Sunset walks

We went for a low tide walk at sunset today. I must admit, it's really nice to be able to walk out your front door to the beach at will. Also, the water wasn't as cold as I was expecting, so I got to dip my feet in on the walk. :)

Brunch in the Sky

So today P took me out for a special brunch in the Sky Tower at the revolving restaurant at the top. It's only about half as high as the Sears tower, but has spectacular views.











It was really relaxing to sit and enjoy a delicious brunch while taking in 360 degree views of the city as the restaurant revolved around the tower.












We also wandered around the observation deck and looked through the glass windows on the floors. Supposedly it's as strong as a concrete floor, though we were both a bit hesitant to step on them!

Oh, and we also got to see the sky jumpers glide down past our table. No free falling though, it's just a glide down between the wires. It'd still be a nice trip I imagine. We also saw a few sky walkers, walking around the outside of the sky tower with a private guide.  It's a scary trip.








View of the volcano Rangitoto behind the city.

Devonport

Cheers!

Today we wanted to get out of the city a bit, but we slept in so missed the ferry we had planned to take to the nearby volcano. Instead, we took a drive across the bridge to nearby Devonport, a beautiful town with old Victorian style houses and two volcanic hills~ Mt Victoria and North Head. The views from both were beautiful.

Here is a view from North Head looking toward the city, but there were also great views of the nearby volcano Rangitoto and our neighborhood as well.

As you can see, North Head was used as a military fortress of sorts and had lots of tunnels and caves to be explored, as well as the remains of some 'disappearing cannons' that hide back underground from the recoil of the shot.

After exploring the hills, we went back into town to check out the antique shops, book stores and chotskies.  Overall it's not much different from many historic down town areas I've walked through in the US, but still charming and made even more so with the sea side and volcano and city views.

Kapa Haka

This weekend we went to see a Maori presentation of Kapa Haka Super 12s at the harbor downtown Auckland. This is a traditional Maori song and dance routine that consists of a few different elements, including the traditional Haka which consists of chanting, stomping and of course the crazy, intense stares and facial expressions such as the one to the right.






Most of the groups we saw were dressed in traditional clothing and played their own instruments, usually a guitar and some sort of drum. An example of the traditional clothes can be seen here. Grass skirts and painted faces.







While the men generally did the scary intimidating parts, the women danced a slower, calmer dance which consisted of swirling around a 'poi', or a ball attached to the end of a string. Most of the routines had some comedic aspect, but only some used enough body language for us to understand- the whole performance was in the Maori language.



Overall, it was very interesting to see the cultural performances and listen to the good music, even if we couldn't understand the words.