The weekend in Auckland for hockey

 Hi,

What an amazing weekend. Mike walked me to the car at 4.30pm (parked at the early bird car park by Bluebridge for $18) and I was off to collect Jill from Paraparaumu very soon after that. Easy drive out there. Found her house and then we were off up north.

Filled up in Levin and then got to Taihape and found the Gretna Hotel. It is an old building on the corner where the SH1 does a 90 degree bend as it goes through town. We found reception in the public bar and got our keys. The rooms were all upstairs with shared bathrooms.

Gretna Hotel in Taihape

My room for $59

We grabbed our gear and dropped it in the room. Checked the bar food out - but not a lot of vegetarian options. So off to Roast Cottage for a roast veg dinner.

Roast Cottage for tea

Back to our rooms for bed. I was ready for a good sleep. The room was clean and tidy. There was a big blowie in the room - but it settled down and didn't cause me any headaches. At 9pm there was a lot of noise as punters left the pub and chatted below my window on the footpath. They all then revved their cars as they left. Hahah.

Bye wee room

Up for a shower (good shower - with a front door as the shower door) and then met Jill and we left Taihape nice and early.

Iced latte

Great view of the maunga as we passed Waiouru. Good route up the Desert Road. Brekkie in Turangi. Where I had an iced latte.

Then into Auckland up SH32 and then SH1. Found the hockey stadium and enjoyed a great game against Germany with Erin's team finding their mojo in patches of good play. But it was 7-0 to Germany in the end.

Go Scotland!

Erin's team takes on Germany

Selfie

We chilled while Erin took an ice bath. Hahahah. Looked - cold. Then headed to our AirBnB in Browns Bay. The place was a wee self-contained flat under the main house. And at the end of their steep driveway, was a 150m walk to the beach. Across the road was Woolworths. And the wee town itself had a lot of outside pubs and cafes. So nice. Great spot.

View from Browns Bay

Shadows

Nice Air BnB

Relaxing evening eating and reading. Had a great sleep. Up for an early game for Erin's team against Australia. Erin was on fire! The sun was shining. The rugby was on (All Blacks v Ireland in Dublin). Magic day.

Erin's team lost 3 - 0 to Australia. But they kept them under wraps for huge passages of play. And the goalie was amazing. The Alliance team even had some close scoring opportunities.

I might need to crop this

Saturday morning v Australia

Roz and Oaklin

Roz turned up as we watched the kiwi men. I met Oaklin. She is a gorgeous wee pup in the Roz Guide Dog puppy training programme.  :-)  

She is so good

Watching with Erin

Anne turned up later too. So we all watched games together - really good to have Erin's expert commentary. Jill and I spent a lot of time wondering why penalty corners were given before we at with Erin to understand it more. Seems as though people's feet get in the way a lot!

Such a great time. Good to catch up with Anne and Roz. Erin and her team will continue to worry these other teams and they might get some upsets in by the end of the week. Woot!

Roz headed away after Oaklin was so good sleeping under her seat in the stands. Wow. What a good wee dog. And we milled around watching some games before Anne decided to brave the traffic to get all the way back over to the south eastern parts of Auckland. Good on her for getting there!

Said goodbye to Erin too. And headed back to Browns Bay for the evening. Relaxed again with some food from the sushi place and Woolies. 

Good sleep. Up early and away by 7.30am. Easy drive to Pokeno. Met up with Kaustubh and Arapita and wee Aaria. Aaria is a wee cutie. I got an iced latte from Kaustubh. Mmmm. God to catch up with them. They are off to India soon for their summer holiday.

Nice home made iced latte

Rumbly tums in Tokoroa

Our AirBnB in Browns Bay

We headed away at 9.40am and stopped for lunch at Tokoroa. And then nothing but petrol at Waiouru to stop us from getting to Wellington.

Dropped Jill home. Got home and heard about Mike's adventures with his half marathon Sunday morning on Kapiti coast. And laundry progress with Lewis.

Yay!

Mighty weekend.

Go Erin! Smash the teams this week.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with work and the Wednesday with Auckland

 Hi,

Update: May 7th got my flu jab. And Mike got both flu and covid.

I rode home after a crazy day at work to feed the cats and make myself tea. It was just me because Mike was doing MeetUp tramping things. And walking up Mt Vic for fun after that. Possibly with drinks.

So I made myself French Toast for tea. And it was delicious. Like custard. Mmmm. I packed for my day on Wednesday and went to bed. It was one of those days that meant my brain was still running. So I roused myself to read a bit more.

Around 2300 Mike got home. He realised I was still awake. So on came the loud music in our bedroom. At this stage I was getting up in 5 hours time - at 4am. He was in the mood for a full download on his evening - with music and dance.

Anyway - got so sleep. Then up before my alarm to shower and get ready. Chelsea collected me with her BYD Mevo just before 5am and we got to the airport by 5.15am.

My car nemesis

We're at work in AKL

Easy flight and Uber to work from the airport. Ellerslie way. Very nice workplace. We did some prep and ate some food. 

Good iced latte under work

Spot the Auckland tourist

Loved the workshop. Well facilitated. And got a lot more food to eat. Busy as, bro.

Anne knows me!

Now at a desk catching up on the fun that has happened without me. All good. I hope.

Right. Hope you have had a good Wednesday. I have tea with workmates here before my Uber to the airport for my late flight home.

Take care.

Love,

Angela

The weekend with a most excellent road trip to Auckland and back

 Hi,

We had such a good weekend - hosted by the Sampson clan up in Auckland and treated so well. Thank you so much! The weather co-operated - it was like visiting Australia in many ways.

