I am a lucky girl. Not only did I recently turn 30 (Oh God... did I just write that down??!!) but my fabulous and most favourite sister in the wide world wrote *me* a birthday adventure. I couldn't have been more excited. The night before we were due to go out on our venture, Rebecca sent me a text with a picture of an airplane, followed by ROFL. Hmm. Nerves set in. I was then terrified that she was going to make me jump from a plane... or worse, stand on the outside of a plane, like Karl Pilkington. If you haven't seen 'An Idiot Abroad', then I must say now that you are missing out.
I digress. I had falling dreams that night - you know the kind. The kind where you are sweetly sleeping away and are woken with a start... just before you hit the 'ground'... heart racing, palms sweating. Yep, I thought I was going to be jumping out of a perfectly good plane. Morning came, my alarm went off and as I rolled over to retrieve my iPhone, I saw a text from Piggy. My sister. Adventure was off due to the weather. I was actually relieved rather than disappointed! Off due to weather, high winds... I guess not the kind of weather for jumping out of a plane. Another sleepless night to endure, more falling dreams and more nightmares of my parachute not opening. As I woke - I felt a tinge of excitement and hauled myself out of bed, into the shower, got dressed (comfortable clothes and shoes as requested) and climbed into my car. After some cuddles with my favourite twin girls (Zoey and Maya) we were off to let the adventures begin. Now I was excited.
Without further ado... being I know some of you are so keen to read on... welcome to Sarah's stupendously superb saunter, 2012.
Breakfast:
Without being too original and knowing me so well that she knew exactly what I would like for breakfast, Rebecca decided to go with something that is a favourite with the girls in our family. A lemony goodness turnover from La Tropezienne in Browns Bay. To our utter disgust, they had none left - and it was only 9.30am! We left there and thought we would try La Trop in Milford... but they were closed. Maccas was the next option and on approaching the golden arches drive-thru, Rebecca said to me 'are you going to want what I think you will want?'... yes... she was right - standard for me: A bacon and egg McMuffin Combo with a hot chocolate. She knows me so well! We were running a tight schedule, so ate on the run...no complaints here! Next stop please???
Auckland City. How I love thee!
The airport: Greet some tourists into NZ at the arrivals gate.
Words can't describe my relief at now knowing for sure I would not be jumping out of a plane, and all the sleepless nights and worry was not worth it. But this didn't prepare me for the flip-flops I found my stomach doing with the thought of greeting strangers at arrivals with a 'Hello and welcome to NZ!'. We entered the airport carpark, parked the car, walked into arrivals and parked our behinds on a seat...
Rebecca sat back and said with a sly grin: 'Whenever you're ready...". It took me quite some time in order to pluck up the courage to stand up and greet someone. I chose two asian girls who would have been about 20 something. They looked at me like I was completely nuts. They were probably born in NZ too! Unfortunately Rebecca didn't get a photo as she was still learning her way around my camera, but she saw me do it so that's good enough for me! After that my next task was to...
Have a photo with a tourist at the airport...
I approached an Asian lady who looked friendly and didn't appear to be waiting for anyone else. The last thing I wanted to do was to interrupt a welcome home with family and/or friends! I walked up to her and said 'Hello, you don't know me and you will think this is strange... but...' and the next thing I knew we were standing side by side, smiling for a photo. I love people who are keen to partake in such random things. She will never know how famous she will be, simply by appearing on this blog!
After paying the $5 for parking (which Rebecca insisted was utterly worth every cent given how uncomfortable she got to see me approaching strangers) we made our way to the next task on the list.
Play a round of mini-golf:
Easy! I love mini-golf. Such an easy task! But wait... did I read that correctly? It wasn't just play a round of mini-golf... but play a round of mini-golf DRESSED AS A PIRATE! The embarrassment commenced as I got out of the car, donning my ferocious attire. I was, for a short time today, a ferocious Pirate! Arrrrrrrrr!
Arrrrr! I'm a FEROCIOUS Pirate! Arrrrrrrrrrrr
Pirate booty... yussss!
Yo ho ho and a bottle of RUM!
Me ship.
