Posts tagged auckland new zealand
May 21, 2012 · Filed under AUCKLAND, MTB BIKE, NEW ZEALAND · Tagged auckland biking, auckland new zealand, auckland nz, bike auckland, bike blog, bike nz blog, bike tracks auckland, bike tracks new zealand, bike trails auckland., mountain bike auckland, mountain bike blog, mountain bike in auckland, mountain bike new zealand, nz blog, review of royal albany bike tracks, royal albany mountain bike trails review, travel blog
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.
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January 8, 2012 · Filed under MTB BIKE, NEW ZEALAND · Tagged auckland new zealand, bike blog, just giver, justgiver, mike, mike blog, mountain bike, mountain bike blog new zealand, mountain bike new zealand, mountain bike nz, mountain bike waiheke, mountain biking in new zealand, mtb waiheke, travel blog, waiheke mountain bike clubs, waiheke new zealand
While I was over in Waiheke I managed to get out to some of the there local bike trails and I must say they didn’t disappoint! Weather was pretty average, so the trails were sticky getting to the point of muddy by the end of the ride. They are located Onetangi Sports Club and the trails are marked very well so you cant miss them.
I would classify all of the trails at Ranghoua Hill single track/cross-country. There are some enjoyable downs and switch backs, but no big jumps, drops or gaps. It is all pretty flowy stuff.
The first trail I rode was Ragihoua Loop track. This trail will take you to other trailheads or you can ride it as a loop. It is a short climb up and then it winds it way through native bush with a lot of fun turns to keep you on your toes. It isn’t overly long, but fun to loop out over and over. It also links to Zoom-Zoom and Nice & Easy. These tracks start at the top of the hill, which gives you a great view of some wineries and Waiheke.
I then hit up Zoom-Zoom, as I thought the name was promising and it didn’t disappoint. It was pretty much all down and a lot of fun to ride. There isn’t a lot of peddling involved, its pretty much winds you down the hill and has some nice off-camber spots. You can get some good speed going and if you are creative pop off of some of nature’s booters to make it even more enjoyable!
I pushed back up zoom-zoom so I could ride it again! I really didn’t want to ride all the way back around the family loop and up Rangihoua loop to get to the trail head. It took about 15 mins and I then decided I would only ride it a couple more times as I really wasn’t enjoying the pushes… since it was all down the push was all up. Argh! I may have been a bit out of shape since all I was doing the couple days prior was drinking and eating. Heheh.
After hussing Zoom-Zoom a couple of times I hit up Nice & Easy. The name is deceiving. I was thinking it would be a nana track, but I was wrong. This was a great trail too! It is a tight winding track that takes you through thick native bush. With the majority of the trail being covered by bush it was the wettest/muddiest of the trails after all of the rain we had. I really enjoyed this trail as it was just switch back after switch back. This track comes out to the mid point of the Rangihoua Loop, so you can either keep looping it, hit up Zoom-Zoom or jump on to the Rangihoura Loop and head back to the car park. I looped it a couple of times as well.
There were a couple linking tracks too. The Prairies takes you through a field and on too Chicken Run, which links you back to the start of the track. Both of the tracks are just linking trails and not much to go on about here.
Overall it is a fun place to ride your bike. I rode each track a couple times and then headed back to the batch muddy and happy! Kudos to the Waiheke Mountain Bike Club for creating and maintaining such great little trail network. I cant wait to come back and ride again!
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January 7, 2012 · Filed under AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND · Tagged auckland new zealand, batch in waiheke, just giver, mike just giver, new zealand things to do, swap.ca, things to do in auckland, things to do in waiheke, travel blog, travel new zealand, vacation in waiheke, waiheke bike tracks, waiheke new zealand, waiheke nz
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.
