Happy Birthday to Carla

I just wanted to do a quick post about my birthday! We have the greatest friends here in New Zealand, and we were able to go out to dinner on Friday night to The Waterfront Cafe (which Matty and I have been to A MILLION times haha!). Of course, you cant get away from the rain in NZ, and walking is not fun in the rain! We had to walk from Matty's work to dinner, which was a good 15 minute walk in the rain. Lots of fun haha! But once we got there, we enjoyed the heat lamps, yummy food and much needed cocktails! Also, Matty had it planned that our friend Claudia would make me an awesome cake! Was so pretty and mighty yummy! Thank you to everyone who came to dinner and for all the wonderful pressies :)

Saturday, woke up to nice weather (we take it when we can), went to the farmers market, got a cake tray from a baking shop, got some "lollies" from The London Lolly Shop, and headed to lunch at our favorite japanese restaurant, Haro No Yume, where I got a free sushi roll for my bday. Yes, they do know us by name, as we do go there at least once a week haha. :D After lunch, we headed home, got to skype with all of the fam, talked to my brother and his wife about coming over (3ish weeks to go!) then went to a wonderful dinner at a cute little french restaurant, La Cantine du Torchon. Had the best steak ever and Matty enjoyed some Beouf Bourguignon. Then went home, watched a movie, and called it a night!

Overall, best birthday ever, even though my mom thought I was turning 25 not 24. Thanks mom! Haha just kidding, love you lots :)

Here's some pictures from my bday:

https://picasaweb.google.com/104540783822954012462/CarlaS24thBday?authkey=Gv1sRgCLOJ4Yndg9eFpAE&feat=directlink

Hanua Falls

Thanks to Queen Elizabeth (the original Queen) having a birthday, Matty got a day off work yesterday, which of course meant that we had a three day weekend. We wanted to make sure that we made good use of it, but since we have an anniversary coming up, we want to save a little bit of money. We decided not to go out of town, but we still wanted to get out of the city, so we rented a car, and each day we went a little ways out of the city.

Day 1 we went to Albany, to the Westfield Mall (yes this is where the tornado was. but its ok, were safe), which is about 20 minutes by car away from where we live. The mall was a girl's heaven, and we spent ALL day there. We didnt spend all our money there but we did manage to get a casserole dish so I can make Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon, we got groceries much cheaper, and we even saw X Men First Class. I know this makes me a huge dork, but MAN that was a great movie! I would definitely recommend it to anyone thinking about seeing it.

Day 2 (Sunday), we found a church! Woohoo! We have been trying to find one for a while now, and our pastor back home (thanks Pastor Dan!) found this one for us. Funny enough, its called Grace Baptist Community Church. The only problem was that it is pretty far from where we live and without a car, its sure not easy to get over there. We wanted to take advantage of having the car, so we went, and fell in love with the church. Its really tiny, but they teach what we believe, so we will be finding a way to get there every weekend if we can. The best part of this church is that it is run by an American pastor with the last name of Walker! Too funny!

After church on Sunday, we took a drive just an hour away, to a place called Hanua Falls. It is a nature reserve that has a 30 meter waterfall right off the road! You dont even have to take a hike to get there! Thats pretty awesome! Here is my funny husband posing for a picture in front of the fall.


And me.

After seeing the fall, we took a small hike, and were able to see some pretty awesome plant and bird life. NZ has some really great birds here. We saw the famous Tui bird, who sounds like R2D2 (google it; its awesome), and another bird called a Fantail. He was so cute and he seemed to be following us around. Too cute. We even saw a hawk, but was unable to take a picture of it.

And for the last day of the weekend, we spent it skyping with family and friends, and went back to the mall (I know, I AM a girl afterall). It was SO much fun and a relaxing weekend.

Here is the link to the rest of the pictures from Hanua Falls.

https://picasaweb.google.com/104540783822954012462/HanuaFalls?authkey=Gv1sRgCJDgvp7UmpySPA&feat=directlink

Also, go check out www.carlascookingwithoutakitchen.blogspot.com to see our new apartment.

Hanging out with the Walkers

Hey guys!

Sorry its been SO long since we have done a blog post! We havent been up to much, trying to save some money, spending time moving into our new apartment, and most importantly, trying to save up money so we could spend some time with Matty's parents!

I will put up pictures of our apartment on my baking blog so you can see that I can no longer call it "Cooking Without a Kitchen".

Matty's parents arrived here on April 13th, left NZ on the 28th :( and we hit the ground running and didnt stop moving the entire time! As Matt and John like to say, we were going 90m/h or 144.8km/h the whole time they were here haha :D.

Unfortunately Matty had to work, so he wasnt able to spend the entire time with his parents, but the first weekend we all went up to the Bay of Islands, which is about 3 hours north of Auckland. Over Easter weekend, Matty took Thursday, Friday and Monday off and we flew down to Queenstown, one of the most southern parts of the South Island. So although Matty had to work most of the time, he was able to spend a lot of good time with his parents, and we were able to see A LOT of the country!

