TIME (and Wi-Fi) HAS ITS LIMITS....

MONDAY, MARCH 14, 2011 - ONEROA LIBRARY - No blog today--will have to wait until tomorrow...the library gives you 100MB of free wi fi and I used mine up skyping with my dear friend, Sue Bailey!   We had a great chat and I had no idea I was using up ALL my wi-fi time but it was worth it and that's okay--I get 100MB again tomorrow so will walk back here and download all the great pictures, etc., I have in store for you--so stay tuned--and as Geoff likes to say "all will be revealed!"   :)   By the way, I am on the library PC writing this and my pictures are all stored on my laptop so I can't download them onto this...besides...I only get 30 minutes on this PC and it is very, very slowwww...Sue & Geoff, too  xo

IT’S ‘FALL’ IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE!

MONDAY, MARCH 7 – ONEROA LIBRARY, WAIHEKE iSLAND – Well, it IS Autumn here—apparently the southern hemisphere looks at the dates a little differently than we do in the northern hemisphere and it’s officially Fall or Autumn.    I don’t think we will see any leaves change color but we have noticed that the daylight is ending earlier and earlier!  I did notice that is was cooler this morning but right now it is blue skies, a few white clouds and 80 degrees!!!

If you have ever heard a cicada you will appreciate this…they are noisy little buggers (although they don’t bite and they look like grasshoppers)—so the other day I got up and was sitting in the living room and a cicada had somehow gotten into the free standing metal fireplace and was making it’s noise and it was deafening—I thought, OMG what are we going to do to get rid of that awful noise?    But before long the cicada either found a way out or perished because the noise stopped.   If you have never heard cicadas—you are lucky!

That’s the day we decided to go vineyard hopping. 

We had a beautiful blue sky, white clouded day for it, too!  I snapped this flower picture by the bus stop while we waited: 

We get off the bus near 4 vineyards and are walking near a golf course and these flowers looked fake to us (but they are really real!): 

One of our first views of Saratoga Vineyard:  

 

We had a wine tasting along with a lovely fish taco lunch and bought a couple bottles of their wine (very nice!): 

They even let us try some of the grapes they just picked to make into wine..."wait Geoff, let me get a picture before we eat them all": 

Some photos taken at that great family run vineyard:  

Then on our walk up to Stonyridge Vineyard for more wine tasting, the clouds were spectacular:  

Geoff and his “lady”: 

Just enjoying a sip: 

A view from the deck where we sat:   

 

Then on to “Wild on Waiheke” Brewery and Topknot Vineyard for more wine/beer tasting and some great eats:   

The coolest thing was:

We met Mara, Maria and Nedi--3 young women from California who were in Christchurch when the earthquake happened—they were out at a wine tasting when it struck and they had to go to Hagley Park rather than return to The Grand Chancellor Hotel where they were staying—essentially losing all their belongings, including passports and cash.   A friend in Auckland has a cousin in Christchurch who he texted and had the cousin go pick them up and take care of them until they got a flight to Auckland.    They said the generosity and kindness of the New Zealanders was amazing and when I asked them if they needed anything, they assured me that they were fine and were not in need.   They were, in fact, out vineyard hopping for the day (like us) and they had befriended a couple, Jaime & Sandra (from Peru & Chile) and so we chatted with them as we all finished our wine and caught a bus back to Ostend (for us to do some shopping) and they all were going back on the ferry to Auckland.  They wanted a picture taken with us so Geoff obliged with my camera (from L to R, Sandra, Nedi, Jaime, me, Maria and Mara): 

Geoff and I truly hope that they enjoyed the rest of their visit in New Zealand (and maybe they will read my crazy blog and see their picture!)!!!  J 

I loved the artwork at Wild on Waiheke—made with local shells—one example: 

Saturday night found us going back to our favorite local pizzeria (Stefanos) and having our usual garlic prawn pizza with a few bottles of wine—followed by wonderful 60s and 70s music by Grant Bridges and the Red Fish Herring guitar/singers—it was all wonderful fun—including the dancing with Geoff!   I think I had too much wine because I sure was grateful that we only had to walk a block back to the cottage and collapse onto the bed!

