The Kiwi Burger

You probably know that the national bird of New Zealand is the kiwi.  We haven’t seen one yet, but here’s a photo.  

We’ll just put that on the “to do” list for now.  We have seen a lot of other cool things including the Auckland Museum, the Auckland Art Gallery, and the Botanic Garden.  All beautiful, inspiring (in their own way), and free!  That’s a real treat for us as residents since so many other things are expensive.  But too many photos for this week’s blog.

We’ve also taken some time just to hang out in our house, watch tv and get acclimated to NZ pop culture, advertising and humor (plus remember, we had no internet at home for the first 10 days!).  We’ve watched a Maori movie, “I’m a celebrity, get me out of here” from Australia, and even American Idol (thinking that Harry Connick Jr. is very goofy!).  We all really got a kick out of a McDonald’s commercial for the 25^th reunion of the Kiwi burger.  Imagine adults dressed in costumes representing each part of the burger (lettuce, tomato, meat patty, etc.), shy at first and then having a major dance party at their reunion.  You might have to see it to appreciate it.

We took the good part of a day last week to visit a huge park to the west on the Waitakere ranges.  It’s a great area with bush, rainforest, and amazing beaches.  We visited Lion Rock (pictured here) and the Karekare Falls (also pictured here).  

The surf where we live in St. Heliers Bay is very calm and welcoming for swimmers.  The surf by Lion Rock is for the much more adventurous and expert surfers.  The sand there is a beautiful color of black and gold.  We also enjoyed the Arataki Visitor Centre which gave us a good orientation to the area.

On the way home we had, you guessed it, a Kiwi burger!  We stopped at BurgerFuel, a bit more upscale that “Maccas” – that’s McDonald’s here.  The Kiwi burger had an egg and sliced beet on it.  We enjoyed it with L&Ps the local drink of “lemony good stuff” as their label says.  Cheers!