So close to being a hole in one. Robbed.
I don't know who she is. Climbing my ropes on me ship. Arrrr. To the gallows with 'er....
Trying to steer me ship with me hook ... not easy!
So Rebecca dubbed me 'Captain Golden Balls', which didn't get old as far as jokes go. I had chosen a golden golf ball (in keeping with the theme of the task...) and the lady at the desk even erased all the kids names and ages for birthdays on their whiteboard and put MY name and birthday age. As if that's not embarrassing! 30. Ergh. There it is, in green and red. I even won the game. By one point. And don't ask why there are two holes missing, we have NO idea how that happened... potentially a little distracted by all the photography and fiming and 'arrrrrrrrs'???
Awesome. But embarrassing.
That's right. Captain Golden Balls for the WIN!
Our next stop was the gas station in order to pick up some supplies for some of the other tasks of the day. Marshmallows and Coke... and Rebecca even managed to find the *best* kind of Coke! Mine was *perfect* for a task which you will find out about later!
She's so cute with her new bangs!
Sing 'Old McSarah has a farm' in a public place.
So Rebecca drove me to a farm located not far from the airport... called Ambury Farm. It was here I managed to complete four of my tasks, which was rather a good effort! The first was to sing 'Old McSarah has a farm', which I chose to sing to two cows grazing nearby. The cows didn't see my humour and were most unamused, showing absolutely no interest in what I was doing whatsoever. I think this song was a ploy to get me to say I am old over and over again... I'm onto her!
Perform the birdie dance in a public space.
Originally the task said to do this in the presence of chickens. But with no chickens about we changed our minds... and being it is called the birdie dance and not the chicken dance, we felt that performing it in the presence of some nearby ducks would be suitable enough. I'm actually quite embarrassed by this video. I am appallingly out of time with the music... I couldn't hear it hardly at all! (that's my claim, and I am sticking by it!). See for yourself....
Sing the National Anthem with 20 marshmallows in your mouth:
Umm. 20? Really? I could *just* fit 10 of them in my mouth! A couple having a romantic hand-holding stroll walked by behind Rebecca as I was doing this... I imagine it took them a lot of will-power not to look my way... or were they just so in love they didn't notice us there....? Rebecca on the other hand, could fit 15 marshmallows in her mouth. Go figure. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a photo taken in the frame... shame about the 10 second camera timer and only having *just* enough time to run to the frame and climb on!
LOL!
Have your photo taken with a Piggy:
Surely most of you know by now that my sister and I call each other 'Piggy'... have done for years. So it makes sense there was a task involving a pig somewhere today. On the Ambury Farm website they have pictures of Pigs, so Rebecca thought it the perfect place. Fail. No real pigs. But they do have a Pig letterbox... it sufficed.
Lunch at Cuccina:
It is official. She knows me almost as well as I know myself... and took me to my all-time favourite restaurant for lunch, Caffe Cuccina. If you live in Auckland and haven't been - go! Amazing service, amazing food - every time. We devoured a plate of chilli/lime king prawns and an anti-pasto platter in a matter of minutes... Molto delizioso!
Busk with your flute:
Well, I'm not gonna lie. I wasn't keen on the idea of busking in public, it just isn't me... and being I let Rebecca off pretty lightly on some of her birthday adventure tasks back in February, she had to do the same for me. We ended up going to our old stomping ground, St. Johns Primary School in Mairangi Bay. After wandering the grounds, reminiscing and commenting how much smaller everything seems to look now, we made our way into the lower playground, fondly known as 'the gully'. For anyone who went to St. Johns, the Gully as *the* place to be seen.
It had it all. It was out of sigh from the staffroom, it had tyres to climb on and wooden structures... and the biggest slide ever. A thought popped into our heads - and meant that only minutes later I would be playing the flute whilst sliding down the slide. I was firstly concerned that my butt wouldn't actually fit into the slide these days - thankfully it did! I hadn't thought about the fact it was insanely windy and not all that easy to play much of anything whilst sliding down a slide. There were a few young boys playing on the playground who hardly even looked up as I played! This video is ever so slightly embarrassing... I am a relatively serious musician after all! But here you go... have a laugh!
