The Mid-exam Island Party!

Kia Ora,

Whoever said you can't do everything? Well before I make my case against that, I'd like to say they're absolutely right. So then here is a more realistic question: why can't we try to do everything? I mean yeah it's exam season, but an appropriately timed get-together should not be avoided ;-)

One of the best things about my friends in NZ is their need to keep the party rolling. And by that I mean there's always an event, an occasion or a trip being thought of! They put a lot of hard work in to making things happen. I love them for it and don't thank them enough for the time they spend arranging our lives!

Hanne was the mastermind behind our latest weekend. Bring on round two of the summer home batch, this time touring to Waiheke Island!

Most of the crowd were there Friday and Saturday night, with others partaking in just one of the given dates. I was such a person, using the batch as my post-exam celebration which I took on the Saturday.

I made straight for the ferry terminal after my exam and met Dannii, Loris and Adrian. Unfortunately Loris and Adrian didn't make the full journey with us. Instead our plan for them to buy beer whilst the bus drivers changed didn't work so well for them and our ten minute bus ride became their one hour walk. Though they survived their walk through the darkness and with all the beers (almost) untouched!

Meanwhile, homemade pizzas were being expertly handcrafted by Thomas, Sara, Beni et al. It was reminiscent of our batch at Christmas, in fact exactly what we wanted to re-create. And it set the tone for a great night, remembered or not ;-)

The mandatory group selfie, coming the morning after

Most people seemed to feel disgustingly fine the next morning (me not included) we all made our way to a cafe overlooking Oneroa Beach. As we had time, we then visited the beach. Me, Dannii, Pauline and Loris got ourselves a little England vs France football match going on, a game of high importance for both nations!

A great weekend with great people!

Kia Ora,

Ben

The Final Weeks of the Semester

Kia Ora,

The last few weeks have been busy... And that's the biggest understatement I've made on my blog. But it's been great in it's own way and it hasn't cost me my complete social life. In fact my social life has been moderately eventful too. I've been rocking frantically on my seesaw of work and play. And at the end of the day isn't that why I'm here...?

The working hard will hopefully pay off. I am now in my exam period and I am in much better position then I was last semester. I'm quite optimistic with the recent assignments I've submitted and about the upcoming onslaught ahead.

My project module has consumed most of my time. It's pretty cool though; we've been building wireless headphones to use on airplanes. I've loved and hated electronics throughout it, but nothing felt better than getting a working prototype and playing our own music through it! Especially after a full day redesigning and Nathan re-soldering to correct "somebodies" error AND then it worked first time! The music quality wasn't quite up to the standards of Beats, but that was a great moment!

So, cool things happening in the study world. And I have stories away from the study world also. Stories that I am happy to remind myself briefly of as I sit here procrastinating from revision. I think I'll do it in a picture format.

Game of Thrones has restarted! And the Iron Throne visited Auckland!

Norwegian run pub quiz. Oh yeah!

Marions birthday presents from her family in France!

Marions birthday party in the flat!

Marions party!

Another great present for Marion! ;-)

My more-sane friends from NZ...

Group photo turned group attack!!!

Late night handstands!

Emelies last meal! We're still missing you!

A happy group before a great last meal for Emelie!

FIFA World Cup comes to Auckland!!! (Under 20's)

Modelling the tatoos!

Some of the Ukrainian squad were kicking about

Watching the sunset over Harbour Bridge!

Sky Tower at night :-)

Spent nearly 3 hours locked out of my flat after a great party... Took a great walk around the city whilst waiting haha

Marion put a poster on our door. If she's allowed that, I'm allowed to pick the face. This week, Rob Stark looking his best ;-)

Kia Ora,

Ben

The Big Birthday Bank Holiday

Kia Ora,

What's better than a birthday on a bank holiday weekend?

TWO BIRTHDAYS ON A BANK HOLIDAY WEEKEND!!!

Our flat was one of celebration last weekend for our lovely Dannii and Scott. Time to bring on the birthday celebrations!

But first a small prerequisite; an explanation of the bank holiday weekend. The occasion was ANZAC Day (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps). We visited a remembrance display on Friday night on the Domain. A giant poppy made of individual messages had been made on the field and a short documentary was being projected on to the side of the museum. It was nice token, but sadly we missed the ceremony the following morning.

This was because Dannii and Scott used one of their birthday wishes, summoning the birthday troops to climb Rangitoto. The weather was in our favour for this trip and we started the climb early towards the lava caves.

We spent maybe 45 minutes working our way through the lava caves. Fun Fact: lava caves form when an outer layer of layer solidifies, leaving a molten center which eventually flows away, leaving the hollow behind. I had visited some of the lava caves before, but some not. This time we managed to climb/walk through them all.

We then turned our attention to thew summit, just twenty minutes further on. This was via the crater lookout which was still impressively big. When we reached the summit we had a small snack break. Most of us climbed on top of an unused bunker to eat and enjoy the view from the highest point possible. We had a laugh trying to tempt everybody up and watching the attempts, successful or not. The flop-like-a-fish method seemed to be well practiced by Loris and Ella.

View of Auckland from the top

I didn't really mention that me and Ella were on a diet this week. After recent travels, we decided to go on a health kick and remove all processed food and dairy from our diet. It was challenging, mainly because pretty much everything is processed these days. But we ate some great meals as we alternated the cooking every night. Anyway, the point of this narrative is quite an underwhelming one, but it allows me to say that Loris spent much of his snack-time eating chocolate or cakes in a very indiscreet manner. The cheek of the boy!

We found a good beach to eat on at Islington Bay Wharf. Even though the incoming tide chased us off eventually, we had good time to relax here before walking back across the island to see the lighthouse and its beach.

We did some more chillin' at the lighthouse. The beach here was actually very nice, not something I expected to see on Rangitoto. We had a chance to explore the coastline a little and in doing so I found one of my favourite views of the Auckland skyline. You can see Scott also appreciating it below.

We got back to the ferry with ten minutes to spare, which was good because it was the last one of the day. It saved a night of awkward camping, even if a few of us were getting used to it the week previous. But we had to get back because Beni was hosting a party for our two aging members.

Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun at the party with the usual games setting a strong theme for the night :-)

The Sunday was Dannii's actual birthday. Happy birthday again, Dannii!!! And to celebrate I cooked a sunday roast. This was even more fitting because this would signify the end of the week long diet for me and Ella. We invited a couple of people over and the seven of us ate the dish I miss most from the UK: ham hock, roast potatoes, vegetables, Yorkshire pudding, stuffing, homemade apple sauce plus more. And Ella made a cocunut, marshmellow birthday cake for Dannii too! What a meal :-D

And then on the Monday we had "Scotty-don't" birthday! Another happy birthday to Scotty too! A pancake breakfast and another chilled out day- it was all good :-) We watched the avengers in the evening. A good film for the general superhero mojo, but not as good as its predecessor. Still it was nice to see, and we enjoyed eating out at one of Aucklands many much-loved food courts. More happy times :-)

It was actually a very relaxing weekend with lots of cooking and lots of good activities with the best people. I wish we could have birthday celebrations every weekend!

Kia Ora,

Ben