Last months in Wellington

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Well I can't believe my year in NZ is almost over :0( I've still got a few weeks left to visit some of the places I've not seen..so there'll be a couple more NZ blogs to come.... but my time in Welly is over :0(

Anyway before that here's what I've been up to since new year!

After the adventures of Xmas and New Year I had a few great weekends relaxing back in Welly. First up there was the Beach Volleyball Pro tour that came to town.... so I can hear you saying yes yes, not a real sport, just an excuse to look at people jumping around in their bathers etc etc etc. But it was great fun to watch and looked like really hard work... at least from where I was sat in the relative safety of the stands... i say relative safety as you had to keep alert to watch out for the occasional fast moving volleyball that would wizz a little to close to your head as it went out of court!! The venue was perfect, down on the waterfront at Oriental Bay, the sun was shining and the sky was blue... I can think of worse ways to spend an afternoon or two!!

A few weeks later I went up to Auckland with Liz and Sam for the 'Big Day Out'.... NZ's wannabe Glastonbury or V Festival. Actually it's not like either - it's a one day event and is at the main sports arena in Auckland. So no camping or trudging around knee deep in mud at a farm in the middle of nowhere. The music was also different - more like hard rock with lots of noise, shreaks and grunting but not much singing... am I sounding old???? I did feel old on the day... surrounded by 17 year olds and being penned into a special 'drinking area' where you had to be ID'd to get in and have your bags searched on the way out..... yep there was no moshing in front of the stage with pint of beer in hand! It was really quite civilised... but I'm not sure that was a good thing. We all agreed that whilst it was a good day we wouldn't go again... unless of course it was an absolutely amazing line up. The BDO was on the friday and we'd planned to have the rest of the weekend up in Auckland. Saturday was a nice relaxing day shopping and then on Sunday we got the ferry out to Waiheke Island. We hired a car for the day.. not the cheapest ever at $50 for the day but they do have a rather captive market so can really charge whatever they want. And as the alternative was a packed bus on a hot day we gladly paid the money. We had a lovely day, spending a few hours on the beach at Onetangi and then visiting various vineyards in a bid to find one that we liked... and which wasn't fully booked for lunch!! Back in Wellington we finished the day off hopping between the various bars around the waterfront, sitting in the sun and people watching. For our last day we'd decided to venture out of Auckland and had chosen a place called Piha, a beach about an hour out of the city. Once we'd found it (not an easy thing given the almost complete lack of road signs.... well ones you could see before you wizzed past them anyway!) we sat on the beach and re-read the description in our guide books... OK so it wasn't bad but I'm not sure it warranted the 'once there you'll never want to leave' rave reviews it had been given. The last challenge of the weekend was to find the airport...... not an easy thing!! The first sign we saw for it was when we were 5mins away.....

The week after the BDO was a busy one. First we had a Burns night bbq, complete with hagis (not done on the bbq and no I didn't sample it... unlike some other vegetarians I could mention...) and then the races at Trentham on the Saturday... Wellingtons equivalent to Ascot. Not that I ever made it to Ascort t of course during all the years that I lived in London! So to celebrate my frist trip to the races I bought my first dress in 6 years... a big thank you to Liz and Sam who tirelessly suffered the Wendy outfit dilema and in the end virtually chose the dress for me ;0) Anyway, I think a great day was had by all. With hindsight I guess I might have liked to see a few more horses than I did... but I had good fun partying and I'm sure I'll see more next time!! You can take your own food and alcohol if you go into the centre of the course... literally the middle of the track, whereas if you stay in the stands you have to buy it there. So the deal is people take cars in loaded with goodies and everyone has one big party! You can move between the stands and the centre of the course... you just have to wait till between races when there's a mad 10mins where everyone tries to dash from one side to the other and find lost friends! It was a lovely sunny day and we finally got the train back to Welly at 9.30... a good 4 hours after the racing had ended!!!

This has also been the time for visitors!! I had Sam staying with me for a few weeks and it was great to have a chance to catch up with her properly rather than just by text, email and phone. Helen's sister Fliss also came to visit and we had a wee road trip up to Hastings... there were eight of us in all...Helen, Fliss, me, Megan, Steve, Mike, Bruce and Richard. After a fairly big friday night and a delayed start due to some illegal tires... we eventually set off on the Saturday at about 3pm... and promptly had our first stop about an hour down the road and a good swimming point.... well the boys swam! On the road again we had a few ice cream, coffee and fish and chip stops but essentially drove through till we got to Carolines parents farm. We arrived in time for the 7s final (rugby... had tried and failed to get tickets but that's another story) and to watch the boys put the tents up in the dark - I don't know what was more entertaining!!! Sunday started well with the biggest BBQ breakfast ever and was topped off with an afternoon visiting vineyards. Monday was a bank holiday so we drove up to Napier so Fliss could see the art deco.. and after a quick brunch had a hilarious hour of boys vs. girls crazy golf.... the boys won in the end but it was close....

Suzanne, my friend from York days who now lives in Germany also came to visit for a few days at the end of her holiday to NZ. We hired a car for the weekend and had a great time wine tasting in Martinborough, driving up along the Kapiti coast and then out to the Rimutaka forest park and Wainui beach.

This has also been the time for leaving do's.... Pam and Rachel have now left for OZ and we had a great farewell do together.... the night didn't start well for me when I took a tumble down Pam's stairs as we were on our way out. As I sat at the bottom ofthe stairs inspecting my injuries, Kanaka ran to hold the taxi whilst Caroline and Pam raced back to pick up some frozen chips (no peas ;0(), some tissues and a plaster!! I'm sure I looked very classy sitting in a bar in my nice dress, sipping my cocktail with a bag of frozen chips on my knee!! It didn't stop me boogying away till 5 am though!!!

Other events.... well lots of BBQs, I took a swim in Wellington Harbour (brrr) and Pam Liz and I went away to the Marlborough wine festival for the weekend... The actual festival was on the Saturday and we spent all day sitting in the sun, listening to bands and sampling the vino. On the Sunday we hired bikes and cycled between vinyards. Pam was on an earlier flight so we lost her at lunch time... but by the end of the day Liz and I were in agreement that perhaps we had over done it... a lovely day but it'll be a while before I'll get on a bike again!!!

That's about enough for now... next time - Coromandel and one last NZ road trip with Helen :0(.

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Comments

[Aileen]

Good morning
hi Wendy really enjoyed reading your latest instalment - really brightened up an otherwise dull and rainy Friday. Hope weather is better down south! See you Monday for final farewell drinkies Ail x