UK Trip - post 3 AKA The Stag Do...

What happens on the stag do, stays on the stag do is usually the unwritten rule when it comes to these events. But this time, rather than using it to mask any disgraceful antics, it's an excuse to keep this post brief (I can hear the collective sighs from here).

It was a fantastic weekend, so big thanks to best man James for organising it and to the stag, Andy, for getting married so my Donny Boy reunion was such a memorable one.

Friday night was a fairly straightforward one, beers in a few York pubs, being joined by revellers as they turned up from various parts of the country, ending in the Stone Roses bar which does exactly what it says on the tin. Here is group shot number 1...

It was a pretty heavy night and fortunately the York roads were wide enough to accommodate the side-to-side staggering (no pun intended) of the groom as we made our way home.

Day two started with a production line of bacon sandwiches and mugs of tea before we headed off to the sports hall for 2 hours of indoor football. Heyesie's team were clear winners, suffering their one and only defeat in their last game against us thanks to Joe's clever recording of the result on the whiteboard. A thrilling warm down peno comp was won by Jon Cope with some German-esque finishing.

After a quick(ish) turnaround we surprised Andy with the group blazers, then surprised him further when James presented him with his. Sadly the batteries were faultering on my camera at this point so I only have the one shot of the blazer squad...

James had organised a ghost walk which led us through the winding streets of York to a few pubs several centuries old via the occasional gruesome tale. After that, the indie club where Boz, on day release from Hogwarts, came into his own...

I really should stop promising these posts are going to be brief.

Finally, Happy Christmas one and all...

UK Trip - post 2

It's Friday afternoon and Jo and I are about to go our separate ways. Jo is off down to London to spend the weekend with her sister Maree and I'm off the other way on the east coast mainline to York for the stag do.

Since my last post we've visited family and friends, had a nose round Doncaster and even ventured across the pennines to catch up with the WW crew and have a look round the Manchester Christmas markets.

Here's Jo by a very familiar street sign...

And here she is by my old flat in Manchester, playing for the first time ever in a meteorological phenomenon not really heard of in Auckland...frost...

UK Trip - post 1

Well here we are in Brodsworth, and what a journey. It's a day on now so I'm a lot calmer and less inclined to do a massive, ranting post. In summary, it was awful. Want to know why? Ok, if you insist. I'll try and be brief though....

EDIT: You can save yourself an hour you'll never get back by skipping the bullet points.

* Despite checking in 3 hours before our flight we got seated on the back row for the NZ-LA leg where the seats only reclined about half way. The check in attendant didn't even ask us the usual aisle/window question.

* Our seats for leg two (LA-Frankfurt) were the middle 2 in the centre section of 4 seats - so someone on either side of us.

* I thought our luck changed in LA when I asked about our allocated seats and they managed to find us an aisle seat.

* I was wrong - we got on the plane and I was next to an annoying little kid who's mother's method of parenting was to ignore and read. Even when the kid took off up the aisle as the pilot was revving up the engines on the runway.

* This plane was fitted out about 20 years ago. No personal screens and the 2 films (in a 11 hour flight) were Hairspray and Licence to Wed. There weren't many 12 year old girls on the flight so not sure how they made those choices.

* Our connection to Manchester boarded 50 minutes after we were due to land in Frankfurt. We were delayed by 50 minutes though which lead to some sweaty palms on the airport. I asked a steward what the crack was and he told me there'll be more info given out nearer to landing.

* Info was the gate the Manchester flight left from. We grabbed our bags and sprinted off the plane to the gate, got to security checks (why? we were still in departures) and told the guy our flight left in seconds - he said "Oh it's ok, there have been a few Manchester passengers through just in front of you and no one from the desk has come to hurry people through". We eventually got to the desk I (after I was properly, or more accurately - improperly frisked and even had my passport and ticket x-rayed) and after being ignored a couple of times were told the flight had left.

