Category: Auckland
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Scarborough New Year’s Day Dip
What kind of crazy person goes swimming in the North Sea in winter? My sister-in-law, that’s who. Yesterday, we went to Scarborough on the North Yorkshire coast, to join the New Year’s Day Lions Club fundraising dip. Ben’s sister swims every weekend in Lake Geneva so she is well-trained in icy dips. I thought about…
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Quality of life in York
People in York are shocked when I tell them how much I love living here. Why is that? There’s an assumption that life is better in New Zealand and Australia so I’m going to challenge that assumption with this blog post. Quality of life is partly subjective and so the things I love about York…
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Dental anxiety
I went to the dentist this morning. All was fine as it pretty much always is. But that doesn’t stop me from freaking out. What is it about the dentist that does this? I blame the school dental nurses of my childhood with their set of torture tools and creepy schadenfreude. The thing I hate…
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Bethells Beach
My sister left early this morning after a wonderful week for all of us. I wish we didn’t live so far apart. Yesterday we took her to Bethells beach on the west coast. I have visited most of the other west coast beaches – Piha, Muriwai, Karekare – but not Bethells. I like the west…
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Auckland: city of sails cars
I often complain about Auckland’s car-centric culture and a couple of recent events have emphasised just how dire the situation here is. A friend of mine was cycling to her home a couple of weeks ago when she was struck by a car from behind. Apparently the driver did not give way but will not…
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Devonport
My very lovely sister is visiting us from Brisbane. I haven’t seen her for two years so it is a big deal for all of us. Today I took her to Devonport which is a quaint village on the North Shore. I know I complain endlessly about Auckland but my complaints are related more to…
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Lake House Arts
A few weeks ago Daniel attended a dragon-making art class at the Lake House Arts centre. I took some nice photos but have been too busy reading scientific journals to upload them to my blog. Here they are at last: While Daniel was busy being artistic, Elizabeth and I wandered around the grounds. They…
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Parking for five cars
There’s an article in the NZ Herald this week, Auckland house prices vs world’s, which compares the median house price in Auckland – a whopping $670,000 – with other similarly priced homes around the world. The house chosen for comparison in Auckland, is a $675,000 five-bedroom, three-bathroom house in the suburb of New Windsor. New…
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Eruption vs meltdown
Which is the more likely: a volcanic eruption in Auckland or a nuclear power plant meltdown somewhere on Earth? The risk of the Auckland volcanic field erupting is 6% over 60 years. What is the risk of a nuclear power plant going into meltdown? The first nuclear reactor was built in Russia in 1954. There…
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Auckland Botanic Gardens
This coming July, we will have lived in Auckland for 2 years. Today, for the first time, we visited the Auckland Botanic Gardens. Why has it taken us so long? Well for a start, it’s miles away in South Auckland and the only way to get there is in a car on the motorway. What…
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OMG, EARTHQUAKE!
I was enjoying a very happy lunch with a friend of ours today when two pesky earthquakes came along and spoilt it. These are the first earthquakes I’ve felt since leaving Christchurch. They were little – Mag. 3.1 followed by a Mag. 3.9. I felt both. No-one else in our house felt the first and…
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The lucky boys
A little while ago I mentioned that Daniel and Elizabeth are sponsoring two roosters at an animal sanctuary, Arborfield Sanctuary, north of Auckland. Yesterday we visited the sanctuary and gave some of the roosters a cuddle. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It was a pleasure meeting Robyn and Malcolm who are clearly passionate about their…
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Housing in Auckland
There is much talk in Auckland at the moment about how to provide affordable housing for a growing population. Should the city continue with the urban sprawl that it is notoriously renowned for? Or should it densify and become more compact? I’m sure everyone can guess my thoughts on the matter. Urban sprawl = depression,…
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Auckland has a mother-in-law problem
Yesterday afternoon my fab husband babysat so that I could enjoy a could of hours skating at the ice rink. It was great exercise without feeling like exercise because it was fun and there was no risk of keeling over with heat stroke. This is how exercise should be. I could avoid the heat stroke…
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Waitangi Day
A friend of ours said to me this morning, “I read the article you wrote for Stuff Nation”. What!? A couple of weeks ago I made a blog post about how to save the world by bicycle. I’m quite passionate about this topic and really wanted to spread my thoughts and because I only have…
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Where are the penguins?
Yesterday I took the children to the snow and the beach on the same day. There are few places in the world where you can do this and I don’t count Auckland as one of them because the snow was fake snow at Snow Planet. Christchurch is just such a place though. Although the beach…
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Saturday morning at Takapuna
It has been quite hot here. Not as bad as the heat folks in Australia are enduring, but hotter than we’re used to. So we’ve been swimming in the sea every other day and I’m quite enjoying it. This morning I thought it would be nice to go for an early swim at Takapuna beach…
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2013 – what's in store?
2013 has begun with the loss of two good friends. One has returned to Australia and the other has returned to England. I will miss both of them very much. It is not just a loss for me but also for our children who have formed friendships with the children of my friends. Elizabeth in…
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Santa
We visited Santa at snowplanet today and the kids sat on his lap and discussed presents. They loved it. Then we had fun snow tubing with Dad, Olivia and TJ. Even Elizabeth loved the experience and was in hysterics when slipping and sliding down the slope. A photo of us all: Daniel has…
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