Find a choc bar then hit the beach:
She really does know the way to my heart, my sister. Choc Bar... by Tip Top. The nommiest and best price ice-cream out there. A crackly chocolate and coconut shell, creamy vanilla Tip-Top ice-cream and a block of choc in the centre. Wow. Thanks Tip Top. Our beach of choice? Mairangi Bay.
Build a sand castle on the beach:
She didn't tell me until I was nearly done that it was a sandcastle competition! My sandcastle had real glass windows, a tree in the front garden and a bone bench seat. Not sure who won in the end!
Hard at work... this is serious business!
Rebecca's amazing castle of sand :)
Real glass windows, a pretty front door, a tree outside and real glass windows!
It's not easy building a castle...
JUMP!
Do the William Hung Dance in public - She bangs!
I did it. In a public place. It is hardly my fault there was nobody around... we chose to do this on the pier on Murrays Bay Beach. I am ashamed to admit that I had to look up the original William Hung video on YouTube and very quickly learn the words (and still managed to gaff it up!) but enjoy it anyway...
Send a message in a bottle:
I wrote the message on some note paper whilst at lunch. I am not one to litter, but in this case... it could be an interesting social experiment! With the Coke Bottle Rebecca bought me earlier in the day, I rolled up my message and popped it inside. When we were leaving Mairangi Bay Beach, I noticed a silver necklace half buried in the sand. It was meant to be - I put the chain in the bottle too and sent it out to sea. I explained why I sent a message in a bottle on the note, and the link to my blog in case someone really does find it - I would like them to get in touch with me. I hope it happens! How interesting it would be to hear where they picked it up! And how exciting to be someone who has found a real message in a bottle.
If this is your lost necklace - I am *deeply* sorry!
Anyone looking? Here it goes...
"I can't believe I threw something into the sea!! Agh!"
Going...
Going...
Nearly gone!
And that brings Sarah's stupendously superb saunter to a close. I hope you enjoyed reading this, although reading it simply cannot compare with the hilarity experienced that day between the hours of 9.30 and 3.30pm. Birthday adventures are so much better than getting a gift... the time I got to spend with my sister? Pretty priceless. She's awesome and I love her to pieces.
A few weeks ago, Melissa (one of the other Melissa's in my life!) caught a bus to the city to go and watch a friend of hers gig. She had asked me if I could come along too - and I could, but only after I had looked after my twin nieces beforehand. I was to drive across and meet her there, and then drive her home again. Perfect. She text me not long before I left my sisters house to warn me that she has been inspired by 'Julian the German', and had actually asked a random stranger on the bus if he would like to come along to the gig... of course first she ummed and ahhed about whether this was a good idea or not, but she thought he looked harmless enough - and more to the point looked as if he had nothing else to do and might quite enjoy going along to a gig. So she approached him... letting him firstly know that she had a boyfriend, and then inviting him along to the gig. He agreed. I first met Tristan in the dark - at a very loud gig, so we didn't say much at all to each other! Afterwards we went and enjoyed some pizza at Sal's and then I drove Tristan home. In the very short time that I had to speak with him, I learned that he had only been in the country for a week and a half and was waiting on his IRD number in order to look for a job. I also learned that he could be a great new friend.
Over pizza, Melissa mentioned Julian the German and how my other friend Melissa (confused yet??) and I had taken this random German (ze luckiest German in ze world!) on an amazing alphabetical adventure around Auckland. If you never saw that, find it here: http://sherbertinlondon.blogspot.co.nz/2011/12/julian-german-jaunts-about-auckland.html
It very quickly dawned on me that it would be preposterous for me not to take my new friend Tristan on a trip such as that. And so, 'Tristan's Tantalising Twilight Trip' was born. We picked him up at 3.10pm on Saturday the 10th of March. And dropped him home again at approximately 1.25am on Sunday the 11th of March. It surely was a solid effort, and one Melissa and I are somewhat proud of. There are a lot of videos here... prepare to wet yourself laughing. Welcome to Tristan's Tantalising Twilight Trip.