* Back up to ticket counter to find out what to do next and were told we were now on the 1650 flight to Manchester - it was 1130 by this point. This had already been sorted out apparently so not sure why they couldn't have told us this and saved us the crazy sprint.

* Next was an hour long queue to pick up new boarding passes and the sourfaced rude cow at the desk didn't make that any more pleasureable.

* Back to ticket desk to get meal vouchers - 20 Euros. We wanted a sandwich and a drink which was about 12. If I was being optimistic I would have hoped for change, the very least I expected him to write down the remaining balance on the chit. But no, we had to use up the whole amount. We ended up chucking away most of the food (it's hard to find a hobo in need of a feed in a departure lounge) and the guy made a couple of euros pure profit.

No more worries after that, the short flight back to Manchester was fine and there waiting for us was my poor mum who'd been there to greet the arrivals on the 1125 flight.

In summary, in flight entertainment on Air New Zealand is fantastic, but don't sit on the back row. Flying with Lufthansa was horrible in just about every way. The only exception being one of the customer service guys in Frankfurt who let me call home twice and was actually helpful unlike the others.

Ha, a while ago I said I'd calmed down and I'll explain what happened in brief! Didn't quite work out that way did it?

Anyway, it's great to be home and in a way feels like only yesterday I left. We had a good nights kip and went for a walk around the village this morning. It was quite a change in temperature from NZ that's for sure...

I lived in Brodsworth for 20 years or so but Jo pointed out something I hadn't noticed before - you can join together the r and the n in the name of our neighbouring village with amusing results...

New Zealand and England can be very different. Jo was fascinated by the molehills. Sadly the moles couldn't be enticed out for the photo opportunity...

More pictures of our various adventures to follow (and less text I promise)...

2 days to go...

I really do need to put a new picture on here to shunt that shocking one of the 'thing' on my lip further down the page.

How about a couple from my only Christmas boozey night out in NZ this year? Nothing too exciting, just a few beers at ours with Rob and Dave speeded up by Lunt's variation on the dice game - using cards. After Bonzo spewed off the balcony after a joker we headed off to the Kingslander for a few more. We were all limited in the pocket so after a few beers and some splendid work on the pool table we were done.

Well, after nearly killing myself out in the heat today there's only one working day left before we fly back to England. It's a Saturday too just to compound the misery. But I suppose I am having 3 weeks off so I can't complain too much.

So this is my final post before I head back. It feels like a lifetime since I was living there, but it's only been 2 years. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone I left behind (well, everyone I was bothered about leaving behind anyway), I'm not so keen to leave behind the warm summer weather we're having at the moment.

See you soon!! (mainly aimed at my mum seeing as I don't have that many readers any more, except Rob's Brazilian stalker of course...)

Footnote: Apologies for the quality of the writing...too many "left behind"s and "after"s. My excuse is that I toiled for 9 hours in the heat today. Woe is me.

Goodbye mo...

It's the long awaited day... December 1st. Which means I can finally shave my 'tache.

Here is a filthy close up of the end result...

Today will also see me cut my hair for the first time in almost 3 months. I'm almost Dunc-like in my bouff...

I had the Rob Kidd '06 tache, here he is with this years version (one for his Brazilian fan club)...

A big thanks to those who sponsored me and raised a total of NZ$125 (Bradbury, Millward, Smaje and Rich Bibby). Not so big thanks to those who promised but never delivered.... James, Acres, Lunt. You 3 can buy me beers in England instead.

Big holiday countdown.... we fly in 15 days...

A few more years of hurt...

Failure by England. Again. But not even at the tournament this time.

As Mr Creegan pointed out to me earlier, this could be the wake up call English football needed and that hopefully it'll go the same way as France, after their failure to qualify for Euro96.

Here are my thoughts...

By my reckoning only 2 of the 14 who played tonight are regulars for one of the much vaunted top 4. The rest either only play a handful of games for those teams or play for a team who's season's goal is to avoid relegation.

