Footpaths & Foot Pavement

I promise I'm going to upload a post about when my family was here visiting...but in the meantime, here's a quick update on the past couple of weeks since my family left! 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27TH

Ava tried on my shoes... :) Emily and I also spent an hour after school playing on the playground. She's really enjoying coming up with creative ways to get across the monkey bars. She also likes me to time how fast she can get from one side to the other...2.56 seconds is her current record!

THURSDAY, JUNE 28TH

Ava turned 4 on Monday, the 25th, and she got a ton of princess dresses! Her choice today was to be Anna...from Frozen. I even had to braid her hair into pigtails. :) Emily and I played on the playground again. We have to take advantage of the nice weather when we can!

FRIDAY, JUNE 29TH

After work, I had to drive to Stillwater (20ish minutes from Browns Bay) to house sit for the weekend. A friend of Jane's needed someone to take care of her cats and I was available. I literally spent Friday night cooking dinner and watching cheesy movies on Netflix...it was perfect! The best part of house sitting? I had a fireplace AND a hot tub I could use the whole weekend. :)

Hot Tub!

 Fireplace...and the two cats I was taking care of for the weekend. :)

SATURDAY, JUNE 30TH

After a relaxing morning of breakfast, Netflix, and an impromptu Skype date with my parents, I decided I needed to get outside. It was a beautiful, sunny day so I couldn't waste it indoors. First stop? Geocaching! There was only one nearby cache and it didn't take too long to find.

This was hidden under a walkway about 10 minutes from the house I was staying at for the weekend.

After finding the cache, I continued on down the path until I got to a playground area which was also the beginning (or end) of the Okura Bush Walkway. I say "or end" because a person can either start in Stillwater, like me, or at the Haigh Access Road (which is about 7.5 km from Stillwater). Before going out, I had researched a little about this hiking trail so I decided to go ahead and do it! Unfortunately, about half of the track was closed to prevent kauri dieback - a disease killing native kauri trees. I wasn't too upset about this since I wouldn't have been able to complete the whole track before dark anyways. Right from the start, this hike was a muddy adventure!

The first 15 minutes of the trail was pretty much mud. It had rained the day before, so it made the trail extra wet. After a few minutes, I just accepted I was going to have dirty, wet shoes for the entire hike and marched right on through the mud! :)

Once I got to the end of the muddy path, I stepped over a low fence and walked to the edge of the water. I saw this view and knew I was going to have a fantastic rest of my hike.

Then, I looked to my right and saw this. A bunch of tree branches. I looked around but determined that yes, this is where the trail went. So over and under branches I went...up and down the bank, always on the edge of the water. Thankfully I didn't slip on the mud and fall in! After a few minutes, I made it to the beach and continued on the trail. There were two options: coastal walk or the overland route. I decided to do the coastal walk on my way to the Dacre Cottage (halfway point) and then do the overland walk on my way back.

Of course I had to take a jumping picture!

With the tide out, I was able to see some interesting formations.

Left my mark...well until the tide came back in that is. :)

While mostly alone on the track, I did run into three other couples and also saw four people riding horses on the beach. 

Check out the awesome shells I saw during my walk. I chose a few to take back home with me...I'm hoping they'll survive the journey!

 

I got to the cottage - well as close as I could without leaping across the creek to get there. On the normal hike, the cottage is about the halfway point. However, with half the track closed, this was as far as I could go for the day! I stopped for a quick pretzel and mandarin orange break and then I headed up the stairs to take the overland track back. Thankfully there weren't too many stairs, but there were enough to get the heart rate up! :)

I was so happy I chose to do the overland route because CHECK OUT THIS VIEW! 😍 Honestly, this is probably my favorite picture I took this day. 

A quick video of the view from the overland track.

Just a picture of the always amazing trees here in New Zealand.

View at the bottom of the stairs to the overland track. If only I could bring this home!

There were a few muddy spots on the overland trail, but nothing too bad. Pretty soon, I was back on the beach where I first started. That meant I had to go back along the water's edge, up and down the bank, and over and under tree branches. Again, I was successful in not slipping into the water (yay!) and I was able to complete the rest of the muddy trail all the way back to the beginning. Once I got to the end, I had to clean as much mud as I could off my shoes and then spray them with a disinfectant solution that was provided. 

While my shoes don't look quite as muddy as they did in the beginning, you can see my legs got a lovely dose of mud after hiking for 3 hours! In all fairness, I could have completed this hike in 2 hours but I had to take time for pictures, snacking, and shell searching. Thus, the 3 hours!

Back at the house, I washed off my muddy legs and then enjoyed the hot tub! What a perfect way to unwind after a hike. 

A beautiful sunset in Stillwater.

SUNDAY, JULY 1ST

Well, July didn't start off too well for me. I woke up sick with a sore throat and runny nose. After warding off the girls' sickness and germs for three weeks, I guess it was my turn to get sick.😳 I spent the morning watching Netflix, drinking tea, and packing up to go back to my house. Despite getting sick, I had a wonderful "getaway" weekend and felt somewhat refreshed after a busy holiday with my family.

 My amazingly soft bed. Seriously, I swear it was more comfortable than mine back in MN!

