Rugby: #NZLvAUS

Rugby is quite much a national sport in New Zealand. The national team, All Blacks, is very beloved among the nation and the players can be found basically from any advertisement in NZ. Like in football, the Rugby World Cup is organised every 4th year and the current winner from 2011 is naturally All Blacks. Australia's national team, Wallabies, is always a tough competitor for All Blacks. In fact it's like Finland vs. Sweden in ice hockey!

We wanted to fit into the crowd so we did some face painting. Luckily the game turned out to be a celebration of All Blacks's - they crushed Wallabies 51-20, and Kiwi audience was happy!

Eden Park Station in Auckland was packed, in total 48 000 visitors came to see the match

Can you spot JC from the middle?

Mangorewa Track

"This route is passable only when the river level is low and is suitable only for experienced trampers wearing tramping boots. Take extreme care as the rocks are slippery, and there are numerous deep potholes to avoid."

This is a quote we found from internet after doing a 10 km hike which took us up to 5 hours to finish. Tramping boots would have been definitely nice to wear since the rivers rocks were super slippery. Luckily nothing happened and we were safe back home on Sunday evening. However the driving back home became more interesting when we almost run out of fuel.

During the day we learned three things:

• Don't forget your lighter or matches to the car, or cooking the lunch gets challenging.
• Canon EF 50mm F1.8 is not enough for flaming fire from the sun rays, at least on August in NZ. We'll make another try on summertime when the sun is pointing out from a better angle!
• While driving a car, follow the fuel gauge - it might descend unexpectedly. All of the gas stations in NZ are not open 24/7 and the next gas station might be far away from you.

Smoke without fire. It was a nice try though.

The lunch turner into a dinner after finishing the hike.  Next time we won't forget the matches!

Dinner time!

Too much of student food is too too much. Variety is the spice, and this time it was Harbourside Auckland where we had a delicious dinner with good wine - not to mention the great company. Money well spent! 

Hapuka fish with Deutz Marlborough Cuveé Rose 2008 

A Lemon Pie and Clody Bay Late Harvest Riesling 2008 

The Bay of Islands

Weekends are made for travelling. This time we did not need to rent a car since Anna, Lulu, Line and I bought a Mazda MPV 2003 where we have seats for 7 person. Not bad at all, we thought!

This is our new car: Pippi Longwheel!

On the first night we stayed at Whangaruru, this time in the tents. During the drive we stopped at Kawiti Glow-Worm cave where it was unfortunately forbidden to take photos. Both the glow-worms and the limestone cave were fascinating, totally worth $20. 

The sunset at Kaimarama Bay

A view to north east from Kaimarama Bay

Campfire at Admirals Bay

*** Day 2 ***

Dolphin spotting at the Bay of Islands tour

The route of our ferry tour

Believe it or not, but we went through that hole with the boat!

Camping at birght moonlight in Pataua

*** Day 3 ***

The calm Pacific Ocean, 8 am.

Planning the route at Atiu Creek Regional Park

A day later we found out why it was so bright during the night

Plane Spotting: A350 XWB

The new Airbus A350 XWB visited Auckland Airport 6th of August and we went to see it with Ryan and Carina. Two hours of waiting was rewarded when the beautiful A350 rolled to the runway and accelerated towards Santiago de Chile!

Boeing Dreamliner, the competitor of A350

There she is!

Waitakere and Piha Beach

Last weekend we made a day trip to west where we saw the beautiful Waitakere hiking route and Piha Beach. In the end we were 32 people driving with 4 rental cars!

For preventing the Kauri trees dieback, shoes must be disinfected

A view to Auckland

Lunch break after the hike

 *****

The Piha Beach

Lion Rock

A cappuccino at Piha Café