Sky Tower

No pictures of this one, but definitely the thing to do in Auckland. We went to lunch at the sky tower, and it is a rotating restaurant in the center of the city. It is really cool! It takes an hour to go one rotation. Very neat, good food, and awesome views :)
Brandon is in his third week of movember. The mustache is getting pretty long now. He has raised more than anyone else on his team... great cause, too. Thanks to everyone for helping him do that!
The santa downtown was reviled yesterday. They created a giant santa and reindeer downtown. They had made him and supposedly his face was too creepy, so they remade him and now he is back to his jolly old self.
This week we are having some people over for thanksgiving. We had to find the ingredients for the basics. The hardest to find was the marshmallows for the candied yams (we bought kumara for the yams). I am also frying the onions for the green bean casserole myself. I will try and get pictures of the food! Wish me luck.. first time cooking thanksgiving dinner!!!

Neighborhood and Guy Fawkes

Just a walk around our neighborhood! There are so many pretty views :) Recently NZ celebrated Guy Fawkes day and there were fireworks all over these bays. It is a holiday on November 5th that is celebrated in remembrance of the Gunpowder Plot discovery and Fawkes involvement... I don't know enough about the history yet to say more than that.
I am still in the search for a job. Not an easy task in this country! Still trying though!
Getting very settled into our little town... miss you guys though!

NZ weekend

These pictures are from Shakespeare park and the Bay of Islands. We decided to see some of the beauty of NZ this past weekend.
Shakespeare park is a forest and farmland walking trail at the end of the hibiscus coast. The farm area had cows and sheep with a wool house. The beach their was very beautiful too. The pictures from there are the curved beach, the fern curled up, and the waterfall.
The bay of islands is a 4 hour drive north of Auckland. It is a ton of islands that are topped with tropical forest. We went out on a sailing catamaran for 6 hours on Sunday. It was great! We went kayaking once we anchored to the nearest beach, and then went snorkeling. The water was pretty cold still, but it was worth it... it is starting to look like summer :)
This week we also went to the best chip shop in New Zealand... it is at a fish store (since fish and chips are so popular it makes sense it would be their)... called Oceanz. And the chips were really good!
I have been cooking up a storm lately. I have been learning how to make things from scratch since the canned and packaged just add water cooking is not really available here. I love it though... and I know Brandon does, too!
I know I have been a little behind on blogging... I am trying :)
Miss you guys!