It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times...

Apres the visit to the North, we headed south (Right, hellooo Captain Obvious) towards ol’ familiar Auckland for a night on the town with Brad and friends. It started out as any good night would, with Hana taking hours to put on her makeup, straightening her hair, deciding which pair of heels would suit her new Dior top and Chanel miniskirt (I know! I told her they didn’t go either, but we all know she doesn’t listen when it comes to fashion as you can see). We grabbed a couple of drinks, and then started out to meet up with the rest of the gang. The night was heading in the direction of good times full steam ahead until Hana became the unfortunate victim of a rohypnol flavoured drink. From Hana’s recollection, it didn’t taste too bad. In fact, she says it tasted like delicious draught beer, but it did manage to taint the evening. The experience did have one positive side effect; Hana developing a habit of placing a hand on top of the drinking glass when not being consumed.

A couple of days of recuperation were necessary, and were spent exploring some of the interesting sites and beaches just north of Auckland. The drive up had many delightful surprises. Now I think I can speak for most when I say that it is EVERYONE’S dream to stumble across an awesome tree house in the middle of a forest… or at least one slightly visible from a highway. If there happens to be a magical tree wizard, or enchanted open bar in it then that’s just an added bonus, but you take what you can get, and this tree house that we found did not need anything else to make it fantastic. Hana happened to see it through the trees, and when we drove up we found that there was a large fence surrounding it, preventing the great discovery that we had hoped for. Fortunately, the owner had seen us pull up and offered to show us around. This tree house, it turns out, was part of a large media event that Yellowpages had put on a year before, and they had asked this nice couple if they could use their property to construct the elaborate $3 million dollar tree house. As it was on their land, they were entitled to it once the show was over. Best deal ever. From conception to finished product, the entire process took 100 days. So cool!

The rest of the day took us to a Bee Centre (I insisted we pull over and try honey samples. So many!) and then to a beautiful beach, followed by a stop off at a marine reserve. We finished it off by cooking thanksgiving dinner for our Auckland host, which wasn’t as thanksgiving-esque as I had hoped… I had wanted to make pumpkin pie, but they don’t have pumpkin in a can here! I was devastated, though it’s probably for the best as I shouldn’t subject too many people to my baking. Also, Hana made lamb sausages instead of a turkey. But it was the thought that counts, and it actually made me miss home a little… actually just the pumpkin… man that grates my carrot!

Can you spot the Ogasawara in this photo?