February just seems so wrong

It's summer here and it's February, and that just seems wrong. Our plans today, well, we had to change them because of a tsunami warning. And that seems wrong too.

Two weeks ago we took a break from the Residency Application and wedding pre-planning to get away to Raglan, NZ, for a weekend. Finally, we found where all the American immigrants are hiding. It reminded us more of Ocean Beach California, where Dan and Alisha live, than other areas of NZ. Half the people we met seemed to be from the West Coast of North America, all drawn for the waves, or as one young waitress confided in us, for the guys that ride the waves.

The small green covered mountains nearby are a bit reminiscent of Hawaii, or at least how I picture it. Claire and I made a day of climbing to the top and loved the route through old farmland (pictured) and the views from the peak (pictured).

The following weekend, we celebrated the completion of our application for NZ residency (pictured - yes, it really is that thick) with a bottle of champagne provided by Claire's parents (we're one celebratory event behind). And then took a quick trip out to Muriwai Beach (pictured) - black soft sands, great surf, and the best place in New Zealand to see the Australian Gannet colonies (a gold crowned bird that flies from Australia to breed in New Zealand, and then flies back to Australia).

And now, we begin another marathon of sorts, no weekend is left unplanned for six weeks. My aunt Bonnie and uncle Phil flew in on Thursday. On Friday we had a nice dinner out in the city and walked to see the Chinese lantern festival in Albert Park (pictured). It was packed with people - a feeling we haven't had since a Friday night on the Piccadilly line. But worth it. Here are Bonnie and Phil are with Claire in the Domain - Auckland's biggest park (pictured).

Today we drove out west of Auckland in hopes of reaching Muriwai beach - but were thwarted by Tsunami warnings. We made the most of it though - there is a small mountain range west of Auckland called the Waitakere (Why-tack-er-ee) and we managed to find some great vistas (pictured) and a hike through 1000 year old kauri trees and a secluded mostly hidden waterfall.

Friday will find us in Wellington - my first time - where we will stay the weekend checking out the arts festival. And then not long after, off we fly back home to London. ;-) Can't wait to see you all!

The long stretch

So, our longest no-blog stretch yet. Let's play a bit of catch up. Starting just before Christmas...

With our great friend Joe Rice and my parents visiting, we ventured to the far north to celebrate the longest day of the year, and my dad's birthday, in Russell, NZ (pictured on the beach). Russell has deep roots in NZ history: as the Waitangi Treaty was signed between the throne of England and the Maori in 1840, just a stones throw away, Russell's bars and brothels were thriving. Now it's a quaint little town with NZ oldest standing church where Charles Darwin once gave money - we'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was in Russell for the church.

The region is appropriately named the Bay of Islands, and on the longest day of the year we went on "The Cream Trip" - the historic boat trip to deliver milk and mail to the island dwellers which now serves the dual purpose of being a great tourist day tour. To our great delight, we saw pods of dolphin and orca (despite my great dolphin pics, we'll share Joe's more impressive video).

Joe treated Claire and I to a kayak / wine tour (pictured) in the evening where we met two characters - one the wine maker, the other our kayak tour guide who shared with us he has gone a decade without owning a pair of shoes.

The next day we drove up to the most Northern part of NZ to Cape Reinga (pictured with lighthouse) - where the Maori souls depart this world from the roots of an ancient Pohutukawa tree for the afterlife. Afterwards, Claire and I boogie boarded down some 100+ foot high sand dunes... as one does.

For Christmas we returned to Auckland, and Joe set off for a South Island tour on Boxing Day, my parents headed back to the U.S. a couple of days later, and then Claire and I flew to the South Island ourselves. We spent two days driving from Christchurch to Queenstown - seeing stunning turquoise lakes (pictured) - and up to Mt Cook - one of the few places on earth where icebergs exist in mountain lakes (pictured).

In Queenstown we met up with Joe, Chad and his girlfriend Divya, and stayed in a bach - rather luxury apartment with floor to ceiling walls of windows with stunning lake and mountain views. No one wanted to leave.

On New Years Eve, we went on the Central Otago Wine Trail and after a few vinyards I decided to make Claire my wife the old fashioned way (pictured).

On New Years Day we climbed Mount Iron near Lake Wanaka with Evan and Amanda - our friends from London whose family has a bach near Queenstown as well (pictured).

On our last evening - just down to Joe, Claire and me, we took the gondola up the mountain and had a couple of rides on the luge (pictured going up the chair lift - don't miss Joe in the background)

Now we're back to work and spending our weekends trying to complete the laborious NZ residence application while also trying to figure out where we can have a wedding in Oxford.