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.