The weekend in Auckland seeing Florence

Hi,

What an amazing weekend. I had such a good time and there was hardly any downtime at all. It was all systems go the whole weekend.

Aidan and I left in the Corolla from work at midday. It turns out that was probably a fantastic decision. I collected the car and headed to Aidan's work. She was waiting with her colleague, Pam. Pam wasn't feeling well and lives in Paraparaumu, which was on our way. We grabbed Aidan's gear from her place and headed up the coast.

Pam got safely delivered home and we kept going to Otaki where Aidan was coveting a pie from the petrol station. We were both starving by this time and I had a nice peppery steak pie and Aidan got a Thai chicken one. Scoffed that down in the car park and off again.

The weather was pretty poor all the way up the island. Rain off and on. Not very heavy though.

Next stop was Taihape and Aidan wanted to check out a shop with housewares. I sang while in the car, waiting. I started Bruce Springsteen and Aidan was very tolerant. I may have sang Bruce songs for the next two hours. Aidan didn't say anything but since then she has instigated a rule of no more than one hour a day of Bruce while on road trips with her. Oops.

Petrol somewhere north of Taupo and Aidan was starving so she grabbed some McDonald's. I don't mind breakfasts at McDonalds but I really don't like their burgers. Aidan has discovered they have wraps and she doesn't mind that if she's hungry. She also gets car sick on an empty stomach. However by the time I was hungry, there were no towns around. I ate leftover Doritos for my tea. With strawberries for dessert. "Salad" as Aidan called it. Fruit salad this time - she took off the stalks after the last effort ended up with me spitting out leafy bits (in my defence it was getting dark by this stage and I needed to keep my eyes on the road).

Time for a podcast and I enjoyed Aidan's selection. They also did the trick of sending her to sleep. We drove into the outskirts of Auckland around 8.00 pm and we were at Roz's house within forty minutes I guess. Nearly foiled at the end with local road closures all around her street. But we got there in the end.

Aidan collapsed into bed and I chatted to Roz for a while, catching up. Eventually sleep claimed me and Roz settled into her mattress on the floor and I got her bed. Roz has a fantastic bed! How on earth she wanted to give that up and sleep on the floor is beyond me. Next time it is definitely my turn on the floor.

I wandered down to Roz's room and started to get ready. I thought I heard the cat snuffling and wondered if she was in Roz's room. So I looked around and realised it wasn't actually in this room. Popping my head back out the door, I realised it was coming from the spare room - Aidan was obviously well asleep and making sounds that I initially attributed to the cat. So, way more delicate than a raucous snore - but definite signs of a deep, contented sleep, nonetheless. Hahah!

The weather in Auckland was a bit pants. Windy! And for a while Roz's bedroom door squeaked back and forth in the wind. So I had to get up and open it wide so I could get to sleep. Then Mike rang just as I was asleep. Hahah. Eventually fell into a coma and woke around 6am.

Never saw Aidan for a while - the cat noises were in evidence still. She managed to sleep for eleven hours by the time she finally woke up. Roz and I were enjoying a cup of tea when she wandered out. We all had one and then went off to find the cafe of choice in Onehanga. Mmmmm. It was good.

Good eggs benny

Iced coffee was good too!

After brekkie we discovered an archery shop really close by so poor Roz had to endure excited shopping from me and Aidan (originally we were going to drop her home before we went archery shopping - but it was so close!). Aidan bought arrows! Woot! I have a finger tab and an arm guard. I can't wait to head to the range now to try them out.

After we went back to Roz's house, we left again to go Op Shopping. Roz had pointed out a good street with a few of them. But Aidan went into the first one and never came out for the best part of two hours. I kid you not!

Aidan gets into the shopping experience

That is a happy face behind that possible dress option! (It didn't make it into the yes pile)

I was quite happy though - there were plenty of books and knick knack things to keep me occupied for a while. And then I was useful as the clothes holder and put-away person. I also got a look at some shorts Aidan tried that she was convinced came from the costume wardrobe of the Hobbit movies. Hahah! Highlight of the shopping right there!

Eventually I had to say to Aidan that we had to leave. I was hoping not to have to use that dreaded phrase "I think it's time we left now" because I really was quite enjoying myself and I know Aidan was and she thinks that it isn't that much fun for me. But if I don't do it much and I am in the mood, it is fine. Seriously it was getting a bit late to make our appointment in town by this stage. I had no idea Aidan was going to be absorbed for so long.

We jumped in the car after making the Op Shop hit its profit target for that day, and drove into the city. Fortunately we found a car park on the street only a block from the spa after only one circuit around. Unfortunately my bragging about parallel parking suffered as I hurtled to a stop in the middle of the road and tried to park from that position. Not good. I ended up having to come back out and park properly. But once I did that, it worked first time. However, I had to endure sniggering from Aidan and she reported two men on the street were disgusted with my first attempts. Tough audience! Aidan, I mean. I don't give a hoot about two random strangers.

We went to the spa and got our feet and hands (Aidan) pampered. Roz was there already and Anne arrived right on time. My feet were stunning with the cherry pie red I selected for my toenails.

 

Gorgeous feet!

The end result!

After the spa session, Roz went home and Aidan, Anne and I went to some deli or other under Sky City. New York style. I had New England styled mussel and pastrami chowder - with kumara. Not sure how close it really was to New England after that description but it tasted ok to me. I followed it up with pumpkin pie and that was brilliant! Aidan disliked her lox bagel. But I ate most of the poutine (chips and gravy with curd?). Anne regaled us with her tales of living in Auckland and she had us in stitches!