Granted there are a few missing (Neville, Rooney, Ferdinand, Terry) but it just highlights the lack of depth. There are far too many foreigners playing and coaching in the Premiership and it is affecting the national side. Who was the last Englishman to manage a title winning side? Howard Wilkinson, the season before the premiership started.

Until something is done about this the England team will never get anywhere.

Take Italy as a good example - I believe they have around 70% Italian players in their top flight teams. And the majority of top teams have recently had Italian coaches... Lippi, Anceloti, Mancini, Trapatoni. They won the World Cup. I've nothing against quality foreign players in the premiership, there have been plenty over the years who've vastly improved the standard of football in England. But it's getting ridiculous when the majority of every starting side is foreign.

Another question I have about English football is why don't any of the top players play overseas? In this day and age where the world has never been closer together (except billions of years ago when it actually was physically closer), and where players could easily afford private flights and helicopters to get home to their mums for tea, why does not one English player play for a decent European side.

Same goes for the coaches... Our two most successful English coaches in recent times, Bobby Robson and Terry Venereables, both coached at the highest level in Europe.

McLaren has to go. The FA felt they had to appoint an Englishman after the failure of a foreigner, which I agreed with. Even though there was no particularly obvious candidate. But now it's almost certain we'll be back to an overseas search.

If it were up to me (and I'm normally the last to advocate a foreigh coach), it has to be someone who's coached in England with success. Which pretty much leaves only one candidate.... Jose Mourinho.

Gimme some mo...

James Christopher Creegan, get your goddamn hand in your pocket. The mo is taking shape now...

How about a sporting update? The indoor 5-a-side team Rob and I play for recently got promoted to the top division and then won our first game 4-0. Sweet.

Outdoors, the bowls season has started! It seems like ages since the last one ended with us champions of the BBC.

The first week was a washout but week 2 saw us pitted against the team who finished second last time round. We opened up a 5-0 lead, only to be pegged back. It was a tight game and although we were never behind, thanks largely to some good skip bowling from Casey, we went into the final end at 8-8. In the pressure situation Miller and I stepped up to send down our best bowls of the game to win it 10-8.

Good times.

Paper celebrations...

Last Sunday Jo and I celebrated 1 year together. How time flies...

We headed about 30 minutes up north to a town called Whangaparoa to take a stroll in Shakespear Park. As far as the city centre is concerned Auckland is pretty unremarkable. But one of the great things about living here is what lurks on the outskirts and in the suburbs. There are countless nice beaches all within striking distance and all relatively unpopulated. Perfect for the summer that is just about here now.

Here's Jo getting her feet wet with the vague outline of the CBD in the background...

The big prang...

After the liver-destroying 10 days of Lunt's visit a quiet weekend was in order. I worked all Saturday which was pretty profitable but also pretty tiring.

Sunday was a little more action packed. It started early as I got up to watch Great Britain give the Kiwis a good stuffing in the 2nd rugby league test then Jo and I took a drive to the park. Very relaxing. But all that was undone on the way home...

As I pulled up behind a queue of cars at some lights I heard a screeching of tires behind me. It took my body to be thrown forward to realise that someone was struggling to stop in sufficient time behind me.

SMASH!!

Fortunately for me I drive a very sturdy ute with the last couple of feet being almost entirely made of steel. Including the protruding tow bar.

So I came out of the fender bender with a slightly bent licence plate. The late braker, on the other hand, wasn't quite so lucky. My tow bar had burrowed so deep he was probably trying to change gear with it. His car, to use mechanical vernacular, was a right flipping mess.

To make things worse for the guy he didn't have insurance (not legally required in NZ). Let that be a lesson to you kids.

As far as I can remember this is the first accident I've been in since I was a little kid and someone hit the back of my mum's car. I didn't cry this time though, just moaned a little about whiplash. Cue my mum telling me I was 13 when that happened. And Jo telling me it was more than a little moaning this time...

