The weekend in Auckland with Bruce

Hi,

Our frivolous weekend in Auckland to see Bruce was such fun.  Thanks to the Tabors for looking after Toby straight from his school camp week.  Poor Aidan sent me a text of woe on Saturday morning as Toby reported explosive diarrhoea and Duncan had a cold and Emerson had his infected cuts back again.  Needless to say, they had a quiet weekend at home.


We left early Saturday and I was quite sick still.  It turns out I slept for about two thirds of the drive up.  Poor Mike was bored to tears by my lack of stimulating conversation.  But it was a sunny day, and the roof was down and it was good fun, I'm sure.  The parts I was awake for looked good anyway.  We had breakfast at Levin (Maccas) and then stopped at the New World in Taihape to stock up on provisions for the car.

We ended up stuck in Ironman event traffic in Taupo in the hot summer sun because Mike didn't know of the existence of the Taupo bypass road.  But it was good to see the event!

We got to Auckland without any problems and found the Sampson house easily.  A quick cup of tea and Wally dropped me and Mike off at Mt Smart stadium.  Thanks Wally.  We wandered into the venue, spotting Sally and Andrew from outside the fence.  We ate a sausage from Fritz's Wieners and went into the mosh pit area to stake a place.  Sally and Andrew were close to a jutting out stage part.  It was good!

Andrew and I check out the crowd

We listened to a great set by Jimmy Barnes with a surprise by Steven van Zandt joining him for a song he wrote that Jimmy sang.  It was good fun!

Jimmy was in fine form

  Bruce opened with a cover of Lorde's Royals and I thought it was an excellent version.  It harkened back to lyrics Bruce used to do I reckon.  Roz was also there - in the stands.  I tried to spot her, but it was too hard.

Our view of Bruce!

Bruce did Born in the USA end to end.  Very good as Downbound Train is one of my favourite songs of all time. We left at the end of the concert and eventually found Wally.  Sally and Andrew got dropped off at their place and we collapsed into bed around 1am!

Lunch out with Lesley, Hannah and Chelsea

Next morning I was eventually up and Mike and Wally went to Mitre 10 for some shopping and then I went into town to see Hannah and her hostel room.  It was great - what a good set up she has.  She'll have such a great time this year.  We found a cafe (Mezze Cafe I think) in an alleyway north of Kitchener St.  I want to go back as the food was good and the iced coffee could be a 10/10.  But I need to double check.  More iced coffees are needed from there to do a really thorough assessment.

The iced coffee at Mezze Cafe was 9.5.  Lesley looks happy with her wine!

 After checking Hannah was all good (hahahah - she is going to run rings around most people in her course if the other students in her hostel are any indication - she says they just get hammered every night!) we went back home and Mike and I went to the Sunday night concert.  We got there even earlier and had a great place staked out right next to a jutting out part.

Sunday - I was this close!

 Bruce came down to that part a few times during the concert and we got a close look at him.  Mike almost got to shake his hand (again - he got a proper handshake in the Ghost of Tom Joad tour) but Bruce shook the hand next to his and wandered away.

See?  So close!

It was a great concert.  Loved the closeness of it - but I think I preferred the Saturday night concert a little more.

Back home relatively early.  We even negotiated our way home without GPS and despite an unmarked detour in place (I still got us on the right road).  Auckland is a bit difficult to navigate around in.

Had a great sleep and up early.  Mike was now so sick he was helpless.  Bundled him into the car after saying goodbye to the Sampsons and on our way south.  I drove all the way home while Mike dozed.  The weather was pants - and was the worst in Wellington.

Eventually got home after 9 hours and Mike crawled into bed.  I went around to the Tabors and got an awesome dinner off Aidan (chicken tortilla soup - it was soooooo good).  Toby was happy to see me.  I was happy to see him.  Eventually I managed to extricate him and his possessions and went back home.

Mike is at work today - but he is rather sick still.  Cheeky monkey.

Have a lovely week.  Short one for us!
Love,
Angela