Darin and I have been married 20 years! That's right, 20 years, wow. I proposed to him when we were living together in Fargo. Our second year of marriage, I was accepted to graduate school in Indiana, and he had to stay in North Dakota to finish his degree at NDSU. It was really hard living apart, but it got harder- despite his being my best friend. We worked it out, though. Marriage really is a process of working things out. No one stays the same forever, and that's a good thing. One thing that has stayed the same, and it is a very good thing, is that we agree that children are not what we want. This is a very important thing for a couple to agree on- no one should have parenthood forced upon them. Go ahead and call us DINKS (Double Income No Kids) or Selfish Heathens- we wear these like a badge of honor.
This isn't a post about our choices, this is about my fabulous new ring! Check out this flashy ice! The photo doesn't do justice to the colors flashed around when I move my hand. I have been happily distracted by my ring at my job this week. Like our first wedding bands of only gold, we found this at a pawn shop at a cost dramatically less than what a jewellrey shop would charge. Also, it is 18 karat gold, unlike most of the 9 karat crap sold in NZ.
As our anniversary was on a Monday, we celebrated with a dinner out. We went to Sails restaurant on Westhaven marina and ordered the grilled lobster for dinner. It was so delicious! I asked where the lobster was caught, and the waitress said the Chatham islands off the coast of NZ. We were equally happy with the fresh Clevedon oysters and tuna carpaccio. We also enjoyed a bottle of Nevis Bluff Pinot Gris.
When we returned from our trip to the US in July, we had a pre-planned trip on the Overlander train from Auckland to Wellington booked. We left Auckland the day after we returned from the US, early Saturday morning, and arrived in Wellington 12 hours later. It is a beautiful and leisurely trip with a stop at National Park (photo above taken there). I hope to do it again.
Wellington has great public transport, so we caught a bus to our hotel, the Museum Hotel, which is in a super location, just across the street from the national museum, Te Papa.
We'd been there before, but this time we saw a cool tapa cloth exhibit and the recently acquired giant squid. I love cephalopods! I also found a book on NZ spiders, and found the name of one I saw in our yard in Auckland, the two-spined spider. We had the most perfect weather for cruising around the farmer's and foodie market in the morning and walking along Oriental Bay and up Mt Victoria.
Wellington is such a nice city.
We flew back to Auckland on Jet Star, and the seats on the plane were really tightly packed. If you are tall, you definitely want to get an exit row seat on their planes. Also, I am not sure I would fly Jet Star for any travel more than a couple hours. But definitely I will take the train again.