Get somebody’s AUTOGRAPH on an APRON.
This we did well into the evening. I revealed the amazing Kiwiana apron to Tristan as we sat with a sheesha pipe on Karangahape Road. He admired it briefly as he imagined donning it to prepare a BBQ or two. (I made that up. It sounded good though!). With a marker pen in hand he approached one of the waiting staff at the sheesha place and asked for his autograph. Of course this meant that we had to explain, in a nut-shell, why on earth we wanted his autograph, but he was happy enough to give it once he knew what the purpose was. I thought that task would end there... Mel had other ideas! She thought perhaps Tristan should get more people to autograph it. We couldn't have planned it better, but a little further on we found a group of girls out on a Hen's night who were more than happy to sign his apron. He then didn't want to take it off... a few people assumed he was out on his stag night which made it *much* more acceptable for him to wear the apron in public.
Drive to BASTIONPOINT and drink in the panoramic view.
This was actually the very first thing we did on our A-Z list. It was incredibly busy and there were a number of Brides and Bridesmaids wandering around - we were very lucky to find anywhere to park. We didn't go and befriend a bride this time, but we did have an opportunity to drink in the glorious view. I love Auckland. We even found a random stranger to take our photo. You will see we are wearing Beanies. on Julian the German's Jaunt about Auckland we wore ponchos. There is something quite awesome about wearing a so-called uniform. People are much more accepting of madness. Turns out it was far too hot for beanies... but we tried!
Play CHARADES with a stranger, to a well-known Kiwi song "Six months in a leaky boat"
I am not sure if you have ever tried playing charades... let alone playing charades in a new country with a complete stranger - to a song you have never even heard. This is precisely what we had Tristan do, with a little help from Melissa. After we had gained permission to film this event, Tristan and Melissa got started on charades. The Kiwi song title is 'Six months in a leaky boat', a song by the awesome Split Enz, written in the best year in history, 1982. Why? Because I was born that year. That's why. I won't give too much away, but this lady (who sadly I forget the name of...) was an AWESOME sport!
DRIVE along Tamaki Drive, Mission Bay and listen to DAVEDOBBYN’S‘Loyal’– a Kiwi classic!
We didn't film any of this... and the only way I can sort of prove we did this is to include some pics of the views along Tamaki Drive... yes... that is Rangitoto Island off in the distance on the second photo!
EAT a lamington - a famous Kiwi cake. So, Wikipedia claim that this is an Australian treat... but NZ claim it to be theirs. It really is confusing... it seems an argument along the same lines of Pavlova! For the non Kiwi/Australian reader, a lamington is a sponge cake in the shape of a cuboid, coated in a layer of chocolate icing (traditionally) and then coated in desiccated coconut. NOM. The raspberry variety is allegedly more common in NZ - and this was the flavour we found in the cafe up the Sky Tower. It has to be said that this was a rather fancy lamington... a rolled lamington with long strand coconut and filled with raspberry mousse. But you get the idea. This is not the best photo... so if you're confused about what a lamington (traditionally) looks like, click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamington
Devour some FISH AND CHIPS We opted for Al & Pete's Fish and Chips shop in Parnell so that we could take them and devour them in the Auckland Museum grounds. Al & Pete's have been in business there for 36 years - so the Fish & Chips had to be good... and they didn't disappoint! Tristan even got to try some Kumara chips which he admitted were quite good. We ended up having a picnic outside the museum... although not long after we had sat down, we had some visitors. Melissa felt it would be rude not to share our meal, so gave them some. Which only encouraged more members of the family to come along. Oh my!
Explore theGLOW WORMS in Le Roys bush – Leroy Terrace, Birkenhead. I had heard about these Glow Worms in Birkenhead. I wasn't sure if they were only around at certain times of the year, and couldn't find any information online to tell me otherwise. We arrived at Le Roys bush at about midnight, donned with glow-stick bracelets and necklaces and the light of our mobile phones. As our feet crunched on the gravel, we entered into the darkness. I was feeling OK about this, I could *just* see with the light from my phone and Melissa was leading the way into the darkness. The bush enveloped us as we delved deeper and deeper into it. It started getting dark. Really dark. Darker than before - as the trees were preventing the moonlight from getting through. After about ten minutes of walking, I started to think this whole exercise was an utter waste of time when I finally caught sight of tiny blue lights to my right. Magical doesn't begin to describe the feeling of seeing glow-worms in the darkness. Wow. Melissa had walked a little further ahead and Tristan and I were bending down to get a closer look at the glow-worms hanging from the mud bank. It was then that we simultaneously heard footsteps coming through the bush.