The very first day the Walkers arrived, we took a walk downtown, went to the Sky Tower, walked all the way to Parnell (which is about a 30 minute walk from the city, and I may have underestimated the walk a bit haha), had lunch and took the bus back to the apartment! John and Denise were happy about that :)

Here's what we did while they were here:
-Viewed the CBD and Parnell
-Went to the Auckland Museum
-Ate dinner at the Sky Tower
-Ate the best dinner ever at Pasti's (French restaurant)
-Went to the Bay of Islands
-Took a 40 minute drive to Piha Beach
-Ate dinner at Buenes Aires, an Argentinian restaurant
-Flew down to Queenstown for Easter weekend, where we got to hang out with our good friends Mo and Matt Dearing (oh yeah and also got to see Sam Neill at a wine festival). Queenstown was such an AMAZING town, we didnt want to leave! We got to go see so many things, and got to spend so much time with Mo and Matt, who recently moved from Auckland to Christchurch, so we dont get to see them much anymore. The colors were so pretty (its fall here), and the South Island is a lot colder than the north, so they are hitting fall harder than we are here. It was so much fun, we didnt want to come back here! I could live in Queenstown EASY!
-Watched people bungy jump (no way we didnt do that!)
-Went to Waiheke Island (a 40 min ferry ride from Auckland)
-Went to Devonport (a 20 min drive from Auckland)
and SO much more that I cant even remember it all!

We had such an AMAZING time and we were all sad to have them be leaving. It was so great, and to us, it honestly feels very surreal. It almost feels like a dream. It went by so fast, but it is so nice that we were able to have such a special time!

Im going to post a link to the pictures, and I will post more later. I had to stop uploading them because the internet was having some problems, but I will post more as soon as I can.

Enjoy and check back soon, because I PROMISE I will put up more as soon as I can :)

https://picasaweb.google.com/104540783822954012462/WalkersTrip?authkey=Gv1sRgCOWWv4HbsaGogQE&feat=directlink

Art Auction

Hey Everyone!

So as everyone knows there was the big earthquake in Christchurch, NZ. And now there has been a huge one in Japan... pretty crazy things happening in the world right now.

One of my friends and fellow animator at work, Claudia Kleinheinz, has organized an art auction where all the money for every piece of art we sell will go to the Red Cross charity for Christchurch. I have donated a piece of art along with some incredibly talented artists from around the world. We have got character designers from Walt Disney Animation Studios and animators and illustrators who are internationally known. Check out the link below and see some of the art that has been submitted so far. When the auction begins, feel free to bid on some art work. You could buy an incredible piece of art for your home, as well as contribute to a good cause.

http://www.art-for-christchurch.blogspot.com/

Thank you for checking this out and we appreciate your support.
Matt & Carla

People of Auckland

Hey everyone!

Its been a while since the last post, but we are doing good! On a serious note, there has been a huge earthquake in Christchurch, which has made international news. Its pretty bad, but Carla and I are safe. We are actually quite far from the damage. But the people down there are going through a hard time, so our prayers go out to them.

But to lighten things up a bit, I wanted to do a post about the people in Auckland. I walk to work everyday and I see SO many interesting people in the city. There are some characters in this city! So I've made it a goal of mine to find someone everyday that sticks out to me. Then when I get to work I sketch them! Its fun, and it gets me off to a nice, creative start to my day of animating. Here is a few of the people I see around Auckland, New Zealand!

Backpack Surfer

All Angles

Little Fat Guy waiting at the light

Mr. Slick

Right out of the 50's

Ultra Skinny Woman grabbing a pastry

Tiny Legs

Gracefully skipping over a puddle (shoes in hand)

Morning skateboarder

Running fingers through her hair

I hope you liked them, I'm still learning everyday. And there are certainly some challenges that I'm trying to get through.... the dreaded hands! haha But I'm really enjoying this creative outlet. And like I said, its even helping my animation. I'm seeing posing clearer and developing a strong shape language. Everyday I'm learning more and more.

Oh, by the way, I got a new desk at work! I'll do a post with some pictures soon!

-The Walkers

Auckland Seafood Festival

Yesterday Carla and I got to go to a really fun event. The Auckland Seafood Festival! It was so cool. We were by the water with all of these really nice boats around. And it was a day that we got to try some really good and fresh fish!



First we tried some smoked marlin. That was so good with a really nice smokey flavor. Next we went and bought some fresh full prawns! Here is Carla with a basket of them.



So if you know me, Im picky and I dont really like shrimp. But I thought hey, Im at a seafood festival, I might as well try! So I did and they were so good! Carla and I had a great time pulling them apart and eating some great prawns.

It was a really cool festival with tons of people. We even got some ice cream later. It was definitely a day of trying new things, we even saw something we had never seen before. And that was a woman walking around wearing nothing but paint! We are certainly in another country! But we had so much fun, and the food was fantastic!

We also had some wine there which was great and we got these cool wine glasses that we can keep forever!

