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Published: April 9th 2006
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Me with some 'white folks'
With Mum & Dad at the top of the trusty cablecar Its shocking that its taken me so long to get round to getting this blog sorted out - no excuse really! My Mum & Dad left us about 5 weeks ago but then Jo-Ann's Mum arrived and, well we've just been busy! Doing what, I don't know.
It was so great to have my Mum & Dad visit - we had a fantastic time showing them around and I know they had one of the best holidays they've ever had. I think its fair to say, they'll be coming back again.
Overall, they did well with the weather - the only exceptions being a coolish day in Milford Sound and a pretty wild, windy and cold weekend in Napier with us. On the latter weekend, there was a strong southerly front battering the east coast and there was a strong cold wind blowing in Napier but I knew it was better to be there than Wellington. The Cook Strait lived up to its reputation on the Friday night with 12 metre (40 feet) swells resulting in the ferry from Picton to Wellington taking 8 hours instead of its normal 3 hours, almost everyone on board puked, 4 were injured
after being thrown around the place and quite a few cars were smashed to bits during the journey! They postponed all sailings after that one.....
I managed to take a few days off work to show them around Wellington and we did some museums, a trip to the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary and a great day trip to Days Bay and Eastbourne via Matiu/Somes Island - Days Bay and Eastbourne are across the harbour from Wellington City and most people who live there travel to work in the city on the ferry - its a really beautiful and peaceful place but muchos expensivos on the property price side.
We were both jealous of my Mum & Dad's South Island trip and their overnight cruise on Milford Sound sounds like something we should do if we get the chance. Apart form the odd weekend away and our Christmas/New Year break to the top of the South Island, we really haven't seen as much of New Zealand as we'd like to - guess where we're going on our next holiday!
It really was brilliant to see my Mum & Dad and to be able to spend time with them -
I'm only sorry I didn't take more time off work and that there wasn't a Hurricanes home game to take them to while they were here! Speaking of the Hurricanes, they played their opening game of the season in Auckland the night before my Mum & Dad arrived and my Dad saw some of the players at Auckland airport. He said to me "Has the rugby season started already? I'm sure I saw some players at the airport - I think they were from a team called the Windies?" The Windies?!?! Only my Dad could get the mighty Hurricanes mixed up with the West Indian Cricket Team.
It was also a shame that they missed the Wellington pit stop of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet. The boats arrived the day my Mum & Dad left for the South Island. Jo-Ann and I managed to see the finish of the leg on our lunch break - incredibly after sailing all the way from Melbourne, the first 2 boats were separated by only 9 seconds at the line. Movistar from Spain just edged out ABNM AMRO One from the Netherlands. We managed also to have a few nebs at the fleet
Wellington at dusk
From the Mount Victoria Lookout as they were moored and catch the start of the next leg to Rio de Janeiro on the Sunday. Movistar took a 2-hour penalty in order to get some repairs done to its keel and I went out for a bike ride after the race had started. I thought it would a great idea to cycle round the bays and try to get a good view of Movistar as it headed out the harbour and into the Cook Strait. I was doing really well until I hit the wind tunnel between Roseneath/Hataitai and Miramar and I could barely manage walking pace into a strong northerly. Eventually I made it out past Seatoun and got downwind - unfortunately, Movistar had also got down wind, popped its spinnaker up (huge sail for going fast!) and it was off like a rocket! Some photos are attached mainly for my Dad's viewing as he likes his sailing.
Hope you enjoy the other photos, especially the one on the couch - classic!
Blog of Jo-Ann's Mum's visit to follow (hopefully it won't take another 5 weeks!) and maybe a sneaky one of the Strolling Bones (aka Rolling Stones) concert at the stadium on
the 18th that we managed to sneak cheap seats for.
All the best everyone - keep in touch!
Angus (& Jo-Ann)
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