We looked at each other and said 'what's that???' and it went silent. That was it. We were both up and walking towards Melissa - at a fairly fast pace. None of us wanted to be walking at the back and stuck close by to each other for the rest of the time. We had parked my car on Le Roy Terrace... and had originally intended to walk back the way we came. We changed our mind and continued on the path, emerging on Onewa Road. It was totally worth the fear as the glow-worms really were so magical. Unfortunately I couldn't get any photos or video of them - the camera just wouldn't pick it up - but they were AMAZE. If you haven't seen them before - DO IT! It has to be said... we would probably have been petrified of our own shadows after hearing someone else in the bush...
HAVE several groups of people introduce Tristan's Tantalising Twilight Trip. This was a Melissa brainwave - and what a brainwave it was! It was entertaining and a challenge to get people to do this - because it meant explaining what we were actually doing and also it meant that they were going to be on film saying something. Most people asked if it was going to be on the internet. We said no. Whoops. I have discovered a slight problem. I realised we forgot to do the last clip... 'trip'... so, imagine it finishes with a short clip of a random stranger saying 'trip'. Good.
Go to princes wharf I-SITE and find other cool things to see and do for Tristan whilst he is in Auckland. After paying an exorbitant amount of money to park in the Viaduct, we ventured to the i-site. Tristan was in attraction brochure heaven. So. Many. Brochures. He left the building with plenty of reading material... and hundreds of ideas of things to do whilst he is living in NZ.
JUMP off something. Did we find something cool to jump off? Yeah we did! In fact - it was perfect. After we ate our fish and chips there was a random stranger passing by (Kate) who was more than happy to photograph us jumping. She was an outstanding photographer. Jeez people are so friendly!!!
Walk along KARANGAHAPE ROAD, Auckland – our ‘red light’ street and be sure to get a photo with some signage! This was harder than we thought... we couldn't even find a street sign although did find an advertising cylinder (I totally made that name up...) and further down the road we found a post-party bus stop which had Karangahape Road on it. They sufficed.
Enjoy a bottle ofL&P (Lemon and Paeroa) which is bottled in Paeroa, North Island. It was ten times classier to have L&P up the Sky Tower in the fancy pants cafe... glasses, ice... nice! He makes a rather good advertising model...
Have a photo taken outside the Auckland MUSEUM. We well and truly went to the museum. We fed the local roaches (see letter F), we jumped off and on to bollards *and* we did a wheel barrow race in the grounds (can it still be a race even if there's only one wheelbarrow?) The Auckland War Memorial Museum really is one of Auckland's beautiful historical buildings - especially at night.
Explore the NIGHT MARKETS at Westfield Pakuranga (open til midnight) and buy something. Melissa and I live in Auckland. We had NO idea that this night market existed and came across it only by fluke when searching for 'stuff to do in Auckland'. It was AWESOME. It was unfortunate that we had already eaten because there must have been a hundred food stalls. We lost ourselves amongst the 'tack' stalls (oops, I mean treasure!) We even convinced Tristan to try feijoa juice. Feijoas, to those who are not 'in-the-know' are a tree fruit also known as pineapple guava (woo - I just learned something new!) Apparently the trees grow in the highlands of Southern Brazil, parts of Colombia, Uruguay, Paraguay and Northern Argentina. Somehow, miraculously, they made it to NZ and grow all around the country. They are green in colour, chicken-egg sized and shaped like an ellipse. The flavour is sweet yet tart and they have a gritty texture - they are not everybody's cup of tea. They have a very distinctive taste. Tristan said he liked it. Although he could have been being polite.
