mostly cheese, and bread with olive oil. For some reason, I was in such a cheese mood and can honestly say I had every type of cheese from every stand there (and even ending up buying 8 dollars worth of the best cheddar cheese I have ever had!). I have a skillful gift of being able to get the biggest cheese cube on the chopping block, usually stuck to some smaller ones as well so I end up getting about 4 free samples of cheese in one shot. It’s an acquired skill that took years of practice so don’t be jealous if you haven’t gotten it down yet. 

                Finally, we moved on to some wine and I went for Sauvignon Blanc, which was my first time having white wine since the first day we arrived here. It was very good though so I think I am no longer scarred for life, but I didn’t get the name of it unfortunately. Besides the little tents that featured local brands, there were also main tents which had the restaurants in it. Each restaurant selected three of their best dishes and served sample sizes of it for a lower price. When I arrived, I got a pamphlet describing all the dishes and I stood at a long table circling the ones I wanted and crossing out all the ones I didn’t want, trying to narrow it down to three dishes. I pretty much ended up circling the entire pamphlet and had to go back and cross out a lot – this took me quite a while and I was very wrapped up in the process so much so that the man next to me asked if I was a food critic. Sadly, no I am just obsessed with food. But here is what I finally ended up going with:

                The third runner up was: dine by Peter Gordon where I got pan-seared sea scallops with pickled leeks, Clevedon buffalo mozzarella, chorizo caramel and Heilala vanilla dressing. It was very good, but I must say Daddy’s scallops are better. 

                Second runner up: Soto where Sam and I split some Prawn Filo Tempura with Japanese style Worcestershire sauce, tartar sauce, and wasabi caviar. It was delicious and very uniquely done. The shrimp was on a giant stick similar to a corn dog and very fun/messy to eat. 

                

             First runner up: Euro where I had Simon Gault Alaskan King crab and prawn in jalapeno crème fraiche sauce topped with tuna wafer. This was probably the heaviest dish I had all day because the sauce was very thick, but it was delicious! I didn’t even know what tuna wafer was when I ordered it, but it looked like it was still alive because it was moving (I’m assuming it was because of the wind, but either way I still ate it.)  And there's no picture for this one because I inhaled it before I remembered to take one.

                And finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, the winner: Clooney where I had King Cole Duck Breast, pickled apple, maple & mustard. Yes, that’s right. I’ve finally completed a life-long dream of mine and had duck, and it was amazing! Tastes a bit like chicken. 

                While walking around, we saw this giant painting and a girl was working on the clouds in it. When we got closer, a guy came up and informed us that it was a paint by number version of the Goethe in der romischen Campagna by Johann H W Tischbein. They were promoting the exhibition of European Masters from the Stadel Museum which is now currently being shown in a New Zealand Museum for the next few months. The painting was basically completely finished, but I think he felt bad for us and asked us if we wanted to add to it. So Sam and I got to add a “second coat” to two small areas on the bottom of the painting. It was actually really cool just to add to it a little, knowing we painted that part. 

                Shockingly, I didn’t really have any desserts there, though Sam went back to the same cupcake stand three different times. I think they started to hide the free samples every time she starting coming near. After about four hours and 50 dollars later (eek), the festival was coming to an end. It was nice to be out for the day and somewhere new. I hadn’t even been to Victoria Park last time (that I know of…).