We watched “The Girl Who Played with Fire” last night—it was great and follows the book well—looking forward to seeing the 3^rd movie of the trilogy when we can!

That’s it from Waiheke for this week—will see what next week brings:

Here is Geoff and I sitting on a bench by the local beach the other night—we were looking at the pretty lights across the water:  

Love, Sue & Geoff xo 

WE ARE BECOMING "LOCALS"...

Monday, February 28, 2011 – Surfdale – It’s hard to believe that it is March tomorrow!!!!  Only 28 days left here so we are going to make the most of them before heading back to the good ole USA and UK!

We had a very emotional week watching the news about Christchurch and seeing pictures of so many places in the suburbs that we had stayed in or visited only 2 weeks prior.   Sometimes the pictures have been hard to look at without getting teary eyed.   The stories of survival, rescues and sadly of those dying have touched us forever.  We did not feel the earthquake or have any larger waves as a result of the Christchurch earthquakes and aftershocks.  Geoff and I both posted that we were okay on our Facebook pages since many family & friends do not know that we are 500 miles north of Christchurch and we had many inquires about out safety. 

The sadness finally got to me so we went out for the day on Thursday to take our minds off it all and go beachcombing on this island.   We took the bus to Onetangi and the beach there is normally quite different then we found it…after Cyclone Wilma left tons of horse mussel shells in piles as deep as 18 feet high, the beach was a mess.   They crushed and buried the shells recently only to have the aftermath of Cyclone Yashi stir up and deliver more horse mussel shells…not so many this time but very interesting to walk on and they are large & quite crunchy sounding!  

The day started off warm but overcast then the clouds burned off and the blue sky and sun shined through: 

We saw our first NZ “sea snake”: 

Then another bus ride to “Palm Beach”—smaller in size than Onetangi Beach but no horse mussel shells here—more people enjoying the sun and surf:  

Geoff says there is a “nude beach” just up,over & around these rocks but it wasn’t worth it for me to climb them!J 

Then we rode the bus into Oneroa and ended up at the “Sand Bar” enjoying a cold one and the views of the beach & bay from there! 

It was a lovely day on Waiheke Island!: 

We spent the rest of the week just walking our local beaches and then went to Stefanos for pizza, wine and “Mojo Risers” music Saturday night—we didn’t wander the home until nearly 1 AM—it was a fun night out.

Sunday we walked around Surfdale and Blackpool beaches up into Oneroa and stopped at “Ricky’s” to listen to the live music—The Gary Harvey duo—and they were quite good.   An added bonus was one of the lead musicians from Mojo Risers was there and played harmonica with them for a bit…doesn’t get much better than sun, surf and good music all afternoon long! 

When we got back to our street—here’s what we saw: 

It's a small world note:  while I was watching the kite/wind surfers, a young man, named Evan, from Iowa walked by and we chatted--he had just arrived from North Carolina where he is stationed at Ft. Bragg in the Army (on 30 days leave) and wanted to know what to do on Waiheke--turns out he went to West Point for 2 years and would have graduated with Jon in May "but left after two years--it's a long story".   He didn't know Jon--there were only 1,200 or so cadets that year and he was in the 1st battalion but can you believe I met someone from Jon's WP class here on Waiheke?  Too wild!  Oh and I told him how wonderful NZ is & some things to do here on Waiheke! 

Love, Sue & Geoff, xo   Waihekians now (funny how we are recognized locally already and we recognize the locals in town)!     

YES…sure IS “Paradise” to me!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011 – Oneroa  Public Library -  It’s hard to believe that we have been here on Waiheke Island for two weeks now!   Time is flying by!  I didn't get to the Library yesterday because it was drizzling all day long.   Today is blue skies and a walk along Surfdale and Blackpool Beaches to get here!