Drive to the top of ONE TREE HILLand admire the view. We were wondering for most of the day if the weather was going to hold or not. Thankfully, it held - and we could see an amazing 360 degree view of Auckland City. Amazing. I was sad to see that my sister and my handy-work in the rocks for her birthday adventure four weeks before had now changed. (see 'R' from her birthday adventure http://sherbertinlondon.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/beckys-brilliant-birthday-adventure.html) But on the upside- we did find an amazing tree. Like a tree you can imagine might be on a movie like The Lord of the Rings or similar. We *had* to climb down to get a closer look and were stoked we did - it was even more awesome up close! This explains why Tristan looks like he has just come out of a coal mine...
PLAY an old school game: A wheelbarrow race. And where better to do this very thing? It was well-dark by the time we got around to this task... and it is is quite tricky to see that we are in fact doing a wheelbarrow race. I'm unsure if you can call it a race if there is only one wheelbarrow? It is fair to mention here that we had just finished gorging on fish and chips - so I was impressed with Tristan's speed... I almost couldn't keep up!
Drive down QUEEN STREET and find five interesting things to take photos of. This was tricky. We just didn't see enough that we deemed to be interesting. But on driving around the central city we did see some rather interesting people at bus stops. So opted to take photos of them instead. Hopefully they never, ever stumble across this blog... but here goes...
Our sightings got even more awesome as time went on. It all started with a guy who looked to be sleeping whilst sitting up in the bus stop - and then, would you believe it, we saw Noah and his wife! We had been telling Tristan how Kiwi's like their pies - and what did we see next but a fully kitted out Maori, sitting in a bus bench eating a pie. Ultimate LOL! I think Tristan thought this kind of thing happened all the time. It has to be said - it was a first for me to see that! The last photo may or may not be someone I know...
Go RUBBISH BAG SLEDDING at One Tree Hill. Whilst we were up One Tree Hill, it made perfect sense to take advantage of the steep, grassy hills that surrounded us. We found a perfect patch - we did a quick check for sheep poo and unfolded the black rubbish sacks we had to purchase at 'Z' service station (see letter Z). Melissa decided that she wouldn't have the first turn, so filmed the event. Tristan and I emptied our hands (and pockets) of anything loose, sat on our black rubbish sacks and began the slippery descent down the hill. We didn't get too far. A slight fail. We tried a second time - this time with Tristan on his stomach. It was more hysterical than successful but gave us all a good giggle! If I was to do it again? Perhaps a cardboard box would work better... less wedgie...more slide.
Go up theSKY TOWER and view the SUNSET. Tristan had mentioned the night we all met that he would like to go up the Sky Tower but hadn't made it there yet. (He had only been in NZ for just over a week, so he's forgiven!) Melissa and I decided it might be nice to go up and view the sunset. I haven't been up the Sky Tower in a few years. I liked how in the entrance there was a bunch of Peter Jackson movie memorabilia. An Ork from "Lord of the Rings", King Kong's head, statues of Tin Tin and Snowy amongst other items.
We purchased our tickets and hopped into the lift which took us 182m up to the Sky Lounge cafe and bar (which is where we enjoyed an L&P - see 'L', and a NZ cake - a Lamington). We had a look out of the windows down on Auckland City and tried to get our bearings before deciding to go up a little higher. Back into the lift we went and climbed up to 220m Sky Deck. The views from here were incredible. Back down to the main observation deck, Tristan even braved standing on the glass... with nothing but some air and the road below him... 186m down!
Did you know that at 328 metres tall, the Sky Tower is the 12th tallest tower in the world (taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris or Sydney's AMP Tower) oooooo, ahhhhh. Did you know that the three glass-fronted elevators can take 225 people to the observation levels every 15 minutes. The elevators travel at 18km per hour and the ride takes only 40 seconds. Learn something new??
Have a go at TURKISH SHESHA smoking. Melissa chose the 'best' flavour of double strawberry and Tristan showed off his flash ability to be able to blow smoke rings... impressive.
