Pre World Cup Warm Up

This afternoon we headed to North Harbour stadium to watch the final All Whites games on home soil before they head off to the football World Cup. They seem to have got confused with the colour of their shirt though...

The game against a NZ eleven from the local league was pretty dire and they will need to step up their game for the World Cup or there will be three heavy defeats. Fortunately they will have their European based "stars" available then.

Back to the 80s

Tonight we had a real blast from the past as we went to see Tears for Fears and Spandau Ballet in concert at the Vector Arena. Tears for Fears on first for an hour's set playing all their hits and getting the crowd warmed up.

Spandau Ballet have only just reformed after a 20 year absence and have never played in New Zealand before. They seemed to have a great time on stage and that filtered through to the audience and we pretended we were back in 1983! A great concert full of all the old hits, the 80s were the best...

Tutukaka Coast

This weekend we have been up to stay at a bach in Ngunguru with friends. Once again we were very fortunate with the weather, a glorious autumnal weekend. The view down the estuary at Ngunguru.

The morning was spent at Wooleys Bay, a stunning beach, and we were the only people on it for most of the time.

Royston fished and I soaked up the sun. Only a couple of small fish today though.

We then spent the afternoon exploring a bit more of the coastline, including Tutukaka marina.

And some of the smaller bays, not such nice beaches here though at Kowharewa Bay.

The view from the lookout down to Ngunguru was pretty good though. A lovely relaxing weekend away.

Waikawau Bay & Little Bay Again

This morning we popped (well 20 minutes along gravel roads...) to Colville to pick up some more bait from the very unusual general store. On the way back to the bach we stopped at Waikawau Bay, the next bay up from Little Bay.

A much longer beach than Little Bay, with a Department of Conservation campsite running alongside it - maybe a cheaper option for the future. No flash baches along this beach.

Back at Little Bay we spotted an alternative method of transport to arrive at your bach, not too sure about the landing onto that small helipad though!

Such a fantastic weekend away, probably the best since we've been here, and we will be back to Little Bay again in the very near future.

Little Bay, Coromandel

For our anniversary this year we booked a bach at Little Bay in the far north of the Coromandel Peninsula. The bach had million dollar views!






We spent most of the weekend on the beach, Royston doing a few hours of fishing - a great beach for surfcasting as the drop off was very deep. This was his first snapper off the beach and made for a nice fish burger for lunch.






The view from the beach back up to the bach - the one in the middle of the photo.









Both evenings, boats came into the bay to moor for the night and take advantage of the good fishing.









The view back up to the top of the peninsula, not much up there!

Bayswater Classic Car Show

This afternoon we headed to Bayswater Primary School for their fund raising event, a fantastic classic car show. We weren't expecting too much so were pleasantly surprised to find over 100 cars then.

The cars were in stunning condition, including this pair of Cobras.

This custom made car included a $40,000 stereo built into the boot, along with a fully mechanised retractable hood and paint job on the boot.

Royston's dream car, a Ferrari Testerossa was also there, just about managed to convince him to leave it there...

And my boss's band were playing on the back of a truck, how very rock'n'roll!

Charlie's New Apple Fetish...

Charlie has taken a fancy to the cooking apple in our fruit bowl, staking his claim...

then rubbing his cheek against it...

and then just lying in the fruit bowl.