Merry Christmas!

Hope its snowing for Christmas back in Sweden. We are in the middle of a different kind of white here; sand. It is, admittedly, not the same as having snow for christmas, but a pretty sweet substitute nonetheless.

Auckland skyline, on our way to Waiheke Island

Little Oneroa beach

The day before christmas was spent on the island of Waiheke, located 35 minutes by boat outside of Auckland. Spent the better part of the day on the beaches of Waiheke, doing nothing except a short hike to a nearby bay, before heading back to Auckland later in the afternoon.

Oneroa beach

Since it is christmas time, and since it is so hot and sunny here, we thought that for the sake of solidarity we should get a hint of what it is like back home, so we headed for the Minus 5 Bar in Auckland for some drinks later in the evening. It's a bar completely made out of ice, where you drink vodka drinks from a glass made out of ice, and where the temperature is, obviously, 5 degrees below zero. It is also a completely pointless place to visit, which we realized as soon as we entered the place. But we did it for solidarity, so it was ok.

Minus 5 bar

So, instead, in the spirit of solidarity, we instead headed to a bar called Lenin and had some drinks there. It was definatly a cool place, one of the bartenders turned out to be Swedish (and of course got mistaken for being Swiss by another bartender working there), and we also met this little green fella standing outside in the rain, and had to invite him in for a drink. He later joined our little fellowship.

I've always felt like, somebody's watching me

The little green fella

Today was spent exploring the city, since all of the, well, everything, will be closed tomorrow. We also visited Auckland Museum and looked at some local Maori culture and history.
We've only spent roughly two days here in New Zealand and Auckland but we really like it already. A comparison with Australia; everything in Australia wants to kill you... in the air, on land and in the sea. Its just full of things made for, and whos one purpose in life is, killing you in painful ways.

In New Zealand, however, you get the feeling that everything just wants to love you... and not even love you to death, just love you in a cuddly tender way. For instance, in Australia, Joakim almost stepped on a very venomous snake when hiking. A snake that probably deep down inside wanted to kill him. Here, in New Zealand on Waiheke Island, Joakim almost stepped on a tiny, fluffy and extremely cute little rabbit while hiking. Same same, but very different. And Sophie didn't panic this time.

Closest thing we could get to a Christmas tree this year

Tomorrow, on Christmas day, everything will be closed, so we'll wander around town for a bit before heading out for a sail with one of the boats from Americas Cup. Then later at night, since all restaurants will be closed, we'll be cooking up something in our room (yes, we do have a kitchen), and will drink some wine and watch Kalle Ankas - julafton, which Joakim borrowed from his local www library.

... and thats the story of Jesus.

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