Play UNDER THE SEA on the air-xylophone outside Kelly Tarlton's. This was the second task that we completed and I wondered how Tristan would react to it, being that we hardly knew him and were unsure if he would be game enough to do something so nuts. We were stoked to learn that he was more than happy to act crazy, provided he didn't have to do it alone. Melissa and I can never resist a bit of silliness...or Disney. I set my camera up and pushed play on the music and we did the whole thing, only to learn that the camera didn't record! I brushed that off and explained that sometimes a dress rehearsal is called for. I think that we were way more awesome the second time around... my favourite part of this video is that the people in the car are not even looking our direction at how silly we are being... gold.
VISIT the VIADUCT and have a photo with a boat. Boat, shmoat. We found us a jet ski and a German who was happy to take the photo. #WINNING. There was even some sculptures of fish down there - one of them was made entirely out of jandals and flippers that had been washed ashore and collected over a period of time. So cool!
Re-enact the Ministry of silly WALKS on a zebra crossing. We were supposed to go to WYNYARD QUARTER, lie on the benches and find the Southern Cross in the stars. The clouds in the skies indicated otherwise! So... we used our 'we reserve the right to change anything in the adventure' and instead reenacted the Ministry of Silly Walks (insert Monty Python music here...) on a zebra crossing. We filmed each other... and when I was being filmed (I went last) someone was walking up the street and totally GOT what we were doing... Melissa screamed at him to come on down and film us all silly walking together and he did. His name was Ronen - and he was awesome. But not as awesome as our silly walks, which were epicly awesome.
X marks the spot - find the package, which you will need to use for ‘Y’. This was pretty funny. Melissa had an epic brainwave with the task we could complete in 'Y'. We had to hide something for Tristan to find before we could go and have our yuppie wanky coffee on Ponsonby Road at SPQR. I hid the treasure, and played 'warmer, colder' with Tristan until he found his treasure. Digging his walk at the beginning on this video...
Enjoy a YUPPIE WANKY COFFEE on Ponsonby Road (SPQR) while wearing sunglasses and have a tea party. It’s such a ‘posh Auckland’ thing to do. Clearly we are not the right sort of class for SPQR as we were looked up and down on more than one occasion and clearly judged by other patrons. As we walked in, I recognised a man sitting out the front of the cafe enjoying a vino. I later remembered where I had seen him before, having played Craig Valentine on Shortland Street (a Kiwi medical drama on TV). Anyway, we ordered our coffee, and waited about 15 minutes for it to arrive. As we waited for its arrival, we set up our tea set that Tristan had found in Western Park (see 'X') and took some photos. During this time, Melissa ducked out of the place to take a photo of the sign at the front to prove we had been to SPQR. She was using my camera, and had no real idea of how to use the zoom function so took a photo of the whole front of the building thinking I could crop it later. Right she was - I could. But what did I spy on inspection of the photos? That actor from Shortland Street, Renato Bartolomei. Giving Melissa the one-fingered salute. How rude!! As if we even really wanted a photo of him anyway!
Finally our coffees arrived and we started using a teaspoon to put some coffee into our miniature tea cups. We had a lovely waitress who was more than happy to photograph us all having a tea party at SPQR - she even moved our actual coffee cups so that in the photo it looked like all we had was the tiny tea set. Ace.
Go to a Z SERVICE STATION (which is a new Kiwi franchise) and have a photo taken with a staff member. It made sense that we did something different to Julian the German's adventure (taking a photo at the Zoo) and we decided that going to a Z service station (the old Shell!) and having a photo taken with a staff member would be perfect. Z is a new Kiwi Franchise... But is it Zed... or Zee...???? We arrived at Z, needing to purchase rubbish bags in order to go Rubbish Bag Sledding (see 'R') and asked the man behind the counter if we could please take a photo of him and Tristan... to which he replied 'No, we aren't allowed to take photos'. With hearts held heavy, we walked towards the door, exited and saw a floor-court man in uniform. We approached him and explained our awesome adventure... and he was happy to have a photo taken. Success!!!
So, there it is. Yet another adventure bites the dust. I have made a new friend and even found new things to do in Auckland, the big-little city. I hope you cracked a smile.
