Delicious lunch

Hi there,

Just wanted to make you jealous about the delicious lunch I had yesterday:

We had this on a terrace of a bar nearby where I live. It doesn't fell like Christmas is getting closes at all since the weather is getting better every day. Summer is definitely getting closer :-)

Have a good day

Going to the Huka falls and lake Taupo

A while back I went to the Huka falls and Lake Taupo with Joan, Eugénie and AD. It was a beautiful day and  we even got to swim in the lake. Herewith some pictures:

Eugénie and Joan in front of the Huka river.

The Huka river.

Eugénie, AD and me, by the Huka falls.

Lake Taupo. Can you see the snow covered mountain in the back? It was beautiful.

 The girls admiring the Lake. It got a bit cold/windy towards the end of the day. But it was quite hot when we got there and we got to swim in the lake.

It was great day and trip.

Just FYI, none of above pictures have been edited. All the colours you see are the natural colours, they are even more beautiful in real life.New Zealand really is a beautiful country!!!

I'm sorry I haven't been as active on this blog lately, and it's probably not going to get better since I started working full time recently so I won't have as much time as I used to, and I won't have as much to tell you guys either. I'll try to post stuff once in a while though, so keep posted if you are interested.

Byebye

going out Kiwi style

Who needs shoes when you're in NZ???

We went to eat delicious dumplings with a bunch of friends and you'll notice in below pictures that 2 of the guys aren't wearing any shoes :p That's nothing unusual in NZ :-)

  After the dumplings, we played risk. I remembered playing this with my brother's as a kid and because they were always forming alliances against me, I came to hate the game. It was my first time playing since then, and I actually enjoyed it quite a bit :-) I lasted until second to last, mainly cause all of the others were good friends and taking revenge on each other for past events :p

 Dan and Antz concentrating on their strategy to take over the world :D

All in all, it was a fun evening. 

Bye guys ;-)

Auckland museum

Hi all,

I had been wanting to go to the Auckland museum for a while already, and I finally did! We didn't get to see everything, but since it is free for Auckland inhabitants, I'll go back a second and probably a third time too :-)
For now, we could only cover about one third of the museum which was an expo of pictures shot in NZ and the main part about the Maori culture (both amazing). There is still a lot to cover though, which is why I really want to go back soon :-)
Herewith some pictures of very bad quality since they were taken with my phone:

A Maori traditional communal room (forgot how they are called):

 A Maori waka, which is what the Maori families arrived in, to NZ:

 The entrance of the Maori communal hall:

 View of Auckland from the museum: 

After visiting part of the museum, we decided to sunbathe in the Domain (the beautiful park around the museum).

 The Auckland museum:

 The Auckland museum from where we were sunbathing:

 A beautiful tree in the park!

That's it guys! Let's see if I find the courage to do another post, cause I'm running behind on telling you guys what I'm up to here in NZ. One thing is sure though, I am very much enjoying myself :D

North shore

Hi guys,

I have been very lazy when it comes to my blog lately... but I'm back :-)
Mid November, 2 friends from Belgium arrived to New Zealand. They are going to be travelling in New Zealand for about 5 months and are staying in Auckland until all the administrative things are done. They bought a car here, which they will use to travel around New Zealand and we, Liss, AD, the girls and me, have made use of it already by going to visit Dan, a friend, to the North Shore. The weather wasn't that great, but we had fun. Herewith some pictures:

 AD and Liss, looking for shelves and crabs :-)

 You can't see them, but Eugénie and Dan are on the top of that 

Liss, Dan and AD playing with the swing :-)

That was it for this post.

bye

More kiwi music

AD is preparing several TV ads for Kiwi bands that are soon to be on tour and thanks to that, I have discovered new bands. I just wanted to share this one song with you guys. The band is called Kora and this specific song is called "story ain't over".

I hope you guys enjoy their vocals just as much as I do :-)

Bye

Viaduct by night

I went for a walk by the viaduct by night about a week ago and just realised I haven't posted to very bad quality pictures I have taken that evening, so here goes:

Sorry for the bad quality of the pictures. It is very nice walking there in the evening. There are loads of restaurants and bars where you can sit by the water. 

See you guys.

Art in the dark

On the same day as Grant's going away BBQ, there was an even called "Art in the dark" organised in a park nearby base FM so a bunch of us went to check it out. It was a lot of fun.

A whole bunch of chimes hanging from a tree:

 Many of the trees were lit by coloured lights:

Grant playing with the light, it gave a nice effect:

Loads of connected origami balloons lit from the inside:

Milk bottles put together to create a big "screen". When connecting through your phone to a website, you can activate the lights within the bottles:

 Candles hanging from a tree with the sky tower in the back:

View of the sky tower from the park:

The lights projected on the squares kept on changing patterns:

some kind of video about the world projected on an air bowl:

choir singing O Fortuna in the park:

There were way more things to see and do than what I showed you here, but unfortunately, not everything was easy to capture on my phone's camera :-(

All in all, it was a great day! Looking forward to more of these sorts of activities :D

Grant's going away party

Hi all,

it's been a while since I posted anything. I've been busy having fun but I haven't taken too many pictures to post here.

If you have read my blog a little, you'll know that Grant is one of the first people I met here and that he's been showing me around Auckland a lot. Past Saturday, Grant had a little going away party because he is going to the US for 3 month. He organised the party at base FM where he works, while e was working really. The weather and atmosphere were both amazing. Everyone brought some food and we did a BBQ. Herewith some pictures to give you an idea of what it was like:

Base FM's entrance

 BBQing in frot of Base FM

 Grant playing

It was great fun to hang out with everyone and Grant will surely be missed during these 3 months.

A typical kiwi thing to do

Hi all,

Yesterday, I met up with Grant for dinner. We went to get delicious take away fish and chips and ate by the harbour. This is, apparently, a typical kiwi thing to do. The weather was great and it was very relaxing just sitting by the harbour while chatting away and eating tasty food. I used the opportunity to take a few pictures for you guys, so here goes:

And today for the second time I saw a beautiful bird in the park right by the apartment building. The first time I saw it, it flew away once I took out my camera (read iPhone, which is what I take all of my pictures with...) But this time I got it on camera: