Us being foodies and all, enjoyed the hippie type food that Auckland, possibly all of New Zealand offers. A lot of the food is local, organic, high quality and fresh. Everything advertises Manuka honey, including the bacon, ha. We heard that the Asians soak up the benefits of the NZ honey and buy it all up. I would be lying to say I am not going to be coming home with a bottle of honey myself.

Our Airbnb condo located in the City Centre of Auckland! A Nice two bedroom condo was overlooking the outdoor pool and gym. It was a perfect place for us for the first two weeks of our travels. One afternoon we noticed a bunch of massive (quite good looking) guys walk by us in the lobby, turns out the All Blacks Rudgy team was staying at our hotel. Apparently, this is a pretty big deal to see.

For the first week, we didn't have a rental car, so we did lots of on-foot exploring. Learned our lesson fast that the cars do not stop for pedestrians. One day we took an Uber to check out the Auckland Zoo. We were pretty disappointed in the zoo, and we kept getting lost due to significant construction they had. After a day in the heat looking for Animals that the signs would show and couldn't find, Jada ended up having more fun at the playground at the end of the Zoo.

One night we went on a date and got a babysitter. We wore our runners and downloaded the scooter App all excited to scoot around after our dinner to a lounge and home. Of course, the time we go to ride one we couldn't find any and ended up spending the last hour of our date walking the streets to see some. Oh well, maybe the next city in New Zealand will have scooters for us. It was very entertaining seeing all sorts of people riding the scooters around including men and women wearing work attire.

The set of Hobbiton movie was a 2.5 hour away drive to check out. Hobbiton located on a sheep farm in Waikato. As we were driving there, we were talking about how great our kids now are in the car and that we might even attempt to drive to Kelowna, BC this summer with them. Weeeeell on the way home we rethought that idea after Jada had a complete meltdown, screaming, kicking, you name it. All while Cruz had woken up from his nap crying. I was sitting in the back with the kids and felt Cruz and said we should pull over his diaper soaked through his clothes. We pulled over to realize his entire outfit was soaking wet of sweat. I had his car seat covering him mainly circulating sweltering air and almost overheating our 7-month-old. #PARENT FAIL. As for the set of Hobbiton, it was awesome! The maintenance of the scene was profound. They had gardens everywhere with mini-themes in front of each home. It looked right out of the movie (not that I have seen more than the trailer of it) with the 44 little doors/front entries. It is a must see - if you are close by it, ha.

One afternoon we hopped into our SUV to drive through some very windy what felt like one-way roads up and down to a black sand beach called Karekare, this is the beach that the movie Piano was filmed at. It was very picturesque with black sand that literally sparkled, lush green trees and huge ocean waves. We then drove 20 min away to Piha which was a little surf town full of hippies to get a coffee and a snack.

The Maori people (indigenous people of New Zealand) looks similar to the Native Hawaiian to us, turns out they are both part of the Polynesians family. We would say that overall the people here are like Canadians, they are friendly and helpful and not in love with kids like the Europeans.

Life sure has changed. We now keep an eye out for and hang out at playgrounds throughout the city. This city has some lovely playgrounds, the nicest we have ever seen actually. If you have been following along with our last Europe trip, you would have noticed a pattern of us complaining our kids are not sleeping. We are happy to admit the kids sleeping has improved 100% from a lot of work we put into while in Calgary between the trips. Jada is now sleeping all night, alone and even asks to go to bed if we haven't put her down by 7:30 pm. We are all up by 6:30 am every day, but hey that is ok when we get our nights free-ed up.

Overall, we enjoyed Auckland, and Jada loved going swimming every day, and Chris enjoyed the gym right out the door. The city reminded us of San Diego along the water with active people and the temperature while we were there was perfect.