The Monday in Auckland

Hi,

What a lovely place to visit.  I love being in Auckland.  It's like being somewhere exotic.  Tall buildings.  Slightly different trees.  Warmer.  After work, Ange and I went to Devonport to explore and find a cafe for dinner.  We found Manuka Cafe and enjoyed a lovely meal.  Ange heard about my fascination with feet - well, my own feet really. Everyone else's feet pale in comparison.  But she asked for me to take a photo of her feet and promptly took off her shoes.  I couldn't say no.

Ange's feet on the footpath in Devonport

Back to the hotel and it turns out I was upgraded (as was Ange) to a suite.  I had a full kitchen, a lounge and a bedroom with a massive bed.

The view from my room

The expansive view of my king-sized bed

I slept like a log.  With the curtains open.  Enjoyed the view upon waking too.  I showered and got changed.  I used the hotel hair dryer and discovered I have no idea about drying hair and now I look like I have 70s or 80s boofy hair.  Yep - I am channeling Farah Fawcett today.

Iced coffee at Honey cafe in Takapuna - the best iced coffee ever?

Met Ange for breakfast - and believe me, I appreciate her getting up so early to get to a cafe before work.  It's not her thing.  Mornings, I mean.  She isn't full of vigour in the mornings as a rule.

I had an iced coffee at Honey - just across the road from work in Auckland.  In Huron St, Takapuna.  It might very well be the best iced coffee ever.  I am giving it a 9.5 out of 10.  Just to give myself leeway.  It had a good texture, consistency was good, not too sweet, strong enough coffee taste.

Right.  Time to get stuck in.  Flight back to Wellington at 7.10pm this evening.  Should touch down just after 8pm.  Apparently into a fierce wind, and rain, by all accounts.

Have a fantastic day.

Love,
Angela

The weekend with loads of little things on

Hi,

What a lovely weekend.  Friday night saw Mike out with Andrew and Josh on the town.  Toby and I chilled out and watched a movie.

Saturday was nice and Mike packed for "Survival night" which is just an excuse to get away from family and go out into the bush with blokes and eat meat and drink beer.  I went into town for an appointment and when I got back, Mike was almost ready to leave.  He left at the same time as me and Toby - Toby went to his haircut appointment.

Checking out the harbour

After his haircut we went to cafe for lunch.  Checked out Chocolate Fish but it was heaving.  Went to Maranui and got a table straight away.  We like Maranui.  I had Eggs Benedict and it was very nice.

Our feet

Maranui cafe iced coffee.  Mmmmm

Waiting for bacon

After Maranui we went to Rebel Sport and bought a punching bag.  It's Toby's new hobby.  I installed it in the garage and Toby tried it out.

Punching bag installed

Keeping his guard up

Looking good (to me at least)

After that we went out to visit Christine for a BBQ and the fireworks in the harbour.  Her flat has a great view of it all.

View from Christine's porch

Fireworks

Sparklers

More sparklers

Home quite late for us - even waiting for ages found us in a traffic jam trying to get home.  We slept well.

Sleeping like a baby

Sunday we waited for Mike to get back from survival night.  I did grocery shopping and finished housework.  I chilled out when Mike got back.  Chatted to Juliet the neighbour for a while before heading to Sally and Andrew's place for tea.  Nice.  Yummy beef burritos.

Back home and off to bed.  In Auckland today and tomorrow.  Keeping busy at the Auckland office.

Have a lovely week.

Love,
Angela

The Thursday with dinner at Carl and Brent's place

Hi,

I rode home yesterday and enjoyed it - my cold seems to be far better today.  Got home and sorted out Toby's homework.  Then Toby and I went to get in the car and collect Mike from work on the way to Carl and Brent's place.  Carl had asked us to tea.  But when we got to the garage, we found no car.  Toby asked "Has it been stolen?".  No, pretty sure I knew what had happened.  Yep - Mike had driven into work to make our lives easier.  But neglected to mention that to me.

So a quick call to Mike meant he had to leave work and come collect us.  Poor guy.  We got to Carl's place not too late.  Dinner was almost ready - scrumptious crunchy topped lasagna.  And salad.  And dessert.  Mmmmm.

Carl takes the lasagna from the oven.  

Carl and Brent really know how to relate to Toby.  He loved the evening.  I can tell he thinks Carl and Brent are the bees knees.  After dessert, Carl took Toby down to the garage for a boxing lesson.  Even Mike was super interested.  I think we'll be getting a punching bag and gloves very soon.

Back home and I collapsed in bed.  Phew.

The weekend beckons.  Not too busy - a few appointments but that is about it.  I need a huge bike ride.

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with Guy Fawkes

Hi,

Complicated logistics meant I left work early and drove to Scots College to collect Toby to take him to his appointment.  Of course, this meant my bike was left at work for the night.  Poor, lonely bike.

Toby and I got home at a decent hour and I cooked him a yummy tea (pesto pasta - we haven't had that for ages and we both love it).  Then we got stuck into homework.

Mike went and presented his Nepal trip to the tramping club and it all went really well.  He's a natural.  When he got home he was way more relaxed than he has been leading up to it.  We're pretty busy and he hadn't prepared to his usual level of precision.  But now we have relaxed Mike back.

This morning it was tipping down rain. Maybe it was secretly a good thing I had to catch the bus in.

Rainbow from our lounge window

Have a lovely day!

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with nothing

Hi,

I rode home and enjoyed the Melbourne Cup live on our television.  We've lost the remote (probably a sure sign we never watch television) but I saw Toby using the controls on the TV last week, so I had my suspicions I could make it work if I looked hard enough.  Sure enough - found the right control and eventually found the TV input.  I got third in the sweep at work.  Yay.

