It was Michelle’s birthday this past weekend and she wanted to head to Waihiki to do some wine tasting. This is a far cry from last year’s paint balling escapades! We got a good group of friends –tim, craig, Sheridan and megan and hit the island in the early afternoon. We hoped for sunshine, but were given rain. This didn’t dampen the trip. You don’t get wet in the wine cellars! Upon arrival we hit a local restaurant for our first drink. We thought a couple more people may catch the later ferry, so we would wait there for an hour. Soon enough we had a text saying they weren’t coming. Our waitress then order us a round of fish and chips… yes that is right she ordered for us. Friendly is an understatement when it came to our waitress. She told us the specials and then proceeded to tell us a round of fish and chips were in order… all while walking away. Awesome. After a mean feed, we were trying to figure out how we were going to get to the winery and asked the over helpful waitress to call a taxi. Of course she had her own plan, which was to grab a customer who must be a local guide, who just happened to be getting the fish and chips at this time to drive us to the winery. It was meant to be! He told us his van was on the street, unlocked and to go jump in. He will scarf his meal and be there in a second. Max, our new guide was awesome. He had heaps of interesting and quirky facts – that were most likely not facts, but his opinion, which really made the tour.
We asked him which wineries we should hit and he was quick to drop us at Jurassic Ridge. The back story was that the owner used to be a geologist, turned neurologist, who is now a wine maker – wicked! What I really loved is that the owner does everything; from the fencing to the marketing to the tastings we were doing. He was so friendly and really took the time to answer all of our questions, without making me feel like an idoit, as I don’t know much about wine. For $10 we tasted 7-8 wines and they were all great. Everyone ended up buying a bottle from him. I would totally recommend visiting if you head over for a wine tour.
Our next stop was Mudd Brick, which was nice but I didn’t quite enjoy as much as Jurassic Ridge. I felt more at home and more open to asking questions at Jurassic Ridge then at Mudd Brick. Like wine, it’s all subjective, but I would definitely recommend both if you are keen for a tour. Both offered amazing wine.
By now there were no more winery tours as it was getting on in the day, so we headed back to the ferry and on to Auckland. Once back in Aucks we hit up Fort Street Union for some beers and food.
I have to say Michelle knows how to have a bday weekend. Great events, great people and great times. Well done Michelle, I’m looking forward to next year’s bday celebrations…how will you top yourself?
On Saturday, after returning from Queenstown Michelle and I hit up the Black Keys concert. This was my first time seeing the duo and damn did they rock the house. They played for roughly and hour and half and ripped through an amazing set! The vector arena was sold out and the place was going crazy. As soon as they came on everyone was dancing and bouncing around. The highlight had to be when they ended with Lonely Boy, everyone was going nuts!
If you have the chance see them live.. it will set you on fire!
I guess I got lazy and bored and took a break from this blog. What have i been up too…
My flat got broken into and i had all of my shit stolen – computers, external drives, clothing, michelle’s stuff, bike stuff… pretty much all i own gone. Had to fight tooth and nail with insurance company to get them to honour our policy.. took 3-4 months but they finally did. But lost all my photos and music from all of my travels/life. Bugger eh!
Moved into Michelle’s parents place – now live on their living room floor.
went back to canada to be at my brothers wedding… amazing time!
visited Alberta and BC, visiting with winter resorts in hope to have them come to NZ to hirer Kiwis
Fractured my forearm mountain biking.. its pretty much healed
almost bought a house in Auckland
that’s all i can remember.. i now realize that having a blog is such a great way to keep track of life’s events.
Last weekend I hit up a new couple new rides on the North Shore of Auckland. The first ride was at Sanders Reserve. I guess the council ended up spending $1.5 million into the development of these trials and to be honest it was a total waste. They never consulted a trail builder so there is absolute no flow to the trail. Im not really going to go on about these trails, since there really isn’t much to be said other than; don’t waste your time here.