She dashed off to find her sister for the Hunger Games movie and Aidan and I moved the car closer to the concert venue and finally found a pub that wasn't too loud or too crowded. We tried quite a few. I don't know what Aidan bought me, but it was a pomegranate and berry soda and was the yummiest drink I have had in a long time! She drank white wine. She was also fascinated by her fingernail polish.

Taking a selfie of her nails and wine glass

Apparently the fish eye lens made her hand look like a giant hand and that was really funny!

While we sat there chatting and passing the time, we idly watched people wandering around. But all of a sudden Aidan grabbed my arm, looked me in the eyes with a wild expression and shouted "Jo!" and took off out of her seat. I was a little mystified by this slightly out of context behaviour and watched Aidan zip around to another table close by and give a woman a hug. Turns out her work colleague who was also going to see Florence, had selected this pub to have a pre concert drink at too. Who knew?! How funny.

Anyway, our platter of food arrived just before we were due to leave so we tried to make a dent in it. I paid for it while Aidan checked out the facilities and then we were off to the concert. Found our seats and watched the support act from Sydney. Kinda glad they only played for 30 minutes. Sorry about the lack of enthusiasm. I am sure there is a great untapped market out there for their work.

Concert about to start!

Support act

Florence came on bang on 9pm and she did a very good concert. Aidan knew every song and sang heartily. I knew maybe three quarters. It was awesome! Loved it. I'd see her again. She was't too loud. Florence has loads of energy! She leapt around the stage like a crazy person.

I was full of trepidation at taking Aidan to a concert. Aidan has this reputation of falling asleep in concerts. So I quizzed Aidan a bit closer on this. Admittedly, doing it an hour before the concert wasn't probably the wisest course of action. Too late by then. But, it turns out Aidan had attended three concerts in high school (two Suzanne Vega ones and a Sting one) and since then only attended things like the ukulele orchestra and piano concerts and whatever. My brain was going "I'd fall asleep at those sorts of concerts too". Warm room, nice music, comfy seat. Boom! Zzzzzzz.

We had no such concerns here. Aidan loved it!

Back to the car afterwards and a reasonable exit from the car parking building in an orderly queue saw us wrestling with the Auckland spaghetti junction in the dark, in the rain. And the GPS sent us down SH16 instead of SH1. We had a nice drive out west before turning around and getting back to Roz's house around 11.30pm. A little bit of knocking on the door got poor Roz out of bed to let us in.

An electrical storm meant I read my book for a while with the lights flickering. Auckland does seem like a third world city sometimes - especially with their electrical issues. But I was soon asleep. The storm continued all night and apparently Auckland had 1300 lightning strikes during the night. I woke at 5am and could "see" the lightning through my eyelids.

Anyhow, I showered and packed up and we both jumped in the car after thanking Roz for putting up with us coming in at 11.30 and getting up at 5.30! She's a trooper!

We found a McDs just down the road and had some fun with a guy obviously on his first morning shift ever! We had to enter negotiation with him to get our order. We ordered at the speaker. Then confirmed our order again. And just one more time to be sure. Funny. I got a look from his supervisor that made me snort with laughter. The chap poured Aidan's cup of tea in front of me and added half a cup of milk to her boiling water. The supervisor said "No, it'll be cold if you do that" and gave me a long suffering look and took him away out of sight of my prying, mirth-filled eyes. Aidan's tea was just hot milk and filled to the brim. She took off the lid to get the tea bag in and got a lap full of hot milk for her trouble. She opened the door and tipped out enough to make it all work. I got the giggles. Lucky I wasn't holding the hot milk. I'd have been scalded.

Iced coffee madness!  But it was good!

Then we were off. 6.25am we got on the motorway south from Roz's house. I was convinced we'd fallen off the bypass road around Matamata when all I saw were signs for the Coromandel in about 30 km, but it was all good. Aidan allayed my fears by consulting the GPS woman. But you have to remember my trust in GPS woman had been shaken by the SH16 fiasco in the dead of the night, the night before. I asked Aidan twice to confirm. She was very patient with me.

Anyway, we made great time through the wind and rain and we had time to stop in Turangi for a bite to eat to settle Aidan's stomach ahead of the Desert Road. I got an amazing iced coffee at the Mustard Seed cafe where they had carved off a block of ice cream and just plonked it in the top of the coffee. So funny. Tasted great!

The rest of the trip passed easily. We sang away to either Aidan's playlist or my own. And I noticed she chose no Bruce at all. Nada!

It feels like little like that movie everyone parodies - with the Bohemian Rhapsody scene.

We stopped at Waikanae for supermarket provisions and then into town to drop Aidan home. Easy peasy. I'd go on a road trip with her anywhere. She will travel with me, so long as Bruce is rationed properly.

I caught up with my boys and heard about their adventures for the weekend. I ironed a pile of clothes and we went around to Josh's place to collect Mike's bike.

Back home and I collapsed into bed. What an amazing weekend. Mike summed it up by saying he was glad I went away with Aidan, because I do things that are a wee bit different to what I do with my boys. Guess they don't like spa sessions too much. But if they ever start liking those foot spa treatments, I'll be happy to share!

So, thank you everyone involved for an awesome weekend. Mike for letting me go. Aidan for accompanying me. Roz for her hospitality. Anne for joining us. And Florence for a great concert!

Have a great week ahead!

Love,
Angela