Toby got home just after that and I cooked tea.  The most delicious home made burgers.  Mmmmm.  And a tomato/basil/mozzarella salad for me and Mike.

Mike then worked on his tramping club presentation.  Come and see it tonight!  You know you want to.

Then I had a bath, read to Toby and fell asleep in some sort of coma.

The ride in this morning looked like I would be getting drenched.  But the rain stayed away and I remained dry.  The roads were mostly dry too, so it was a good ride in.

Have a fantastic day.

Love,
Angela

The Monday with nothing

Hi,

Stupid cold.  I met Aidan for lunch and she saw how sick I was and now she has said I need to be free from my cold for 21 days before she'll see me again.  Hahahah.  With a doctor's note, no less.  Cheeky.  But my cold is a mite bad - riding home last night was a slow process.  Any exertion leads to a little bit of wheezing.  Softly, softly.

Turns out Mum says I went on the Earnslaw when I was about 10 years old.  Well, there you go.  I have no memory of it whatsoever.  Well, I guess it was a long time ago now.  :-p

This morning is gorgeous here in Wellington.  I had a lovely ride in.  Slowly though, so as not to disturb chesty coughs.  The boys seemed to be in a good mood when I left too.

Mike is presenting at tramping club tomorrow night.  Come and see him!  Toby and I will be there.

Have a wonderful day.  Hope wherever you are is as nice as here.

Love,
Angela

The weekend away

Hi,

I can't believe our weekend away went off without a hitch.  Toby went home from school and found William just fine.  They changed into their Halloween costumes and went trick or treating around Wadestown (Toby says Jacob went with them and they went to every house and got a tonne of candy - candy?  My son is turning American).  But Toby took no photos.  So I have no evidence.  Except the huge happy grin he gave me when we collected him on Sunday night - I could tell he had fun.

Meanwhile Mike and I drove to the airport and met the others for our work weekend away down to Queenstown.  We all got on the wee ATR 30 and spent the next two hours on a wee prop plane.  Mike had a load of work to do, so he was working any chance he got.

The shuttle at Queenstown took us to our accommodation at Pinewood Lodge and we found a room.  Mike and I in the double bed and Dave and Alex in the bunks.  Mike promptly sat down to finish his work - and he got it done.  I went for a walk to the Fresh Choice supermarket and got a few provisions.  Back for our gondola ride and luge afternoon.  Luge is such fun!

Mike enjoying the chairlift to the luge

I really enjoyed the luge.  It wasn't scary in the slightest - just fun.  And cute fun - enough to make you grin all the way down.

Gondola view

 We had five rides on the luge and that was about enough.  Three wouldn't have been enough.

Gondola selfie.  Mike is such a doofus.  But gorgeous doofus.  And now I know where Toby gets it from

 Mike and I wandered around the skyline restaurant at the top, remembering an old date we had there many, many years ago.

The view from the top

Luge! And that's the order we finished in.  Me, Lisa, Mike and Nicky

Mike acting up for the cameras

On the way back down

 From there we wandered into town and had a Fergburger on the waterfront.  For the memory, the Fergburger was one of the best burgers I have eaten.  I had a Fergburger with brie.  The bun was perfection, as was the slab of meat.  Yep - I enjoyed that.

Waterfront

Back to the accommodation and I had an early night.  Mike woke me at 11pm knocking on the window.  So I let him in that way.  He's funny.

Next morning we ate breakfast and went to hire bikes from the reception.  We got two GT Aggressors - hardtails.  But they were really good bikes.  We rode to the Earnslaw via the supermarket and I finally got to take a ride on the iconic classic steamboat.

Hire bikes stashed in the museum on the Earnslaw

 From Walter Peak station, we rode down the gravel road for about 15 kms.  Such a lot of fun.  Mike and I only met one other group on the way back.

We also came across a mother Paradise Duck with her 12 chicks following her.  Then the dad took off to provide a diversion, pretending he couldn't fly.  Unfortunately for him, we were riding the same way as him, so he acted for a good 700m before finally taking off in a graceful arc back to his family.

At our lunch spot we saw a hare the size of a small deer.  Mike scoffs at my description - but it was seriously big.  Huge legs and ears.  And striped.  Like Bambi.

Coming back on the Earsnlaw

 The fierce headwind meant it took a while to reach our lunch point, but we got back to Walter Peak super fast.  We got the earlier boat.

I tracked my ride - but included the Earnslaw portion of our trip

Mike on the bow

Feet in the engine room

We dropped the bikes back once in Queenstown and got ready for dinner.  We all went to the Speights Ale House and I had a great seafood chowder.

Back to the room and Mike and I crashed.  Had a great sleep.  Then up on Sunday for a wander around Queenstown.  It was so warm!  We caught up with Lisa and Nicky and went ice skating!  Woot!  Mike is so good at it.  I am hopeless.

Ice skating!

The wind was amazing and we got hit by wee pinecones as we walked through the gardens.  Into town and the rain came down.  We found a cafe to shelter and then caught a taxi back.

Back to get the shuttle bus and into the airport.  Delays to flights from the weather meant a later departure from scheduled.  But it was all good.  The flight into Wellington was so bumpy.  Like a rollercoaster.  It made my heart beat a little faster.  And the pilots had to combat ice forming on the way up too - Mike was fascinated.  We could see it really well from our seat.

So - a great flight up.  Exciting.  And we collected Toby from William's place (they are house sitting in Karori) and all went home exhausted.

Bring on the weekend for a quieter time.

Had an absolute blast though.

Love,
Angela