Where I spent most of my time. #noshame

MONDAY, JULY 2ND

Today was rough, being sick and all. However, I did have a bit of fun with Ava's hair! I was also able to Skype with my parents...and they were in rare form! :) Haha

I made an A...for Ava!

Don't worry. Mom got dad with the duster too...she started it! 🤣

TUESDAY, JULY 3RD

I was finally able to video Ava checking out books from the library. Enjoy!

WEDNESDAY, JULY 4TH

Happy Independence Day! This was the second time I haven't been at the Erhard 4th of July Celebration...and I missed it. A lot. However, I made sure to bring my Erhard shirt with me and wear it in honor of the day! Today wasn't overly special as it's not a holiday here in New Zealand. My host mom was really nice and brought home burgers and fries for dinner...a classic American summer meal (well at least the burger part!). 

I was also able to get together with the two girls I went black water rafting with a few weeks ago. We did an escape room in Takapuna to celebrate a birthday. It was my first escape room (their second one), and I can definitely see myself doing more in the future. We had a blast figuring out the clues and laughing at some of the props used in the room! 😏 With only a few hints, we were able to escape with about 7.5 minutes to spare. Woohoo! It was a great time and unique way to spend the 4th!

Birthday girl in the middle!

THURSDAY, JULY 5TH

Even though today wasn't the 4th here...it was back home. So I continued my celebration by buying mini donuts from Countdown. In addition, my cousin sent me pictures and video from the parade and my mom video called me so I could see the evening fireworks. Emily was with me and enjoyed seeing the show too! All in all, a great day!

FRIDAY, JULY 6TH

Ava has been pretty adorable lately with her singing. She doesn't quite get all of the words right...but she's close. Her latest attempt was to sing, "I've got this feeling in my body!" (from the movie Trolls). However, her take on the lyrics was, "Got this spirit, inside my body oooo!" 🤣

SATURDAY, JULY 7TH

I made plans to meet up with Christina and visit the Enchanted Winter Snow Globe in Auckland. By now, I'm pretty much a pro with the bus system (joking), but I had no issues today! We were both a little disappointed in the snow globe - it was smaller than what we thought it'd be - but we still had a bit of fun going inside and taking pictures! The globe was about 7m tall and had some beautiful props/decorations inside. What I enjoyed was we were able to go in alone, without strangers, and enjoy the set-up. Less than 10 minutes later, we were back outside.

Surprisingly, people were lined up to see this! I guess I can't say too much...I waited in that line. LOL

After our globe experience, we went to The Shelf cafe to eat some lunch. The french toast was advertised as being delicious...so of course I ordered that to eat. While different than what I expected, it was quite tasty!

Flat white - it was delightful to drink one again after going without for a couple of weeks!

 Not the best picture I realize, but the french toast was made from brioche and included fried bananas, maple syrup, a few berries, and orange flavored candy floss on top. Unique, but delectable!

After lunch, we walked around a bit and shopped in the souvenir shops. Christina showed me her favorite ones that I will probably revisit the closer it gets to when I leave here. It sprinkled only a little bit outside - what else is new? We ended our day at the Island Gelato Company (of course!). After tasting two flavors, I decided I needed both. While there were a couple of common flavors, most of the gelato offered consisted of more interesting flavor options. I chose Blueberry Mascapone & Ginger Crumble as my first scoop and Cold Press Coffee Affogato as my second scoop. Two winners in my book!

We ate our gelato outside and then caught our buses back home. While waiting for my bus to arrive, I was mistaken as a local again! Unfortunately I couldn't help the lady, but it was nice to be thought of as someone from the area at least.

My view while waiting for my connecting bus to Browns Bay - so pretty!

SUNDAY, JULY 8TH

Christina and I decided to meet up again today at the Art Gallery in Auckland! It was a rainy day, so it was perfect to be indoors for part of it. Since we're "residents" of New Zealand for the year, we got in free (thank you NZ license!). Neither of us probably truly appreciate art, but I enjoyed the different pieces displayed and the colors used by the artists.

 New Zealand art was on the first floor (Maori themed, feminist movement, earthly visions, etc.)

The next floor held international historic art. There was also a section titled "From Pillars to Posts: Project Another Country." There was an area set up for people to come in and create their dream house out of cardboard, recycled boxes, glue, and tape. Above are some of the people's creations formed into pillars.

The highlight of the final floor was Gordon Walters: New VIsion display. Technically, there was one more floor, but we didn't purchase the tickets to see the display up there.

A lot of the Walters' display was in black and white and in various forms of this pattern. 

 Sometimes I wonder how pieces are chosen to be displayed in museums...

After our cultural experience, we went in search of lunch. The first couple of cafes were full, but we ended up finding a cute place called Mojo. I chose a flat white and oatmeal for my meal. Not only aesthetically pleasing - it tasted great!

The rest of the afternoon I spent shopping a little and reading a lot. It was a lovely Sunday!

All right, that brings us to this week! School holidays have begun (for the next two weeks), so I have the girls full-time. Besides play dates, I'm planning on taking the girls to the library (there are events for the kids each day), the museum, the movies, an indoor gym, and spending some quality time baking delicious treats with them. Monday was Chad's birthday and the girls decided he needed a Star Wars cake. Check it out!

Great! You guys are all caught up - not too long of an update, I know. Again, I promise I'm working on my family post and hope to upload it next week sometime! 

Cheers y'all!