Movember

You may be here because you're a regular reader, maybe you got my email and wanted in on the fun or maybe you're one of those americans who keep getting directed here after googling for pictures of Paul from the Wonder Years.

However you found your way here, no matter, welcome. So today is day 1 of Movember. I have a cleanly shaven face (well as cleanly shaven as my face can be) and I'm starting to think about what sort of mo I want or dare go for. I'll go for a few days of full growth then shave in the mo people want to see.

Below are a few possibilities so please use the comments box to vote for your favourite, or maybe even suggest a new one altogether.

I'm filled with dread - here are a few snaps from half way through last years Movember... Semi-mos

So check out these mos and let me know what you think...

Magnum Mo...

Wario Mo...
Private Walker Mo...

To donate follow the link on the right hand side of my page...

When Lunt came to town...

Richard Lunt arrived in town 10 days ago. He picked a pretty good weekend to turn up on with it being Rob's birthday and the Rugby World Cup final with a bank holiday to close.

While I worked midweek Lunt took off to the Waitomo Caves on a tour then to Rotorua where I met him for a Friday night on the tiles. Lots of fun. No time for a hang over as it was luging, zorbing then more booze on the Saturday.

I think we managed to fit quite a lot in and I was happy to see Lunt was in as good a form as ever.

Check his blog for some pictures and (less amusing) write up of his trip.

I took the soft option and, rather than upload a zillion pictures, have created an action-packed video for your enjoyment.

Clear your schedule - it's 10 minutes long...

Oops they did it again...

Having widely slagged off northern hemisphere rugby and already picked the 4 semi finalists for the Rugby World Cup, the All Blacks follow their Tasman cousins on the plane back home.

The fall out here has been pretty spectacular. Imagine what it's like when the England football team get knocked out of an international tournament, ie every other August, and then imagine if England were overwhelming favourites for that tournament.

Everyone and everything is to blame - the ref, their rotation policy, , reconditioning, lack of decent warm up games, the rules of rugby (my personal favourite). What it boils down to though is the ABs choked (again). They had plenty of time, possession and territory to set up a simple drop goal but they didn't.

Surprise, surprise, England are in the semis. I don't think anyone saw that coming. The game against the French should be close and is well worth forsaking the Sunday lie in.

I've probably lost the non rugby fans by now (99% of my audience), but if you're still here how about a little quiz? Most New Zealand sporting teams have a nickname, based around black, silver, fern etc. Here are a few examples:

All Blacks - obvious
All Whites - men's football
Black Caps - men's cricket
Tall Blacks - men's basketball
Silver ferns - netball
Football ferns - women's football
Black sticks - both hockey teams
Black cocks - badminton (seriously)

A new one was born recently and probably the best one I've heard yet. Who can tell me what the NZ lawn bowls team is called?

Another video...

Here's one I've been meaning to do for a while, a little montage of quad biking from mine and Jo's trip up north a couple of months ago...

Kara-not all that-oke

An off the cuff night out had been a long time in coming. As I toiled in the gardens of West Auckland, Rob and Bonzo were busy buying some beers and 3 dead men's suits from the local charity shop.

I got home to find them in their outfits, chuckling away to Max and Paddy's. A perfect way to start a night out.

After the fridge was emptied we headed to the local for the $3 pints and karaoke.

A few songs later and we headed into town. Drunk...

For the masochistic among you, here are a selection of songs...

Shout outs

First shout out goes to Tranter for getting the film quote. Congrats. I think I put that up there several months ago. Which just goes to show how little traffic comes through here these days. Damn those social networking websites. I've now put up a slightly more high brow quote.

Secondly, welcome back Swiss/Seoul/Shanghai James who has finally found a way round Communism. Now where's my link???