So we had a great Valentine’s Day as I outlined last Monday.   Our V-Day pic before we walked into Oneroa: 

Little Oneroa Beach was so pretty (I came back one day this week while Geoff napped and found some pretty shells):   

Geoff made me a yummy pork stir fry served up with a cute card, chocolate and Oyster Bay Pinot Noir:

I did the dessert (with a little help from Betty Crocker)—chocolate caramel muffins with Hokey Pokey (think “Pralines & Cream” @ Baskin & Robbins) ice cream served on caramel sauce (tasted pretty darn good, too!): 

So we had a nice week just hanging around the area—I’m walking the beach each day and Geoff is getting back into a jogging schedule.

We picked Friday to see the “Headland Sculpture on the Gulf Waiheke Island”—it was along a 2.5 km coastal walk and it ended yesterday (was from January 28-February 20).     It started down by the Matiatia Ferry Terminal—this is looking up from there—the path is along where the small white flags can be seen: 

The artwork ranged from interesting to clever to quizzical to downright weird!   The prices for the “sculptures” were from NZ$150 for a signed umbrella (part of an exhibit where you could borrow the umbrella to walk the trek) to NZ$170,000 for a tall stainless steel thing.  We enjoyed it all and the views along the coastal walk were breathtaking because it was a sunny,  blue sky/white cloud kind of day! 

Geoff and I got into the “artsy spirit” and shed out clothes, sat on some paint and displayed for the “Barebottomland”:

Some of my favorites, aside from “Barebottomland” were: 

“Carpet” made of woven corrugated and colored strips of iron: 

“Lookout / Pacific Radiolaria” (made from stainless steel, hand finished and  electropolished:

SOS made of 37 life buoys, rope, chains and anchors (untitled) : 

And honorable mention goes to the two cutest gnomes (one stainless steel & the other—you decide!):

And, for my dear Larisa, I had a really good, super-venti  cuppa coffee (worth NZ$8,500)—by the way—that is Auckland in the distance behind me and the coffee!:  

After several hours of enjoying the artworks  (there were 39 displays) and the views, we walked another 2 kms to Cable Bay Vineyard for lunch and some wine tasting/buying:  

 

We walked back to Oneroa (another km or so) after buying some great wine there—did a few errands and caught the bus to Surfdale to hit Guinness Happy Hour at Malone’s Irish Pub—I “pulled” my first beer ever—think I might get a job here!:   

We walked a block to Stefano’s Restaurant and had the best garlic prawn pizza and bottle of Montepulciano wine:  

     

They both (wine & pizza) were so good that we booked a table for next Saturday night when the “Fringe Festival” is on and there is a group scheduled to sing that Geoff heard last year when he was here.   Should be fun.

We managed to get home (Stefano’s is about a block away from where we stay) and Geoff watched a Cuban group music video while I fell asleep in my chair!   It was quite a day!

Saturday we went to the Ostend Market and then did our weekly grocery shopping and a bus ride back to Surfdale for a cup of coffee at “In Thyme” that is next to Malone’s.   The coffee was great and we chatted with a local couple about places to eat and go to.   Home and dinner (I bbq’d steak along with bbq’d marinated zucchini slices--for the first time—had them in Florida—to die for!), then we watched “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” video (I saw it before but Geoff had not yet  and we want to watch the next one out).   We both enjoyed it.

Sunday—sunny and warm so washed and hung out sheets and bbq’d burgers before going to Malone’s for the Sunday night jam session—fabulous music!

This week we plan to go to another winery and check it out.   “Life is Good”—if you don’t believe me…just check out the t-shirt I wore on Friday’s art walk!   J  

  Love, Sue & Geoff xo 
P.S.  We just heard about the latest devastating earthquake in Christchurch and our hearts and prayers go to everyone affected there--hard to believe we were just there a little over 2 weeks ago viewing the damage from the last earthquakes--very sad and heartbreaking news!