Anniversary trip to Auckland

So for awhile now, I have been wanting to write about my last trip to Auckland.  My hubby and I celebrated our 10th year Wedding Anniversary late March, so to celebrate we headed off on a road tip for a couple of nights and a concert.  

Our Friday "Anniversary" night was spent wondering around the CBD, checking out the night life and our celebration meal was at the fine Sharakau Japanese Restaurant on Queen Street.  Paul indulged in a seafood sushi set and I a vegetarian bento box.  Clearly my eye's were bigger than my stomach!  But boy was it delicious.  One thing we miss in the Bay is a Japanese Restaurant.    

The Saturday we headed straight to the Domain, I did want to take Paul to the Mt Eden landmark as I enjoyed it so much at my last visit, but after spending most of the day at the domain and museum, we had to give that a miss.  I bet even with a week in Auckland with all the sights, one still would not get to do everything.  I look forward to when we take the kiddies up there.

The Auckland War Memorial Museum

These two top images were actually taken during my February Auckland visit.  However it was late in the day and was closed as I walked through the Domain.  This latest trip again we were blessed with fantastic weather.

The Charlton Light Machine Gun

Ok, there is oodles of history in the museum, so much to write about, but as I'm not a great writer, I wont go on too much. 

One thing that took my eye was this gun.  If you have not seen it before, this is a Charlton Rifle, it's a light machine gun designed and patented by an Englishman Mr Philip Charlton, living in New Zealand in 1941.  

Around 1500-2000 were assembled by woman in the Charlton Motor Workshop in Hastings, New Zealand.  It was built to fill a shortage of light machine guns at the time. 

In service	1942-1945
Used by	New Zealand
Production history
Designer	Philip Charlton
Designed	1941
Produced	1942-1945
Variants	Electrolux SMLE Model
Specifications
Weight	16 lb (7.3 kg), unloaded
Length	44.5 in (1150 mm)
Cartridge	.303 British
Calibre	0.303 inch (7.7 mm)
Action	Gas-operated semi-automatic
Rate of fire	600 rounds/minute
Muzzle velocity	2,440 ft/s (744 m/s)
Effective range	1,000 yards (910 m)
Maximum range	2,000 yards (1830 m)
Feed system	10-round magazine or 30-round Bren gun magazine
Sights	Sliding ramp rear sights, fixed post front sights  (sourced from Wikipedia)

     

It was a fully automatic rifle made from redundant "Lee-Enfield" rifles from the Boer War.  Designed to be used as a semi automatic rifle, however had the function to be used as a full  auto should it have been needed.  I'm loving the inventive and resourceful nature of Mr Charlton, however it saddens me as I think of it being used in war. 

Unfortunately there are very few of the Charlton rifles left as most were burnt in an accidental fire in a Palmerston North armoury.  Luckily for us there are a few survivors in museums in New Zealand and England.     

I have had to google a bit to find information about the rifle, please check out my Clipix folder to read some articles: http://www.clipix.com/clips.aspx?clipboardid=120834

Spit Fire

A beautiful lotus from the Winter Garden, Auckland Domain 

Apparently camera's aren't allowed in the winter garden.  Oops, didn't read that sign until after we had been in.

So after several hours at the Museum if was time to leave to visit friends and get ready for the concert.  

So after a wee rest from all our walking around the domain and museum, we headed out to visit friends Jacqui, Sean and their family.  Jacqui has been an awesome online friend for many years and "when in Rome" as they say, it was time to meet in person.  Awesome thing was Paul got on with Jacqui and her husband (I knew they would).  Well to be honest my hubby gets on with most people, he's a fantastic conservationist!  Thanks Jacqui, Sean and kiddies for a lovely hour or so, the historical and inspiration discussions we had!

Then it was onto the show, Blaqk Audio and Evanescence at the Vector Arena.  What excitement, Paul could hardly hold me down as I screamed out and jumped franticly.  Wow, finally after many years of being a fan of  bands AFI and Blaqk Audio, I got to see Davey Havok and Jade Puget live.  Sadly they only played for about 30 minutes and I wished I could have been there professionally photographing them with my DSLR camera.  The mobile and pocket camera just didn't cut the mustard with Davey's energy as he danced and jumped around.  Evanescence was awesome too, boy Amy can sing!  The night raced on too quickly.  And now a month later already it's like a distant memory.

After the show, Paul and I headed but into the CBD to find Davey!   OK, not much luck there, but Davey did tweet me which was nice.  A simple "thank you" reply to my tweet to him.  Then we headed to a Ken Yakitori Bar for supper.  That was delicious, we tried Ginkgo Nuts, quite different, but nice. A lovely way to end the night.  A shame our departure out of Auckland wasn't so good.

Yep our car broke down.  Not a nice feeling being strangled in a huge city on a Sunday.  There were lots of "What if's" and "If only it broke down on Saturday".  But life is life and we had to soldier on with a plan.  After the roadside assistance couldn't help and our car was towed away to a secure lock up, my cousin and his family kindly offered their home and a bed.  Thanks so much to Glen, Ashwin and Erika.  You were awesome company and I hope we can return the favour in time.  So after spending an extra night in the big smoke, the next day we pursued to get our car fixed.  Ever thankful to a mobile mechanic and before we knew it we were on our way home.

A huge thanks to my supportive Mum and bonus Dad for taking extra special care of our kiddies and my bro for house minding while we were away!  An awesome trip away experiencing new adventures and home is always great to come home to.  Now it must be time to plan another holiday, this time with the kiddies.