First 40 Days: Birkenhead
A little over a year ago, my husband and I left our jobs to travel around the world. After selling over 80% of our belongings and packing the rest away in a storage unit, we left.
New Zealand had been an all time favorite (at the top of my list) for places to visit. My dad actually took a solo round the world trip at my age. He thrived by traveling and playing his harmonica. Playing his harmonica made him friends at the pubs, got him invited to share dinner and occasionally even a place to stay. I always admired his wanderlust and charismatic ways. He inspired me to travel and to take full advantage of any "off the beaten path" experiences.
Fast forward to the first 10 days of our round the world trip where we were based out of Birkenhead, NZ. To see my first article about our time there, click here! In that post I talk about our first WorkAway and some of our favorite spots we saw in the first 10 days.
Note: There were two towns that I didn't even mention in that first article, which is exactly what I intend to share with you now!
A morning off the beaten path
Alex and I jumped on the opportunity to accompany our hosts to a less known local market about a 30-45 minute car ride from Birkenhead.
There are two main sections of this market: the food and all the other stuff. After finding parking, we walked up to an outdoor mall covered courtyard where there was some rocking musical performances. In the mall were a variety of items for sale (clothes, pool toys, furnishings, etc.). Everything was significantly discounted, almost like a large variety of dollar stores. They were certainly fun to walk through, but quite overwhelming as well (with the overflowing shelves and aisle packed to the brim). So many colors, fabrics and choices. OH MY!
Just past the mall area and through the tunnel is the REAL market. Think of a weekend street market meets a thriving tropical farmers market. Fab. It expands over a large parking lot (about half a football field in size). This is a market where one can really see plenty of exotic foods. Every plate we ordered from the food carts was unique in that I had never tried the item or had it prepared in such a way (partially due to not being able to get all of the ingredients). It was all delicious. My favorite dish that day was this coconut poke.
On the way home, our hosts passed us a couple feijoas. The ones we had were about the size of a lemon. They tasted like a fizzy root beer to me, but no one else agreed with me on that description. We all gorged on a few, biting first into the skin to break into the fruit and then licking our fingers trying to savor every drip. It was the perfect way to end the day.
My next post will feature one of my very favorite moments of our entire trip: our journey from Auckland to the Routeburn Trail. There are quite a few fun stories to share from our time spent in Queenstown as we prepared for our trip, but I'll save that for next time.
One day, we took a (20 minute) ferry into the very beautiful and charming town of Devonport. I was immediately drawn to Mount Victoria when shoring up - which is (according to Wikipedia) the highest volcano on Auckland's North Shore (rising to 87 m). We spent about an hour walking through different shops and art galleries. Overall, I felt like the town was small and quaint. For example, there were half a dozen adorned bikes displayed around (I captured three of them for this post).
My favorite part about Devonport was ascending Mount Victoria. The views and the weather were both top notch. We didn't realize how much we would learn about the town's history once we stepped off the ferry: Devonport Naval Base is the home of the Royal New Zealand Navy. It is currently the only base of the navy that operates ships, and was a navy base from as far back as 1841.
As you can see from the pictures, the top of this mountain allows 360° views out to all the other islands (which must be pretty useful for the navy). What amazed me was the lack of effort to get to the top - it was actually quite easy and enjoyable.
One curious thing we noticed at the top of Mount Victoria were the painted mushrooms. Coming upon these felt very strange... because I almost thought I fell into a Mario video game.
TRIVIA QUESTION: What are these mushrooms?:
A) Props left over from the 1993 Super Mario Bros film scene.
B) Air vents for the tunnels in the hill itself.
D) Air vents for the water pumping system.
Answer: I've got statements defending both B and D, but the most correct answer is D (if we are all to believe Wikipedia).