An Allusion to Led Zeppelin and a Whole Lotta Love

Kia ora and congrats to all of the sweet graduates who snagged/will be snagging their diplomas this month!!!

I’ve been spending the past couple of weeks just exploring more places in and around Wellington, and I’m so glad I am (as is my bank account).

Heaven is a Place on Earth  

A couple of Saturdays ago, a group of friends and I hopped on the train to Paekakariki and made our way toward the start of the Stairway to Heaven-Paekakariki Escarpment Track! This is a track that we always see during drives north, but have never had the chance to do until now! It is a very exposed, steep track in the spectacular hills along the highway. It’s FULL of stairs, swing bridges and self-supplied good company! We ate many Fruit Burst candies (basically Now and Laters) and played a friendly game of Magic Moon along the way.    

After arriving in Pukerua Bay and completing the track around mid-afternoon, we bought ourselves some ice cream cones, took our various bagged lunches out of our backpacks, and ate a little picnic on the beach! A small photoshoot with a group of unusually noisy seagulls was nothing shy of necessary here.    

We also explored some tidepools after lunch and found these weird red things EVERYWHERE on the rocks. Nobody had any idea what they were so we proceeded to poke and call them “mushies.” They were so cool, but what they did was a mystery! Mairead, our designated researcher, looked up what the mushies were and discovered that they’re actually Red Sea Anemones whose tentacles were retracted in order to survive during low tide. This made them that much cooler.   

On the ride home from Pukerua Bay, we had the pleasure of sharing the train car with a load of people who were on their way to the Hurricanes game. I, after having so much fun at the last game I went to, looked at all of my friends and just asked “anyone wanna go to the rugby game tonight?” At this point, the game was starting in about two hours and we barely had time to go home before. Being such a fun gang, many said yes! So, we dropped our bags off in the Stafford building where a majority of the group lives, and dipped to Westpac Stadium! To our surprise, it was “Family Fun Night” at the stadium so they were giving out free flags and these very flattering cardboard helmets. We saw no other option than to wear these for the entirety of the game, so that we did. This is no exaggeration. Literally nobody took the dumb hats off until the game ended. The Hurricanes won and we had fun watching them do so!

Life’s a Feast, so Get Eating

According to my camera roll, all I did last week was eat?? Seems right.

Here’s a picture of my new favorite fruit—the feijoa! It is so pretty and very yummy. This is a popular New Zealand fruit with a short growing season, so I’ve been taking full advantage of them when I see them at the farmer’s market!  Their taste is often described as a blend of pineapple, guava, and strawberry! Ooooh yum!

Pam, Jorgen, and I made some really yummy cookies on Wednesday using a dark chocolate/caramel candy bar that Pam WON during the Tramping Club photo contest! These lasted less than 24 hours and I’m not mad about it.  

Thennnnn on Thursday, IFSA took my study abroad group to cooking class in Lyall Bay! We made kumara (sweet potato) fries, aioli, lamb burgers, and pavlova! Here is my group’s beautifully decorated and totally delicious pavlova (:

Things Got Auck-ward

To end our week, Juliet and I had some of our favorite Auckland Uni gals come visit for the weekend! We got to be tour guides for a few days, so we brought them to Fix and Fogg, our favorite breweries, and just gossiped the whole time! Such a fun weekend that we’ll never forget.

Now Juliet and I just want to go to Auckland to hang out more, soooo stay tuned gang!!!!

Thanks so much for reading! xo