Takapuna Beach, New Zealand

As my flight was not until the afternoon, I had time to go for a walk in Takapuna to a place that was recommended to us. It was the local beach in Takapuna.

It was a nice spring morning and there were lots of people out walking their dogs and exercising. 

Apart from proper beer, this is one of the other things I miss about living in Vietnam, being able to go for nice walks. As anyone who has been to Ho Chi Minh City knows, its not really a place for walking.

So, this is the end of my New Zealand trip! I can't believe I got to go here with work. I've learnt a lot and had a great time. Although I've not really got to see anything its been great nevertheless. I arrive back in Ho Chi Minh City (after 14 hours of flying) just after midnight and have to be at work at 7:30am as its an assessment week. It's not going to be easy but the tradfe off was worth it.

Night out in Auckland

I've not come on my own to New Zealand but with a colleague who works in the Hanoi office. Also we work closely with an assessment team in Australia who I'd never met before but who were attending the conference. 

On the last night we went out for some refreshments in the city centre. It was nothing messy but just a really nice evening getting to know people while having a few drinks. 

It felt very similar to going out in the UK and it was nice to have the choice of some nice real ales, one of the biggest things I miss from home. 

Its been a fantastic trip and a great conference. 

Auckland City Centre

As I previously said, we are staying in a town just outside the city centre but we still get to walk through and look around the centre on our way to and after the conference.

Sky tower

The main centre, a place called Queen street, is where all the shops are bars are located. 

Queen Street

Christmas in Queen Street

There is also a harbour and some really nice buildings at the end of the main shopping street.

Finally, I said we get to drive over the harbour bridge on our way to and from the conference. This gives us a fantastic view of the city centre.

View from the bus

View from the bus

The conference at Auckland University

The ALTAANZ conference has been held over three days from Thursday to Saturday at Auckland University. The University is in the middle of the city and a really nice modern campus. The facilities are fantastic and we have been well looked after. 

The conference has been hosted by ALTAANZ - the association for language testing and assessment for Australia and New Zealand. 

The workshops and presentations have been very good and very useful for the project we are working on at the moment.  

 

Takapuna, New Zealand

Because we booked our trip very late, all of the hotels were booked in Auckland city center. The closest place we could find were some apartments in a place called Takapuna, about 10km from Auckland centre.

See Takapuna above Auckland

This sounded like a lot of work but because buses are so good in New Zealand, the commute was really nice. Also We got to drive over the harbor bridge every day which gave us a great view of the city. 

What has immediately struck me about Auckland is how similar the climate and look for the place is to England. Takapuna is a really nice, quite suburb. Staying here has been great as you get a feel for how local people live. 

As you can see, its a lot like England. Its very clean and fresh. The weather has been a bit mixed. Its late spring here so we've has some wet days and sunny days. The cool weather has been a refreshing change from the heat of Vietnam. 

 

Conference in NEW ZEALAND!!!!!

As I've previously said, I work in assessment in my University now and we are currently developing a new curriculum which means I'm heavily involved in writing the assessments. A week or so ago my boss send me an email asking me if I'd like to attend a conference in New Zealand. 

Of course I was delighted to be given this opportunity and a week later my trip is booked and I'm ready to go. 

The conference is a Auckland University and I will only be in New Zealand for five days. This is an amazing opportunity and a country I've always wanted to visit. The flight is a total of about 13 hours.

The first part of the trip is to Hong Kong where we change plane for an 11 hour flight to New Zealand.

The flight was pretty long and tiring and as the time difference is 6 hours I was in for some jetlag!