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Published: February 10th 2006
Steady.....
Wonderful athletes with such skillsAnother quick e-mail just to catch up with you all about a few more of our activities down here. My Mum & Dad arrive this afternoon for a visit so we've been quite busy getting ready i.e. cleaning the flat and stocking up with gin. I'm also basking in the glory of last night's thumping win by the mighty Hurricanes over the Blues (from Auckland - boo...) in the opening round of the Super 14 rugby season!!
The last blog covered new year and since then we've been up to a reasonable amount but nothing too flash due to our restricted finances - something to do with a tenant who hasn't paid his rent since July but thats another story....
A fantastic event to hit Wellington was the international beach volleyball tournament held each January on Oriental Beach. Teams from all over the world come along and compete and we managed to see some of the ladies final which was ideal! Jo-Ann seemed less than enthused but I thought the standard of their play was very high - wonderful athletes!!
There was also the annual X-Air weekend which is basically a bunch of nutters from around the globe
There's the ball
Just to prove it was a sporting event competing/showing off in various events from skateboarding, bmx biking, waterskiing, street basketball, breakdancing (yes, I know its not the 1980s anymore). they usually get about 20,000 along towatch but it was the Wellington Anniversary holiday weekend so wepacked our tents in the car and headed up the Kapiti Coast (south west coast of the North Island). We stayed in Byron's Resort (resort because it had a pool and a tenn is court!) at Otaki Beach and enjoyed strolling along the beach, a few walks and generally chilling out with food, beer and wine. Lovely......
January also sees a free concert every night in the Botanic Gardens but we only made it to one which was poor. We did see Ghostplane who are a pretty good wellington band and some nutters called the Chandeliers who were pretty pants. Still, it was free so no complaints really.
We also had a wee Burns' Supper with some other ex-pat Jocks and some kiwis. The haggis was brought from Scotland in tins by Graeme who'd been home for Christmas and it was a lot better than the 'real' thing we got from Dunedin for St Andrews Day. Unfortunately, we clearly weren't the
To a haggis
Burns' Night in Wellington only folks having haggis, neeps and tatties - there wasn't a neep to had anywhere in Wellington.. We ended up having pumpkin as a neeps substitute - and it wasn't bad at all.
We've been to Karori Wildlife Sanctuary which is mainly for native birds and has a huge fence all the way round it to stop predators getting in. We joined as members so we don't have to paything to come back which we definitely will. We've also had some really still days recently which is great - one one we headed up to the Brooklyn Wind Turbine which has set world records for production from a single turbine. No wonder, its usually blowing a gale up there constantly. But not the day we went up - not a breath...
I'll quickly add some random photos and go as we still have some work to do to get ready for the arrival of the Galloway Saga tour.
Next blog will feature ridiculous fancy dress from the Sevens and possibly my parents as well.
Cheers!
Angus.
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