Auckland

While everyone in the States was gearing up for 4th of July, I was gearing up for a trip to Auckland!  That's right, my weekend started out with Indy, my mother-in-law, Stevie, and myself piling into the car and hitting the road for a bit of shopping.  Ben got me up around six in the morning, and I started getting ready.  I was feeling perky enough to ALMOST put on makeup.  Notice I said almost...it didn't happen.  I took one look at the colossal bag of products I had not touched since February, and I said nope, not today!  Instead, I turned my attention to waking Stevie up, gently.  Miss Unimpressed grumbled about while I changed and dressed her.  Once in the car, she promptly went back to sleep and stayed that way until we got to Auckland. 

Little Stevie...awake in Auckland

Getting to Auckland was quite uneventful.  We timed it well, so traffic was minimal....that is until we took a wrong turn...or failed to take the right one.  We ended up taking the scenic route across the harbor bridge.  On the bright side, I got a chance to take a few pictures from the car.  On the not so bright side, I think we went out of our way by about 45 minutes...lol

Here's a few pictures

Auckland

Harbor Side with lots of boats

Sky Tower

Sky Tower

Tip Top Ice Cream!!

 No matter how much I grumbled, I could not stop cars, signs, or guard rails  from photo-bombing my pictures. 

We did make it to the mall in Onehunga, and that's where we stayed for the remained of the day.  There is something I like about public buildings in New Zealand.  They are family friendly.  They have a parent's rooms that have comfy chairs with curtains around them so you can nurse in private, heating stations for bottles and baby food, nicer changing facilities, and some even have televisions. 

I had just returned from one of the parent's rooms with Stevie, and I see Indy trying to be a ninja and take pictures unnoticed.  She asked if I had heard of the boxer David Tua, and she proceeded to point him out.  He was sitting not far from us.  We were both acting like paparazzi and snapping pictures on the sly, but apparently we weren't sneaky enough.  He smiled and waved.

Busted by David Tua

He got up, and we figured he was leaving, but nope...he came over and started talking!  At this point, Indy and I are having a conversation that goes something like this "Omg!  He came over!!  How awesome is that?!  Omg, David Tua hugged and kissed me on the cheek...I have to tell Kepa!  Call Ben and tell him!"  The whole time, she and I are still taking pictures, and he's talking to Mom.  It's like they were best friends or something.  Don't ask my why we weren't over there chatting with them.  For some reason, we talked about him not to him.  After about 10 minutes or so, he said goodbye, and we all continued to talk about him for the rest of the day.  He really was super nice, and very down to earth. 

David Tua...talking with my cropped out mother-in-law

We figured that was a nice ending to our day in Auckland, and we soon made our way home.  There was a bit more traffic on our way out of Auckland, and I had a couple of giggles at with Indy.  She played Nascar a couple of times and barreled across all lanes of traffic to get in the lane she needed to be in, and then I thought she had a 'Towanda moment' when trying to get on the exit ramp from a red light.  You know what a Towanda moment is, right?  Fried Green Tomatoes?  Click here if you don't know because this is something you really should know about!!

No, we did not crash into anyone while getting on the exit ramp, but we did however turn right when we should have went straight...accidentally.  Not "accidentally" but really, accidentally.  Needless to say, the car behind us let us in because I'm pretty sure whoever was driving thought we were crazy and not above causing a wreck.  If you were that driver, we're sorry...she didn't mean to do it...she was foggy headed because she met David Tua.  

Other than that, our trip home was nice and quiet with Nanna and Stevie asleep in the back, but it did include a planned detour to....Pokeno!!!

Getting off at Pokeno

What's a Pokeno?  Pokeno is a little town between Auckland and Hamilton.  Once there, you stop at one of two places A) Pokeno Bacon or B) Pokeno Takeaways.  Option A is self explanatory...bacon, or meat to be more exact, but from what I've been told, it's all about the bacon.

Pokeno Takeaways

Option B is all about the ice cream.  40 flavors to be exact, and you can get them all dipped in chocolate.  The most impressive thing about this little ice cream place is the 19 scoop cone you can get for $26.  That's right...19 scoops of ice cream piled high onto a cone. The three of us opted for single scoops of ice cream.

Here's mine...

My poor ice cream

It DID have a wonderfully delicious scoop of butter pecan, but it had an unfortunate accident....

Poor poor ice cream...

My ice cream hit the asphalt when I went in for a lick.  I could have went back in for more, but apparently I didn't need it...lol  I did however have some of Indy's goody goody gumdrop!!

Sharing with Indy

After everyone's belly was full, we were back on the road for Hamilton.  It didn't take long to get back, but then it took forty forevers to actually to get home once we were in town.  Why did it take so long?

Tractors in Hamilton

That's right...a tractor!!  I laughed so hard, and all I could do was think about Alabama and all the times I grumbled about being stuck behind a tractor.  We did finally make it to the house. 

It was a great way to start the weekend.  On Saturday, we went to the Craft Expo, and on Sunday we went to see Nanna.  In other words, we had a nice and cruisy weekend.  I hope all of you had a lovely weekend full of fireworks (if you're in the States), and I hope you have a wonderful week, too!