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December 13, 2011 · Filed under NEW ZEALAND · Tagged auckland new zealand, ciaro knife fight, concerts in auckland, foo fighters, foo fighters concert, foo fighters new zeawland, music blog, rock shows auckland, tenacious d new zealand, travel blog, travel new zealand, western springs concerts, western springs foo fighters
I took some pics, but they turned out to be shit so... i 'borrowed' this photo by: Ben Watson
Last night the Foo Fighters ROCKED New Zealand!! I’ve never seen them live, but have always heard amazing things. I’ve listened to them for ages, just never bothered forking out money for a show. I guess I was lazy getting on their live show bandwagon, but after last nights show I will be trying to get tickets to any Foo Fighters show that I can. The show was at Western Springs which is an outdoor race track in Auckland and held a rocking 50,000 ppl. It was arena rock at its best! The weather was rainy but it didn’t dampen the experience, if anything it made it better. 50,0000 wet fans dancing, screaming and rocking out to 17 years of Foo Fighter hits. I managed to get 2 rows from the stage – closest I have ever been and it was fuck’n amazing! The energy and atmosphere was great. There were no fights, just a ton of happy Foo fans partying the night away. They played all of their hits and did a 4 song encore which made a total of 2 hours and 45 mins of rock heaven! Not many bands put a show on like that. Tenacious D opened for them and did a hell of a job warming up the crowd and getting everyone amped for the Foo’s. Before Tenacous D, Canadian punk band Fucked Up played as well as Cairo Knife Fight = bad ass rock’n roll from a NZ band. I didn’t see either, but only heard they were amazing from other fans at the show. I didn’t even know Cairo Knife Fight were scheduled as I would have def gone early to see them – ah well next time! Dave Grohl has committed to come back to Auckland to play the Town Hall, which is a small venue for 2,500 ppl. He played it earlier in the year for a fundraiser for Christchurch. He did it completely free of charge, flew his band and roadies/gear over and raised $354,903 . Amazing. I will be getting tickets to that next show, regardless of the cost because they are that good!
Foo Fighters Concert Setlist
- All My Life
- Rope
- The Pretender
- My Hero
- Learn to Fly
- White Limo
- Arlandria
- Breakout
- Cold Day in the Sun
- Long Road to Ruin
- Stacked Actors
- Walk
- Monkey Wrench
- Let It Die
- These Days
- This is a Call
- In the Flesh (Pink Floyd cover)
- Best of You
Encore:
- Wheels
- Times Like These (Started acoustic, then full band)
- Generator Tie Your Mother (Queen cover) – Tenacious D came out in short-shorts with suspenders and rocked out with the Foos!
- Everlong
Wow, check this out – Foo Fighters created ‘volcanic tremor in Auckland’ – yup I was part of that!!
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August 8, 2011 · Filed under AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND · Tagged auckland blog, auckland city, auckland new zealand, auckland nz, auckland waterfront, aucklands new waterfront, canadian working in new zealand, canadians in auckland, live and work in new zealand, NEW ZEALAND, new zealand blog, review aucklands new waterfront, travel blog, waterfront auckland, work in new zealand, wynyard quater auckland
The newly renovated Auckland waterfront is looking great!
Auckland’s grimey waterfront has now had a major facelift just in time for the 2011 World Cup of Rugby! They built a new spring bridge to connect downtown Auckland to the Wynward Quater where all the cool new attractions can be found. The once industrial waterfront is now filled with tourist friendly restaurants, bars, cafes, art displays, kids play area, walkways and even a 1920′s red tram which loops the around the waterfront showing off all the new attractions. There is even a piano under a veranda that is free to use.
This past weekend over 50,000 people visited the newly $120 million renovated water front area and 4000 of them qued to ride the tram loop. It will be a huge pull during the World Cup and a great area to visit while in Auckland.
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May 29, 2010 · Filed under AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND · Tagged adventure, AUCKLAND, auckland blog, auckland new zealand, avenue q, avenue q review, backpacking, backpacking new zealand, bike new zealand, blog new zealand, canadian working in new zealand, canadians in auckland, canadians working abroad, entertainment auckland, new zealand blog, nz blog, outdoor adventure, sky city theatre, theatre auckland, theatre new zealand, wagamama
Friday night Michelle and I went to see Avenue Q at the Sky City Theatre in Auckland. I heard pretty good reviews about it and I wasn’t disappointed. Avenue Q is pretty much Muppets for adults. It’s about growing up and finding yourself in the world and does have some quite funny parts. I am not a musical guy at all, but I would definitely recommend checking it out. It is not pg rated as it can be racy at times, but that is what kept me interested hahaha.
Before the show I took Michelle out for dinner because she has been doing most of the work around the apt since my bike accident. Ive pretty much be laid-up. Ive been able to make it too work, but cant really stand or put too much pressure on my leg so she’s been making the dinners and cleaning up. I owe her big time so I took her to dinner at Wagamama, which is noodle house that she and her friend Julie rave about. I swear they took a trip to Boston just to eat there hehehe. Wagamama started back in the 90’s in the uk and has now expanded to over 90 locations all over the world. Unfortunately there are no locations in Canada, which is kind of surprising. Im sure it would be a hit if it were to open in Toronto or Vancouver, since they are such multicultural cities. If in Auckland or anywhere one is located go check it out! Great fresh food, reasonable pricing and good service!
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