SLIDER

A week in my life in Auckland, New Zealand

Monday 13 August 2018

I say this all the time, but I cannot believe how long I've been away from home; it's been almost eight months since I left the UK on New Years Eve. Having spent a couple of months in Southeast Asia and five more in New Zealand, Jonny and I have just arrived at our new home in Australia. 
My time in New Zealand was completely unscheduled but I soon got into a routine. With the job hunt starting all over again here in Oz, it got me reminiscing about months past in Auckland.

So what did I get up to in an average week?

Wednesday

It's a super miserable morning but I'm not too worried because it's National Pineapple Day and I somehow got myself invited to a cocktail party with Dole, the pineapple suppliers here. I met up with my English friend, Emily and we spend the evening drinking pineapple cocktails with the Dole team at Talulahs, a tiki bar by the harbour. 

Thursday

I woke up with a hangover so Thursday was a little bit slow as you can imagine. Jonny is working night shifts this week so after work, I turn the heated blanket on and get straight into bed. Made myself dinner, called my mum and spent the rest of the evening scrolling through Instagram.

Friday

It was my last day at the insurance office I work at and it was a little bit bittersweet. I was only meant to be temping for four weeks but I'm finishing my placement 3 months later with an annoying 10 day gap before we leave. I guess it's a good excuse to just chill out for a bit before the travelling starts again though.

Since Jonny is at work again, I got myself dinner from Jar Story near where I work; beef and quinoa salad, chocolate chia pudding and an almond milk and date shake. It was still sunny when I got some so I ate it out in the garden. 
Jonny ended up home by 10pm so we decided to make the most of our Friday night and headed back into the city to hit up the Casino. 

Saturday

We got up early and drive to our favourite cafe, Little Sister for breakfast and as usual I was very excited, just look at the first page of the menu and you'll understand. Last week I went for the oats and I spent the whole week thinking about what I was going to order when we got back. This time I ordered the chocolate hot cakes. Yum.
Since we seemed to be on a winning streak after last night, we went back to the casino this afternoon, stopping off at the gym, and then GIAPO on the way. It will always be my favourite place for extravagant ice cream so I am trying to squeeze in as many visits as I can before we leave. The shop was full as usual but we managed to grab seats inside so this time I could sit and watch the magic happen in the kitchen.

Everyone seemed to be loving the new New Zealand sheeps milk and banana flavour, I watched one hand crafted cone, dipped in chocolate and topped with peanut and banana go out after another; I admit, I was very tempted - they looked incredible but I'm not huge on peanut butter so I went for my usual Hokey Pokey - plus an extra scoop of caramel & hazelnut praline underneath. Coated with thick milk chocolate and honeycomb pieces I was in heaven.
After another suspiciously good run at the casino, we headed home, via the supermarket (for chocolate raisins and dried apricots) and then to HELLS pizza. We watched Game of Thrones in bed until the early hours of the morning.

Sunday

You would have thought we'd be sick of eating by now but oh no, not when there is brunch to be had! We found a paleo café just across the road from the gym. I ordered my avotoast minus the toast on a sweet potato rosti with a date and cacao smoothie and it was delicious!
Next; we head to the gym. again. I've never been to the gym so much in my entire life but with Jonny going every day, its super easy for me to just go with him and strangely enough, I am actually really enjoying it. Sometimes I really push myself but sometimes, I just go for a walk on the treadmill and just look at it as getting a little bit of movement into my day. Sunday morning is Yoga!
It was such nice weather when we left that we decided to go on a bit of an adventure, it was going to be our penultimate weekend in Auckland after all. But first; more food. Jonny picked up a Lamington since I'd not had one and then we went out in search of a waterfall. After getting a bit lost, we ended up at the beach which was just as good a place as any to settle down and fight over who got the biggest half of cake. lol
After a few more episodes of GoT, somehow it was 11pm. Since we had been in bed for a few hours so I thought I could safety assume that I was done eating for the day but apparently not; I can never assume when it comes to Jonny and McDonalds. After spending the journey deliberating about whether I really needed to eat any more, when I saw an advert for the new mint chocolate shake, there was no stopping me. With no whipped cream left, they suggested topping it with soft serve instead and it is the only way I'm ever going to order my milkshakes again. SO GOOD.

Monday 

My first day off started with 4am alarm because a week of late shifts is always followed by a week of early shifts. After Jonny turned all the lights on, made a big mess and left for work, I fell back to sleep until 10. Finally with some time to myself, I made a start of my inbox which I had been severely neglecting over the past few weeks and started thinking about what blog posts I wanted to get done with my time off before all the madness started again. Then I get a call from a recruiter offering me work for the next day. 

Tuesday 

It was another early start today but this time I actually had to get out of bed. I was just covering a receptionist who was off sick for a few days but it was in a part of town that I hadn't been to before so I had fun trying to navigate my way there. I don't know why but I have always wanted to do a receptionist job; well, now I can tick that off of my list!

It's been a simple life over the past few months; lots of eating (because it's one of my favourite things to do) and a little bit of exploring too. New Zealand has been cold and we both had full time job but it's still been a lot of fun!
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