Here are Carla and I at the end of the festival. We had such a great time and got to try some fanstastic seafood!

And again, heres a link to the rest of the pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/113213028584633461065/AucklandSeaFoodFestival2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCOaO5vboj4DCSA&feat=directlink

Just to let you guys know, we will still be putting up posts, but we are going to be trying to stay in a bit to save up some money so when our families come and visit, we can go on some adventures with them!

Keep checking in!

Matty and Carla

Holiday Road Trip Part 2 - Wellington

Ok, so please forgive us for taking so long to finish our posts on our holiday trip. We have been really busy, and mostly, we have just been slacking. But without further ado, here is Wellington!

So after having a blast in Rotorua, we got on the road again and headed down to Wellington. You cannot imagine how green the entire country is. It is just so crazy, that we had to show you all a picture of the scenery that we were driving through.

And for all you nerds (and non-nerds) who have seen the Lord of the Rings movies, this next picture is of the infamous Mt Doom! And isnt this just a great picture of it, with the fog rolling off of it.... very dark haha

Then we got down to Wellington, and a couple friends of ours were so great and let us stay with them. It was so fun haning out with them and being shown around Wellington. When we got there, we didnt really know what we were going to do, so Emily, who we were staying with, took us to Mt Victoria, which is also a small Mount in Auckland (very creative these Kiwi's are); but the view from here was incredible. As you can see behind us, that is a view of the Wellington harbor. Its such a pretty city.

We then went out to Thai food with Jeff and Emily and some of Jeff's coworkers. Those people were great, and really funny. That was also our first time having Thai food! So we were a little nervous but it ended up being really really good!

The next day we went to the Wellington Botanic gardens and those were pretty amazing. We even got to ride a cable car up to them. Then me, Carla, and Emily went to Jeffs work to pick him up for lunch. Jeff works at Weta so we all wanted to go check out the Weta Cave which is their gift shop and film sculpture displays. Right here is one of the Orcs from Lord of the Rings. It was probably 7 feet tall!

And here is Gollum! The sculpture is so cool and detailed! It was a ton of fun to seem, and Carla and I were dorks and both got pictures with it.

We went out to lunch and had a great time hanging out. Then after we dropped Jeff off, Emily took us for a drive around the harbor. Its so beautiful, and there are so many turn offs. So we stopped at this little rocky area. It was amazing! The water was so crystal clear and there were sea shells everywhere. Carla even found a full abaloni shell!!

Emily was even kind enough to take a picture of us with the beautiful background :) That area is so cool, all of the houses are built on a cliff and some of them even have a gondola to take them from the garage to the house! We also stopped at a beach that was so different from any we have ever been to. Instead of sand it had little smooth multi colored rocks. It felt very strange to walk through. Also, another different thing about the beach, is that it is a clothes optional beach... haha yeah. Pretty funny. We also hear that in the winter it is not rare to see a blue penguin at that beach! Too bad we wont be there to see it. But we did see some bright blue jellyfish! At the end of this post we will put a link to the rest of the pictures from our trip, that way you can see what weve been talking about! Please go check them out!

The last thing we did in Wellington was took a night tour at this place called Zealandia! The four of went on this tour that went from 8 to 11pm. You walk through a nature reserve in the pitch black dark and you listen to all the different kind of wildlife. We saw and heard lots of NZ bird life, including the Tui bird, the Kaka bird (a NZ parrot), and tons of others. We also got to see this animal in the picture below. It is called a Tuatara, which is a lizard, but the cool thing about this animal, is that it is considered to be the last of its species. Which species is it you ask? The dinosaur species of course!

On this tour, when it got really dark, we were able to see hundreds upon hundreds of glow worms lighting up the cliff walls as we were walking along. We were unable to take pictures of them of course, but they were astounding to see. They looked like small bright blue LED lights just floating in mid-air. It was really cool!

Now, as cool as all of this was, we were not going to be happy if we paid for this tour and were unable to see/hear the main event.....

We were walking along a path, all trying to be very quiet, when our tour guide said "Stop! Look there!" and we saw a KIWI bird running across the path right in front of us. Please go google a Kiwi bird if you have never seen one, because they are the cutest (funniest) looking animal ever, and looks like it should be extinct! It was so cool to see one running across our path. They are these little, clumsy, flightless birds (dont even have wings) and this one just walked around without a care in the world. It didnt even care that we were standing not 5 feet away from it. It was so amazing, and this is one of the hardest birds to see here, as they are night animals, and are mostly found in the "bush" or woods. Of course, we were unable to get pictures of these either, but we will never forget them!

And the links to the rest of the pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/113213028584633461065/RotoruaWellington?authkey=Gv1sRgCLvCmvWThcWhHw&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/113213028584633461065/RotoruaWellington2MattyCam?authkey=Gv1sRgCMSNxpeq6afUUA&feat=directlink

Thanks so much and hope you all enjoy the pictures.

Love,

Matty and Carla