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.