Third one goes to my Dad, who's regular watching of his favourite film made sure I knew the answer to a tricky question in the quiz last night.... Which Rodgers and Hammerstein musical contains this song? (there was musical accompaniment to this question, but you'll have to make do with the song lyrics... #gonna wash that man right out of my hair...#)

Sadly I wasn't paying enough attention to one of my sister's favourites as I didn't get this one...

Which of these wasn't one of the Von Trapp children in the Sound of Music? Liesl, Louisa or Max?

Gartside's homecoming countdown........... exactly 12 weeks from today........

Catch up...

I have a spare moment to share what's been going on of late. And it won't take long.

There have been a couple of quizzes recently, we finished 5th in our second attempt at the one at our new local, then 3rd. My proudest quiz moments so far are getting Waiting For God from the theme tune, and knowing the Poirot novel where there are 13 killers.

Bingo has also been successful. Just when were getting a bit angry at the same 2 people winning every game going, I took out the last game for a $30 voucher. Nice.

As for sports, well, the 11-a-side season is over. We have an awards do next weekend where I'm not expecting to come away with anything. I only scored 3 goals and had a niggling heel injury for the second half of the season. Not much to shout/write about really.

I have made my long awaited return between the sticks with a few appearances for a mate's indoor 5-a-side team. Mixed results but I've been playing pretty well and enjoying the fun to be had playing in nets. One thing I haven't been enjoying so much is the penalty situation. I'm used to the the taker only being allowed a one-step run up, but not so in this format - they can take as much of a run up as they like. I've had to face 3 so far and the only joy I had was when I jumped and turned mid air, offering my substantial backside when the ball was struck. Not surprisingly I saved it, but the ball fell to the striker and the good work of my arse went to waste.

Sports viewing has been at an all time low. England couldn't seem to put in a half decent performance, let alone win, in just about any sporting code. But a win for the rugby, and Oldham getting off the bottom of the table has cheered me up momentarily.

So as you can see, not much exciting has been going on. Maybe this is the calm before the storm - Lunt's visit is only a few weeks away...

And people say moving is stressful...

Not for us it wasn't. First of all, we had time on our hands and an old house that was going to be renovated. The solution - clay pigeon shooting with darts and an old smoke alarm. Lots of fun to be had. Even more than chairiot racing.

As for the new area, there's now a new local... The Thirsty Whale. Quiz nights are still on Tuesdays but you get a free plate of chips, 3 pint jugs are $12 (5 quid ish) and there are a lot less teams. Only 10 in fact last week. We flirted with the top 3 but ended up 7th. Not all bad though as this was the designated random prize place. That's a nice $20 voucher to get us started tonight.

On Wednesday's it has bingo! Yep, it's something more commonly associated with the fogies but, just like lawn bowls, we're making it cool. I was a winner too! Sadly not the Warriors play off tickets with free taxi to and from the game and an hour's free drinking beforehand... I won a meat pack, which is not to be sniffed at. Especially after it went off in the fridge after 2 days. Cheapskates.

Thursday is karaoke night. We haven't given it a go yet, maybe we'll try when Lunt is here...

And finally, the local barber may be $3 more expensive than the last local place (I'm paying $15 now... about 6 quid), but this place has swinging saloon doors to get from the waiting room to the cutting zone. Sweet.

A sad start to the weekend...

Pavarotti has gone, and now the actor that played Amos in Emmerdale has kicked the bucket.

The budget was tight on that show, he and Seth had to share a beard...

Moving on up...

After exactly a year in our last place we've moved. We're a little further out of town in a fancy pants fully furnished 3 level apartment. If I remember right, fully furnished is the norm in England but it's pretty rare over here. On the plus side it's got everything we need, on the down side we aren't able to give it our own unique style.

That said, this was the style at our old place so maybe that's a good thing...

This is the sort of furnishings we now have to live with...

To celebrate our new place a night out was in order. Casey Eden was back in town so myself, Rob and Casey devised a Shortland Street drinking game for the beers and tequila we had before heading out.

