More stories from Auckland

---

I realised the other day that we’ve managed to get through the whole of March without a travelblog entry, which is a little slack, so here’s a wee update of what we’ve been doing.

Goin’ Fishin’

At the beginning of March I had a great day’s fishing on Luke’s brother-in-law Robbie’s boat. Graeme was playing rugby so couldn’t come, but Kenny, Debbie (a Glaswegian colleague of Kenny’s) and I had a fantastic day. The weather was gorgeous, the sea calm, and I’d like to say the fish were biting but they weren’t really… We caught about 8 snapper the whole day, and some were too small to keep so we had to put them back in. Robbie was fantastic - he taught us how to fish, he baited our hooks and he even gutted and filleted the fish at the end of the day. The snapper tasted great barbecued that evening - I don’t think I’ve ever eaten fish that fresh!! Fishing is a bit of a national pastime in NZ - the harbour was crowded with boats of all shapes and sizes hoping to catch enough for their tea. No wonder the fish weren’t biting!

Drag Queens

This is bloody hard work

Galore

There is an annual HIV/AIDS charity fundraiser in Auckland called Wigs on the Waterfront. It’s down at the viaduct (which is where there are lots of nice bars and a marina with lots of expensive yachts to drool over) and is basically a day of cabaret performances by Auckland’s finest drag queens (and there are a surprising number of them). Kenny was performing at Wigs for the first time (not in drag unfortunately - he says he makes a very ugly woman!) - no, he was doing magic as a filler during the breaks between acts. He was very nervous, but he was excellent - we were so proud of him! If you ever meet him on a night out with us he’ll keep you entertained all night practicing tricks on you - he is brilliant and it’s very, very impressive. Anyway, we spent the afternoon basking in sunshine and alternately laughing with and laughing at the acts performing (and some of the audience who thought they should be on stage…) - some were better than others but it was a really fun day out. The proximity of the bars didn’t hurt either!

Karaoke

Yes, after never having been to karaoke in my life, we’ve now been twice in Auckland… it must be something in the water! A quiet night in turned into mayhem at a karaoke bar - a weird place where you hire a room for you and your friends and sing to each other. Graeme and I were both persuaded to sing (The Kinks and S-Club 7/Pink respectively) - nuff said really!!

My birthday weekend

My birthday fell on Easter weekend, which was a bit unfortunate considering that you can’t buy alcohol in the shops on Good Friday or Easter Sunday here, and most of the bars were closed due to a new law which means they have to pay their staff overtime on public holidays. All was not lost though, because Graeme had booked us a table at the revolving restaurant at the top of the Skytower. It was a little disconcerting eating in a moving restaurant, particularly as every time you went to the toilets they were in a different place! The food and company were excellent however, and a good night was had by all. Kenny and Luke came with us and we ended the night losing money in the casino at the Skytower complex, then dancing at the cheesy disco into the wee small hours.

Planning Ahead

The time here is flying in, and we’ve only got 4 more weeks of work before we start travelling again. We’ve been making plans for our travels in NZ - we’re going to be here till the end of June as we’ve got tickets for the Lions rugby tour games in Dunedin and Christchurch - Graeme is very excited about this as tickets are like gold-dust here :-) We’ve organised car hire for seven weeks - we will pick it up in Auckland and leave it in Christchurch when we fly to Australia. We’ve also invested in some camping equipment - tent, sleeping bags etc so that we can camp when the weather is good and save money to spend on exciting things like kayaking and heli-hiking on glaciers. The kiwis think we’re a bit mad that we’re going camping in autumn, but we’re trying to convince ourselves it’ll be OK - check back in a couple of months to find out!!

Hope everyone at home is well :-)

Love Jo and Graeme x

---