Cats enjoy the sunshine before we head north

Calves love 'em

We picked Chelsea up from outside her flat at 4.30pm on Thursday - after getting a bit mixed up with the pick up location. We were stuck in traffic for a bit right in the middle of town. But we were away by 5pm. The expressway bypass is now open through to just north of Otaki. So good! At this time of the day it must cut out about 40 mins of your journey I reckon.

Road trip!

Mike and I switched drivers at Waiouru and I tackled the Desert Road and then up the western side of Taupo. But it was dark, and started raining (the only rain we got the entire weekend) and the hot day meant the rain turned into fog when it hit the road. So I had rising fog, sometimes pelting rain, and an unfamiliar road. I wasn't really enjoying the driving until I hit the Hamilton expressway and the 110km speed limit! Oosshh!

We pulled into Lesley and Wally's driveway at 12.30am. Not too bad a trip. We fell into bed (thank you, Brennan, for giving up your bed for us and sleeping on the couch!) and was out like a light.

Mike was up (with Lesley and Wally) for the working day on Friday. So I tackled the St Luke's mall with Jason, Brennan and Chelsea. It was probably a 25 min walk and it was pretty hot. So we stopped at a cafe not far from their house for sustenance. 

Cafe near our Auckland base!

Slurp!

We got the things we needed at the mall - quite the eclectic mix of things. Wallets. Socks. Groceries. Generally mooched around for a bit and then headed back.

St Luke's mall is just like being in Aus

We stopped at Crave for lunch and convinced Mike to come out as it was lunch time. He joined us as we finished and got his lunch after a short wait.  Then he drove Brennan home and the rest of us continued the walk back.

Cafe Crave on our way home

Mmmmm

The rest of the day was pretty relaxed as people finished the working week. Off to bed at a reasonable hour because it was park run the next morning.

Mike and I got up and it was a beautiful day. We walked the 40 mins to Western Springs - enjoying the birds on the lake with their chicks.

Western Springs park

Run, Mike, run!

Mike did the park run - my calf was tender so I didn't run. He did a good time - around 32 mins. I like this park run - it is very pretty.

We popped into the Auckland Zoo for a coffee afterwards - but they had no iced latte. They are missing a trick there.

Walking back home

Wally got me a delicious home made iced latte

But we walked home and I got a delicious one from Wally. So there, Auckland Zoo!  Way better I am sure of it.  :-)

Wally and I ducked out to the supermarket and got picnic provisions. Then we drove to Cornwall Park - which is conveniently on the other side of the hill from Roz's place.  So I pinged her and she was free and took Yasmin out for a walk to see us! So happy to see her. And Yasmin. Roz is good - she caught up with me and Mike as we munched our way through picnic goodness. Yasmin is such a great wee pup - 7 months old now.

Hannah also turned up with her boyfriend Sean. And we all played Heads Up before Hannah left and we decided to tackle the hill. Mainly to let the picnic food digest!

Hey there wee Yasmin!

Picnic time!

We climb Maungkiekie

Band photo at the top

Jason crashes in the long grass

Back home and we watched more Amazing Race when Mike went out to see Sally and Andrew and Jason and Chelsea went to a party. Hahah.

Into bed and up for the big day! Yes, Meatloaf the Musical. The reason we were up in the big smoke. We caught the train in ($2 for a paper ticket from the station - woot!) and met Sally and Andrew at Britomart. Got some cabinet food from Amaro cafe and sat in a square and ate it. Nice eggplant roll and good coffee.

Iced latte from Amaro cafe in Britomart

Then it was time. Well, okay, we were early for the musical. We got in and got our seats super early. And when it kicked off, Mike was not disappointed.

Waiting for the musical

Mike is excited!

For me, it was partly awesome, partly terrible and mostly good. The actors were great! The stage production was great. It is just sometime Steinman has terrible taste in music. Hahahah. They played Mike's fave Air Supply song. And there was a truly awful duet at one stage. But the rest was pretty good.

Crowd gathers

We all went to Burger Burger afterwards and had an excellent meal. I got an Impossible burger pattie in lettuce! Yum!

Sally and Andrew headed back to their hotel (they stayed in Chamfy's building!!) and we walked the 4km home. 50 mins later and a good walk to understand where they all live in relation to downtown Auckland and we were back at home. Sweet!

Walk home after some food at Burger Burger

Selfie as we walk home

It was SingStar night. Wally got out the old SingStar and hooked it up (I think it is on PS4 and they have moved to PS5 at the Sampson household - but they did get it working!).

Sing Star night!

Okay - back at Spark Arena

And again at half time

For some reason I stayed up until 1.30am with Jason, Brennan and Chelsea playing Articulate and Heads Up while Chelsea baked cookies!

Next day was a working day in Auckland so Lesley and Wally were up and working by the time I got up. Bit of brekkie and a shower and we were ready to head home by 10:10am!

Cafe in Whakamaru on our way home

Such a great weekend, it was sad to head away. But we threw our gear into the Focus and said our goodbyes and then we were off. Lovely day. Headed back the way we came and Mike drove the whole way. We stopped just after the control gates on the mighty Waikato at Whakamaru and had some lunch before doing the final push. Got some snacks and fuel at Waiouru though.  Listened to podcasts the entire way. 

Dropped Chelsea home at about 6.30pm. And we were greeting the cats not too long after.

Good to sleep in our own bed again - as always when you get back from somewhere. But it did make me appreciate good friends. Felt very welcome and at home in Auckland - where I usually feel like a tourist.

Have a great week ahead. Short week for us.

Love,

Angela