The night had a twist - Rob lost a sweepstake during the cricket world cup. One of his teams, Ireland, scored the lowest team total in the tournament so as part of the punishment he had to go out in the national costume of that country.

As we all know, a Leprechaun outfit is Ireland's national dress. Here is Rob and Casey in an apt cricket pose...

Please charge your glasses, I'd like to propose a post...

Maybe it's turning 30 that's quelled my enthusiasm for updating this regularly, or maybe it's just that my life has settled into a routine, the novelty has worn off, or the new business has been hit by the bad weather so I have less money to do exciting things. Maybe it's all of the above.

But at over 3 weeks since my last contribution it's time for a catch up.

Lets start on the sporting front... A continuing losing streak has cost Greenhithe its status in the Premier League. Jo had a Sunday off so she came along to watch our make or break game against 2nd bottom. I scored only my second goal of the season (disappointing seeing as I was at about a goal a game last year) but alas Jo wasn't there to see it. Dave broke his foot (sorry, 4th metatarsal) whilst trying to Roy Keane someone and she had to drive him to hospital.

Big news - me and Rob are moving out. Sick of the damp, the mould and the carpet that is either a horrible design or has been vomited on repeatedly, we've been on the lookout for something new. Our luck was in and we've got a modern 3 level townhouse with double internal garage/mower storage/games room and toilet on the ground level, open plan kitchen, living room and balcony on floor 1 and bedrooms and bathroom on floor 2. It's a bit of a jump in rent but at least I won't have to go to the storage place every morning for my stuff and you won't be able to see your breath when sitting in the living room with the heater on for the last 2 hours (yep, that's what it's like right here, right now).

Last weekend I surprised Jo with a belated birthday gift. We went to feed the stingrays at Kelly Tarltons. First up we were given a tour of the backroom where a very big guy was chopping up fish heads and there was a rehabilitation tank containing a 3 legged turtle. I didn't really want to say anything but it looked extremely dead. Then we got our wet suits and proceeded to the main fish tank to jump in and feed the critters with our guide. I wanted to wear a Steve Urwin mask but she wouldn't let me.

Our guide does a sneaky wee - you'd think she'd know about the dye they put in to stop people doing that.

This one attacks side on for a nibble of Jo's bottom.

In closing, here are a couple of musical things I've learnt recently...

The new Arctic Monkey's album is exactly as long as the time it takes to get from our place to Rob's parents house.

Queen Greatest Hits volume 3 is really stretching the meaning of the word 'greatest'.

Mad dogs and Englishmen...

On Saturday afternoon Jo and I headed to a pet shop in Browns Bay to meet up with people and dogs from GAP - Greyhounds As Pets. They were holding a meet a greyhound day. I've long since had a thing for greyhounds, so to speak, and jumped at the chance to go and meet some in person.

Meeting them and speaking with an owner has whetted my appetite even further and I'll almost certainly get one when I'm in a position to do so. Not making any silly bets this time though.

Beforehand, Jo wasn't a fan at all, but upon meeting the dogs she changed her tune a little bit. Especially after one called Floyd snuggled up against her. After the pet shop, the dogs and their owners gathered on the beach to stretch their legs. Jebus they can't half shift. Although one got a bit overexcited when seeing a little dog being walked and was all over it. It was only being friendly and the shrieks of the woman and daughter walking the puffed up curly "dog" were a little over the top.

After this we went to the English shop. Just 1 day short of 18 months after I moved here, this was the first time I'd been. I'm glad I waited this long and made a few impulse buys of items I hadn't even seen for so long. I never thought I'd get teary-eyed over a packet of cheesy wotsits.

Ah Dandelion & Burdock. At the first taste I was transported taken back in time about 20 years to Saturday lunches. The morning was spent scoring freely for the church football team, then back home for a feast from Franks chippy, a bottle of D&B and Saint & Greavsie for entertainment. Perfection.

