Sunsets and Summer Weekends Away

Those shots are taken overlooking the glorious-ness that is Back Beach. On a recent weeknight walk, we dropped by to have a quick visit with friends who live near this beach and couldn't help but stop by the beach afterwards. This one has a legendary sand dune that you run down or ride a boogie board down. But don't run down it after a hot summer's day. The sand here is black which means it holds about a million degrees' worth of sunshine, even post-6pm. I suffered all the way down because the faster you go the deeper your feet sink with each step. Then the more burning you get further and further up your ankles and nearly to your calves. Lesson learned.

A wee glance at the Blues vs Crusaders game we were lucky enough to catch on our weekend in Auckland. Back when we booked the trip, I was scouring the web for events happening while we were in the city so we could make the most of it. However, I stopped looking a couple months ago and we found out this game was on the day before we left so it worked out perfectly. The Crusaders are Dustin's top Super Rugby team and although they were no match for the Blues this evening, we did get a free Blues flag which I happily flew just because it was fun. However, the evil looks Dustin shot me after finding it in the living room, perched on a lamp, haunt me still.

Hopmania! This is the selection of hops there is to choose from at the excellent Auckland Brewers Coop (which we are pretty sure is co-op, not coop as in chicken coop). It was a must on the Auckland tour and Dustin walked away with 3 bags of custom-mixed grains, milled on-site, for the next 3 batches of Maple Fern Brewing. The staff were amazingly knowledgeable and helped guide a stout recipe to incorporate the smoked grain they had available. It's going to be a good one.

And finally, another picture from Auckland. Out in the suburb where we stayed, a little Asian food court caught my eye and luckily we remembered how to find it after driving by in the dark on Friday night. Saturday's lunch consisted of beautifully spicy laksa and fried kuey teow. We don't have any Singaporean or Malaysian restaurants in New Plymouth... yet, maybe soon hopefully! We had planned to chow down on much more ethnic food due to the variety in Auckland but our other plans got in the way and our meals were mostly time-limited so we couldn't spend a long time hunting around for the best place. But this was absolutely the best meal of the weekend.