Mount Eden and Cooper St

Murphy and I have now successfully mastered the streets of New Zealand. Driving on left side of the road honestly isn't as hard as we thought it would be. It very weird at first, and we both kept hitting the windshield wiper instead of the turn signal. 

First stop was our Airbnb before we set out to explore Aukland. It was an adorable, cosy (yes, cosy with an 's'), little room. Right outside was the cutest little garden, where our host, Patricia, grows her own fruits and veges. Patricia explained that most people she knows in Aukland grow their own fruits and veges in their gardens and compost all of their waste. She was kind of surprised to find out that composting is not a more common practice in the states. 

Patricia had traveled to the states many times before, but we could tell she loved New Zealand (and that she was not impressed by how many American dishes are deep fried and oversized).  She explained to us that there's really no such thing as traditional New Zealand cuisine, because it's a fairly young country and their food has influences from all over the Pacific. When young adults graduate, they are traditionally encouraged to travel and see more of the world before settling for a career. Many people end up working abroad for a while before returning home. I wish this were a practice we encouraged in the states.

Our first real adventure was Mount Eden. This is basically a really tall, impressive hill situated in the middle of Aukland. We decided to walk to Mount Eden, which turned out to be a 3 mile walk when you factor in the winding roads. We were quickly reminded that New Zealand is a hilly country, and we were already sweaty when we arrived at the foot of Mount Eden. Boy we're out of shape. About half way up Mount Eden we were greeted by a gaggle of teeny tiny children in matching raincoats and galoshes, rolling down a hill of tall grass. They were filthy, wet, and had to be cold, but their laughter was so loud and infectious. (There aren't many things as genuine as tiny kids laughing). After a few minutes we realized how creepy we must look, standing and staring at these kids with grins on our dumb faces. 

(I felt incredibly creepy taking this photo!)

The sun came out and the sky looked even bluer and the grass looked even greener (and we got even sweatier!). The view at the top was worth the short hike. We could see all of Aukland, mountains in the distance, and water around the edges of the city. We enjoyed a little picnic of bananas at the top beneath a structure that, from our understanding, was erected to honor land surveyors?... We might need to research this a little more. At the top of Mount Eden is a giant crater, because Mt Eden used to be volcanically active.  Sitting at the top of Mount Eden we felt completely content. 

On our hike back down we found a dog park and a children's playground....we played around in both. The playground had a zip line, so we both had to try it out...multiple times. 

Our trek back to Patricia's was when the hunger and jet lag set in. It also started raining. We got real grumpy real fast. We stopped to eat at one of New Zealand's finest dining establishments (sarcasm), Champion Café. Nothing warms you up faster than a $3.50 meat pie fully of hot delicious mince meat and cheese. It's one of those foods you can only eat when you're absolutely starving or drunk....or in our case, jet-lagged, cold, and hangry! (Murphy enjoyed a vegetarian option). 

When we finally made it back to our little cottage, we enjoyed piping hot showers and crawled into the world's most comfortable, heated bed. Despite the cold outside, it felt like we were sitting somewhere tropical and cosy with the view we had. 

After sipping on some hot tea, we tried to read for a while, and stay awake, but we enjoyed an accidental 4 hour nap.  Whoops. When we woke up, we grabbed burritos for dinner and ate them back in our bed.  If you can't tell by now, we're in love with this bed.  It's amazing. Did I mention it's heated? Yeah. It's phenomenal. We're sitting in it right now, having just enjoyed a delicious breakfast and more hot tea. Eventually we'll drag ourselves out of here and make our way to Piha. 

For those of you who think we're not learning anything, and that this is purely a vacation, false! Here's a little dose of public health info for all of you nerds like me. There is currently a campaign in Aukland to raise awareness and prevent the spread of a fruit fly. The Queensland Fruit Fly is from Australia, but has recently been discovered in certain parts of Aukland. The concern with this fly is that, uncontrolled, it could decimate New Zealand's fruit crops, which is a big economic export for Kiwis.  In areas where the fruit fly has been discovered, no fruit is allowed to move outside of the area, and there are designated bins in which to dispose of all affected fruit.

Don't worry, Patricia provided us with fruit from a guaranteed, fruit fly free zone! It was all delicious, and yeah we ate it all. 

Cheers!