Christmas Day at the Beach

A quiet Christmas for us this year, just the two of us, and although warm, not the sunny day we have become accustomed to in recent years. We still managed a trip to the beach for our picnic lunch.

We didn't venture too far from home and ended up at Rothesay Bay - a few parties in the park area but the beach was virtually empty as the water was a bit nippy! A very nice relaxing day.

Wellington Phoenix v Melbourne Victory

The main reason for our visit to Wellington was to watch the Phoenix play - the only professional football team in NZ. Their home games are played at the Westpac Stadium, about a 10 minute walk from the city and a great stadium that holds about 30,000.






The "Yellow Fever" were out in force, though the total attendance for the game was just over 6,000 so plenty of empty seats.




A glorious afternoon for watching the football, and Phoenix started well with plenty of pressure and an early goal. Melbourne fought back though and were leading 2-1 at half time.





The second half, Phoenix pressed for the equaliser and it finally came through their star player Paul Ifil, ex English Championship player. Final score was 2-2 and a very entertaining game.

Wellington

We have spent this weekend down in the capital, and were lucky to have the most glorious weather rather than the cold and wind that Wellington is renowned for. We spent most of the day exploring on foot and seeing the sights.







Oriental Bay is a short walk around the harbour past Te Papa museum and a popular little beach for the locals.







And good views back to the city from the promenade.







We also had good views at night on our walk back to the hotel after a lovely Malaysian meal out.

Taste of Auckland

Today was the highlight of any foodies year, Taste of Auckland. This year held at Victoria Park right in the centre of town. Despite the predicted rain we had a glorious day sampling food from some of the top restaurants in Auckland.

First dishes of the day were a cured kingfish carpaccio by Harbourside followed by crispy wild boar by The Grove.

Next up was the best dish of the day from Japanese restaurant Soto - teriyaki chicken infused with manuka honey.

After a few other samples, the final dishes of the day were from Euro - Alaskan king crab & prawn in jalapeno cream and veal rump with parsnip puree. A great day eating lovely food with friends.

Anyone for Bowls?

This month's Social Club event at work was lawn bowls at the Takapuna Bowling Club. Despite the drizzle, we had great fun. Royston concentrating hard on the line to take whilst Dean watched on.

It proved much harder than expected, maybe it's because we are too young! Craig giving it a good go here though as Richard gives some tips.

Kayaking...or Attempting to

This afternoon we made the most of the good weather and the facilities provided by the owners of the bach and headed down to the estuary to use the kayaks. Royston was quite proficient...

...whilst Craig and myself spent most of the time falling in and laughing a lot.

A great afternoon to end our short holiday. A fantastic weekend in a superb bach - we will definitely have this one as a place to return to.

Mangawhai Market

This morning was market day so we headed to Mangawhai Domain for a mixture of stalls and activities. The alpacas drew a crowd.

Kenny had his first bouncy castle experience - he wasn't too sure what he had to do!

We all bought some nice things including these prints for our hallway by one of our favourite Kiwi artists Jo May who is based in Waipu.

Fishing at Waipu Cove

The weather was glorious today so after a birthday lunch in Mangawhai we headed up the coast to Waipu so that the boys could go fishing






They watched and waited but only a couple of small ones today that went back into the sea. Had to go to the fish & chip shop instead for dinner...




Which was followed by a yummy lemon cheesecake that Jo & Craig had bought for my birthday.

Mangawhai School Gala Day

This morning was Gala Day at the local school. Kenny was very excited to see the fire engine though too scared to go inside, he really wanted his photo taken with it!

The local farmers were showing their baby lambs and calves, all seemed to like being stroked.

Craig showed off his cricket skills against the automatic tennis ball machine.

Before taking Kenny on the little train trip around the school grounds.

Mangawhai Heads

To celebrate my birthday, which coincided with the long Labour weekend, we booked a bach in Mangawhai with our friends Craig & Jo and their children Jalaina and Kenny. Today was a little cool but we still headed down to the beach once we had settled in - this is the main surf beach.

Even though the water was cold we still went in for a paddle. Kenny really enjoyed himself!

We then went around to the estuary area with the amazing sand dunes. We will return here later in the weekend.

Spotting starfish in the sea.

We then headed back to the bach for the evening BBQ. The bach was great - a main house with the lounge and kitchen and a large bedroom and bathroom upstairs for Craig, Jo and the kids. We had the small annex with a bedroom and ensuite (pictured).

Eden Park Open Day

Today was the official opening of the new stand at Eden Park in preparation for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. The new stand is amazing, it has an outer skin on it which is very unusual.

At the four corners of the ground are beautiful carved statues of Maori gods.

We also had the opportunity to go to some usually off limits areas including the changing rooms - very impressive and with a large warm up area inside as well.

At one stage we got caught up in the official walk about with the prime minister, John Key, who was very approachable and had a chat with lots of people on the way round.

We also got to meet some of the rugby and cricket players, Royston here with All Black Jerome Kaino, he's huge!

The official opening was done by John Key, along with the new Auckland mayor-elect Len Brown and the Minister for RWC2011.

This is the view from the top of the new stand back to the Sky Tower in the city.

And the view of the new stand from the existing ASB stand.

The highlight of the day was to get our photo taken with the Webb Ellis trophy, most Kiwis will be hoping the All Blacks are holding this November 2011.

The Big 4 0

For Royston's 40th we had a day and night in the city. Our accommodation for the night was a luxury room in the SkyCity Grand with a fabulous view over the harbour, just a shame about the grey clouds...






Lunch was a seafood platter at Orbit, the revolving restaurant at the top of the Sky Tower.







After a nice walk around the city we went back to the room and found a chef platter of homemade chocolates and a bottle of fizz.







After watching the sun start to set we headed to Sidart for our evening meal http://www.sidart.co.nz/ the winner last year of Auckland's best new restaurant.

Fijian Sunsets

Every night we got to see the most amazing sunsets, a selection of photos here.