My second ride on the North Shore was on the trails at Royal Albany. They are located at the back of the Massey Campus. Unlike Sanders Reserve, these trails deserve a visit. From what I have been told a maintenance guy who works or worked at Massey University is a mountain biker and has been plugging away for 5 years. At the moment there is roughly 14km of trails to be had. It is a one way continuous loop that winds through some native bush. You will find some tight, technical, rooty tracks that are a lot of fun to ride.
It’s always fun trying some new tracks and they cant all be good, but 1 out of 2 aint bad.
This past friday night I went to see Xavier Rudd at the Kings Arms in Auckland. This was the first time in 8 years he has been in New Zealand and he didnt disappoint. This guy is an amazing musician and showman. The Kings Arms is a small rock bar in Auckland and being able to see an artist like Xavier Rudd there is a pure treat. It was a very intimate show and he he played for roughly 2 hours and put his heart and soul into the show. I managed to be right up front for the entire show taking in the everything. Upfront everyone was into to it, dancing and carrying on. The man is amazing; whether he’s rocking the didg and playing the drums/guitar/singing he doesnt skip a beat. Thanks Xavier Rudd for the great show and I hope it is not another 8 years before you retrn back to New Zealand.
A interesting fact is that he spends his time between Australia and Northern Ontario… Yah Northern Ontario representing! Ill have to invite him by the cottage when I return back to Canada.
It has been way to long since I have blogged. I guess I fell off of the blaggon (blog +waggon).. bad joke eh! I kind of felt I really didnt have much to write about, which is a lie i guess. The biggest thing that i has happened in the past couple months is that I have been issued New Zealand residency. It took some time and a lot of patience, but I finally got it. Over the past year I’ve had mutiple medical checks, visa applications, police background checks (all of the came out clean) and lots of money lost or invested depending on how you see it, but in the end I am working towards becoming a New Zealand resident. I have to spend six months of each year for the next two years residing in New Zealand and then I can come and go from this beautiful country as I please. So if I want to return back to Canada to work and live I can without worrying about how to get another work visa for New Zealand. I feel lucky to have the ability to live and work in either Canada or New Zealand… two amazing countries.
So what is in the cards for the next couple of months… trips to rotorua, savings for a flight back to Canada for my bro’s wedding, a few work side projects and some beers eheh of course!
In Auckland during the summer they have Movies in the Park. It’s when they take a huge inflatable screen and hit up your local park and put on some of the past years best movies. This past Friday it was a beauty evening so we hit it up for our inaugural viewing. They recommend showing up early to find a spot as it packs out rather quickly. Of course we didn’t do that, we just rocked up and met with some mates who had a spot already and squeezed in. Since we rolled in just before it begun we missed the band, yup they have bands too! Cool eh! Everyone brought blankets, drinks (lots of alcoholic!!), food and some even brought their couches. It was similar feel to the classic drive in theater (which they dont really do here). It was a great night out with friends – a definite must do if in Auckland during the summer months.
So Michelle and I have been using our stand up paddleboards (SUP) in our spare time and love it. We manage to get out on the weekends and in the evenings. I’m loving riding my bike in the morning and then paddling around in the avro. It’s a bit more balanced lifestyle, compared to just being on the bike all the time.
We purchased these inflatable paddle boards (Red Paddle Co.), which I know sounds suspect but are really good. Michelle researched them online, but I was very skeptical until I saw one when we were down in Raglan. To be honest if you saw them blown up you wouldn’t realize they were inflatable. They are made of heavy PVC and are incredibly strong. It only takes 5-8mins to blow up. We purchased both a 10ft and 11 ft board.
They are perfect for us! You can rip around a shoreline and surf them in small swells.. pretty sick! They come in a bag you can wear as a back pack and with a pump. The size of them is perfect for a city dweller – you can pack them into the bag and store them in a closet. I don’t have to worry strapping them down on the car when we head out, or theft from the top of my car if I want to do a shop after paddling. The paddle is adjustable so friends can give it a go without having to buy a paddle to fit them.
