New Zealand - The Last Leg

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After spending Christmas with the folks in Brisbane I caught a flight to Auckland where Shavvah and her new finance Rick were kind enough to meet me and put me up for the night. Jamie arrived later the same day and we headed up north to meet Jonty and more of the NZ crew to spend a couple of nights. Greg arrived the following day. The highlight of this little excursion was probably on the first night when the tricky task of inflating the lilo came into action. I learnt that by giving Matty a joint and then a task only slightly more complicated than doing up your shoe laces, the results can be very entertaining. …see the photos.

Greg, Jamie and I headed to Waiheke island and made ourselves at home in Mum and Dad’s house on the island and prepared for the New Years celebration. Jonty had sorted us out with tickets to a huge New Years Eve party at a vineyard on the island.

The StoneyBridge party was absolutely quality. A beautiful setting amongst grape vines, with a good mix of music and a wicked crowd. Obviously we were there until the dying hours. Following this night we needed a few days to recover before beginning our tour of the south island so we took the chance to sample some of the beaches and vineyards on Waiheke.

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Photos

Rick & Shavvah
Arriving into Auckland Rick and Shavvah met me at the airport and put me up for the night.

Rick
Sporting some retro sunglasses

Shavvah
chilling in the sun

Kirt's House
After a night a Rick's, Matt & Amber picked me up and took me to Kirts house

Lilo Inflation 101
In the absence of the correct valve for connecting the pump, inflating the lilo became quite an involved task

Lilo Inflation 101
....a crowd develops to watch as Jonty and Matt spearhead the lilo inflation task

Lilo Inflation 101
....the pump soon broke

Lilo Inflation 101
....perhaps blowing through the pipe (that doesn't fit anyway) will work?

Lilo Inflation 101
...of course there's the hairdryer option...

Lilo Inflation 101
...might need some plastic bottles for attaching...

Lilo Inflation 101
...more people involved now

Lilo Inflation 101
I some how got the feeling Matty wasn't really taking things seriously

Lilo Inflation 101
many hands make light work

Lilo Inflation 101
maybe a heinikan bottle will help too?!?

Lilo Inflation 101
I'm convinced at this stage that this isn't going to work.

Lilo Inflation 101
Wait! Perhaps the worlds biggest pipe could somehow be used to inflate the lilo

Lilo Inflation 101
.........and yes, he is actually trying it.

Lilo Inflation 101
With my engineering degree behind me, as well as, common sense I was highly skeptical that they would get this lilo inflated in the absence of a proper pump.....

Lilo Inflation 101
.......however, i was proven wrong after the hairdryer method in combination with the old school manually blowing it up seemed to work.