Weeks six & seven: trip up north and cookery course

I'll losing track of time now. I'm not sure what we did last week, but on Friday we hired a car and drove up north. We drove up through the kauri forests and saw the largest kauri tree which is thought to be nearly 2000 years old. We stayed a night in the small town of Rawene, staying in a cabin with the most stunning views across the harbour. We sat on the deck with a glass of wine watching the sun go down, then the next morning we had breakfast at the Boatshed cafe which is built on stilts in the water and visited the Koutu boulders which are perfectly rounded rocks along the beach.

On Saturday we drove to Kerikeri to meet my cousin who lives there are go to the Orchard and Ocean food festival. There was live music, lots of food stalls and competitions including the oyster eating competition. It was very hot and it was a relief to get back to their house to stick our feet in the pool. Our bedroom had a balcony overlooking the beautiful Bay of Islands. On Sunday we caught the ferry across to Russell for lunch before driving back down to Auckland.

On Tuesday I visited another school, this time in Massey, west Auckland. It was very different to Macleans with a majority of Maori and Pacific Island students. There was a great focus on the performing arts and I heard an amazing band practicing for the graduation ceremony that evening.
On Wednesday I attended a cookery class at the fish market and learnt how to cook crispy fish fillets with potato cakes and lemon sauce. I was pleasantly surprised how well the finished dish turned out!

So it's now the end of February and we've been in Auckland a month. Two more weeks to go before we head down to Dunedin so I better make the most of the sunshine while it's here!