Birthday Weekend + Waiheke Island

---

As my birthday was on the Monday, I celebrated it (properly) on the Friday. A big group of us met in a pub in the city after work. A typical Friday afternoon at work consists of a few drinks from 4pm so by the time I got in to town at 6pm I was well on my way!! I got a few nice little presents and a card from everyone.

We ordered some food, (despite me trying to push the ‘eating is cheating’ motto!), but when it came I went to the toilet and kept bumping into people on the way back (including a couple of guys with a 2 litre tall ‘beer tower’ offering me to help myself) and by the time I made it back to the table, the food was gone and my stomach free of that crucial lining! So a liquid dinner led to me being pretty hammered, as one should be on their 21st!

So up early the next day (not hungover because I think I was still drunk!) for a weekend in Waiheke Island, which is a 35 minute ferry from Auckland. We stayed in a really nice villa and had some lovely weather. On the Saturday we looked around a winery and did some wine tasting (which felt a little pretentious to be honest! But when in Rome........). The next day we rented scooters and explored the rest of the island which was great fun. As the sun is so strong here (stronger than the Med), we all got a bit burnt so I’ve invested in some sun cream since (nothing less than factor 30+ going in the shops!).

I took the Monday off work as this was the actual day of my birthday and it meant I could stay up on Sunday night to watch Chelsea hammer the Arsenal like always. I had met an Arsenal fan recently so it was good to watch it with a Gooner! But the place which said would be open was shut and the only alternative we could think of at 4am Monday morning was the casino! So I saw the game whilst losing a bit of money (only about a tenner) on roulette! And since then, have received some free vouchers for the place that shut after sending an angry email!

---

Comments

[Amber]

Waiheke island
wow - looks beautiful!