A Work Week and Auckland Anniversary Weekend

Hello again! Last week I was quite busy with my class and project. I read and annotated a total of six books as well as a number of studies for my project research. I also had an assignment due for maths and I've refrained from totalling up the number of hours that I spent working on the seemingly small work set of just nine problem... It woud certainly be a staggering number. Luckily, after all that work, I had a relaxing long weekend thanks to the Auckland Anniversary. In New Zealand each region is allowed a public holiday to celebrate the anniversary of the main city in that region. Auckland's falls on January 30th, so everyone had the day off on Monday.

The anniversary festivities were numerous. I attended the Auckland Seafood Festival at the Viaduct in the city center. There was, of course, an abundance of delicious, fresh seafood dishes. The dishes came in snack size portions so trying a number of things was encouraged. I had an amazing paella (food of the sailors), smoked mussels, scallop bruschetta and some seared prawns with butter and herbs. There was also three music stages. When I was there, two local artists occupied the smaller stages and the main stage featured the Royal New Zealand Navy band. All three acts were great, but I especially loved the Navy band. My favorite part of the festival was watching a cooking demonstration by the head chef of the Sky tower restaurant. The demonstration was held in a room that was very much like a cooking show set- auditorium style seating with a stage and show kitchen. I also had a nice stroll along the viaduct after I left the festival. The area is very industrial, but at the same time clearly designed for public use. There are some great restaurants, a fish market, a park and lots of boats surrounding the entire area. Unfortunately, I left my memory card at home,deeming my camera useless. I will return today to take some pictures though.

Auckland Anniversary and Seafood festival brochures (Scanned)

I also went to the Auckland Botanical Gardens this weekend. As I mentioned previously, the Gardens are currently featuring an exhibit, "Sculpture in The Gardens." The exhibition featured 21 sculptures along a two kilometer trail. The sculptures were extremely varied in style and construction material. Some were made of bronze and stone while others were formed using fabric and recycled plastic. Here are just a few...

"Daisy Blanket"- recycled plastic and twine

"Splayed"- shovels, screws and pipes

"Project Zeltsitz in Gondwana"- steel, aluminum and fabric

I also walked around some other parts of the expansive gardens. I most enjoyed the New Zealand Native Forest Trail.

Its difficult to tell how tall these trees are from the picture, but trust me, they are enormous.

They are mostly of the Remu variety.

This portion of the trail was far less dense than most other parts.

 It was too dark in most parts for the other pictures to turn out unfortunately

Please ignore my wild wind-blown hair! The NZ native forest is behind me.

On Monday, the date of the Auckland Anniversary, I spent the day having a barbecue at home in the back garden. It was a wonderful relaxing afternoon. It rained in the evening so I was happy to have spent some time outside earlier in the day. Our neighborhood was quite dead on Auckland Anniversary, with just a couple cars parked on the street all day. It was funny to wake up this morning and see the street completely occupied with no available parking spots as everyone returned to work.

This week brings with it some significant changes for me (that took up a lot of my time last week, in fact). I will update you about these early next week. Some less significant happenings on the agenda are the usual class, work at Liggins and project work. I am also planning on attending a talk at the art gallery, going to the Auckland Lantern Festival this Friday, hopefully taking a trip to the Museum of Transport and Technology and also the Maritime Museum. I hope you all are having a great start to your week!

Until tomorrow...

Lots of Love,

A