Yesterday was the 4th of July. Not such a big deal in New Zealand, but we made a good time of it anyway! As I said before, my co-workers kept asking about 4th of July because they thought that they could convince me to bring in pumpkin pie. I wanted to bring something in to share with them, but I didn't feel like going out to buy baking stuff, so I didn't. Plus, I wasn't around after lunch on Friday, the time when we normally share snacks and things, because I was at the hospital.
Fisher & Paykel has a good relationship with some of the hospitals around, so on Friday, I got to go visit one of the hospitals (Auckland General, I think). We went and brought the staff lunch and then we got a tour of the PICU. I didn't get to see very much of the hospital, but it was a good experience, and I think I'll get to go back sometime... Maybe to a different hospital or a different department, maybe the NICU.
After work on Friday I went to Girls' Night. There is another American at work named Laura and she invited me out so that I could meet some work people since I am new. We went to a Tapas bar in downtown Auckland and ate a bunch of food. Good times.
Paul hosted a 4th of July party at his house yesterday. I made 5-layer dip, but it was really difficult to find the proper ingredients at the grocery store! Refried beans ended up being over $4 per can!! Also, there were no avocados, so I ended up with frozen guacamole of some sort, and no jalepenos or serranos, so I got some red chillis. Tortilla chips are also kind of hard to find. There are a lot of funny flavored, circular, miniature tortilla chips. They're not bad, but they're definitely not taqueria worthy! I also bought a bag of tater tots... But we never ate them. =(
4th of July was a lot of fun. Paul, Jon, Jonti, Laura, Tim (a chemist from work), Sue (Tim's wife), and I hung out and ate a lot of food. Jonti was the only Kiwi there... Kind of funny to be in a room of Americans! Laura is a pyrotechnician, so we thought about getting fireworks, but we didn't have anywhere to launch them, but food was festive enough. Paul made really good chilli and macaroni and cheese. He also made homemade guac (I don't know why he could get avocados but I couldn't!). Laura made artichoke and tomato bruschetta... It didn't go with the All-American party food theme, but it was tasty! She also made homemade brownies. YUM! Sue made homemade chocolate chip cookies. It was fun and I ate way too much!
Jonti and me snacking.
Paul, Jon, and Laura dishing out the brownies.
The look on Paul's face is PRICELESS.
Today Paul, Jon and I went hiking at Waitakere. We did a short walk to the trail and then we did an 8 km loop. The Waitakere area looks like Jurassic Park! The trails are pretty well maintained. A local winery paid a lot of money to take care of the trail that we went on, Montana Trail. On our way down, we went on the wrong trail. We should have known because there was a tractor in the way. We went around the tractor and walked through some really thick clay-mud and then stopped when the trail ended at a scooper. I think they were actually building a new trail. Thankfully that segment wasn't very long, so it wasn't difficult to get back where we needed to be. The trail that we were on was being worked on, so there were some blocks and piles of gravel and stuff in the way. It was quite an adventure! It also started to rain briefly, but we were pretty well protected by the plants, so I didn't even need to take out my raincoat! The trail was a little bit muddy / slippery, but it was a great adventure! Oh- and it was in the area where they filmed some of Xena, Warrior Princess and Hercules.
The beginning of the hike.
A statue.
Tarzan.
A lake.
Walking down a muddy hill.
Scooper-duper!
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