I would highly recommend these to anyone! We love them and you would too! It’s gotten us out to new bays and beaches around Auckland. When pumping them up I get an odd look from most passer by, but once we hit the water with them people are mostly impressed. It’s a great product… go get one and enjoy the sun, sand and surf.
Had a bit of a sleep in with the help a bit of booze from New Years Eve! We then had a proper big breakfast to soak up the booze from the night prior. The weather really hadn’t gotten any better, it was grey and off and on with some showers, so we chilled for a bit.
After lounging around the batch for a while we decided to go for a paddle. The rain had stopped so we hopped in the car and were in search for a suitable bay with calm water to go paddle boarding. We are not at the level of surfing these boards in good swells… one day, but not now! Three bays later we found a suitable place to take the boards out. The sun was peaking through the clouds and we stayed at the beach swimming and paddling for a couple of hours. I’m really digging the paddle boards! It is pretty chill and calming being on the water.
We then headed back to the batch to have a bit of lunch after working up a hunger on the boards. We all picthed in and made viatnamese summer rolls with prawns.. fan fu*k’n tastic. Full bellied it was chill out time. I wanted to take the bike out, as earlier in the week I had researched some mountain bike tracks close to town.
I packed the bike into the car and went in search of the Waiheke bike tracks. Unlike me, I didn’t get lost and managed to find the tracks right way – I guess that is what happens when it is a small island. I was definitely impressed with the tracks they had in Waiheke and wouldn’t mind hitting them up again. They weren’t overly long, but you could tell work had gone into them! The trails were all single track winding through native bush – brilliant! It rained on me, making the ride even more fun, slippery and messy! I came home covered in mud, which is a good sign for a ride!
That night it was another mean feed and some causal beers! We watched a couple movies and crashed. Another great day in Waiheke! Oh how I would like to live here.
With all of the windows in the batch it was up early with the birds! It was howling outside with wind and the rain as it still hadn’t relented. Since we are on a vacation it was a big breakfast and chill morning of reading and coffee. It was New Years Eve day and we did have a few things that we needed to do. Most important; restock the beer we drank the night prior. Something about being at a batch in the bush that just makes me thirsty. We pretty much polished off a 2-4 the night. Cant have a beer shortage on New Years Eve.
Some of the fallen soldiers from the night before... better restock!
We headed into town to get some beers and other small items to snack on. We stopped at 3 different liquor stores, as the first two were pretty overpriced and in the end we came away with two packs of 15 Macs Golden and a 12 of Steinlager Pure. Now we also brought from home a bottle of 42 Below, plus some Rum. We were ready to celebrate – no chance of running out of booze!
There was a Saturday fair on so we stopped to wander through and see what treasures we could find. There really wasn’t much, some used clothing, hippies selling art work/handmade bracelets, taro card readers and a couple food stalls – we came away with some fresh bread!
Michelle showcasing her fine bevy!
The rain had finally slowed and the sky was a lighter shade of grey.. yahoo it may just turn into a nice day! It was nice having the car with us as it allowed us to tour a bit of the island checking out the batches nestled in the hills and a long the beaches. My mate was taking the ferry over early avro to spend the night at the batch for New Years, so we picked him up and headed back to the batch fully stocked and ready to bring in 2012. As soon as we got back to the batch it was into the beers on the deck. The sun decided to make an apperance so it was time for chilling, talking shit and just enjoying being out of the city!
Enjoying the deck and sunshine when it came out to play.
We made a snakced throughout the avro and evening with chicken wings, burgers, chips, roasted veggies and the fresh bead we purchased dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar… pretty posh eh! My mate brought some Franks Hot Sauce for the wings he got in the States… so damn good! You cant get Franks in NZ, so if you are heading this way please bring me some.
Enjoying some amazing wings!
Of course we had lots to drink – beers, shots, whiskey, vodka and lime, daquiris and some rum. Bit boozed fueled. At midnight it was the usual celebrations, some drunk calls to my brother ahah… answer the phone dick. It was a great way to ring in the New Year. Happy 2012!!!!