Weekend of booze...

For the first time in quite a while I had a boozy weekend. First up was a night out in town as Jo's sister Michelle was visiting from Sydney. It wasn't a major night but we saw a half decent covers band in the Empire Tavern, which is much more like my kind of bar than the usual ones in the viaduct.

After a short recovery period it was on to the 2nd night out - the Greenhithe FC fundraising quiz.

Prizes were bountiful (including $50 worth of Greenacres vouchers I'd managed to rustle up) and everyone was likely to walk away with a prize. Or so they said. Out of our team of 9 only one of us was a raffle prize winner - Rob's mum winning a duvet which Rob quickly bagsed.

Everyone chipped in with answers as we managed to achieve mid table mediocrity. It was a good night, and a surprisingly large number of people there, probably over 100. All of whom will have put good money in the kitty toward our end of season tour (piss up).

Most exciting part of the night for me was coming very close to winning a bottle of bourbon. The game was throwing dollar coins at said bottle with the winner being the closest one. I held the lead until right at the end when someone beat me by the Queen's nose.

A selection of pictures...

Me and Rob not doing much to dispell the ribbing we get for being gay (our team decided we were as we often arrive for the game in the same car)...

Jo steals some wigs from the neighbouring table. They work better on us...

Our team manager (having been decorated by Jo) and myself...

The team...

(L-R) Jo, her friend Gemma, Sonya, Dave, Mick, Jayne, me, Rob, Mia

Donny gets a bad press...

Old news this seeing as it was filmed about 20 years ago, but I happened across an episode of Blackadder last night. The following dialogue ensued...

Baldrick: [re: Edmund's unattractive bride-to-be] Why not make her believe you prefer the company of men?
Prince Edmund: But I do, Baldrick, I do!
Baldrick: No, I mean... the intimate company of men.
Prince Edmund: You don't mean... like the Earl of Doncaster?



Shocking. I didn't know that was a gay bar.

Birthdays galore...

Happy birthday to my 3 favourite ladies (not Destiny's Child)...


L'il sis Natalie turned 28 on July 4th, my mum turned 37 (plus change) on the 17th and Jo turned 23 on the 19th.

As with things like stag do's, which turned to stag weekends, to stag weeks, Jo is having plenty of birthweek celebrations.

First up was a party at her friends house. We arrived early to help set up, so instead of watching the All Blacks take on South Africa I was baking a cake with a bunch of girls, listening to Pink and slagging off ex boyfriends. It was a fun night though and I managed not to embarrass myself in front of her friends. I even nailed a few vodkas to prove my worth.

Then on Wednesday I tagged along on her family meal out at a restaurant called Art Ducko - a lovely meal, although I was a tad disappointed there was only one duck item on the menu.

This weekend saw the last All Black home match before the world cup. It was against the old foes, Australia at Eden Park - just up the street. All this would suggest that I'd get tickets in plenty of time. Alas, no. I left it too late and it sold out. So, to the auction sites. Just when I was beginning to despair at the amount of people who were 'unable to go, so I just want to get rid of my ticket.... for 6 times face value', I happened upon a genuine seller who sold his tickets for face value and Jo and I were in. Sweet.

What wasn't so sweet was the weather. We were on the terraces which, despite the name, are seated. They aren't covered though and we got soaked through despite the stylish ponchos Jo's mum provided us with...

The best atmosphere came during the haka...



To wrap up Jo's birthweek we went skiing at the local indoor venue. Jo hasn't skied since primary school but that didn't show as she took off down the slopes...



Good times.

Bledisloe Cup...

All Blacks vs. the Wallabies tonight just up the road. We stupidly left it too late to get tickets and are now scrabbling around on trademe (NZ's equivalent of eBay) without much luck.

I want to see the haka live.

To tide me over, this ad made the news here the other day. I like it...

Oop north...

I hadn't been much further north than Auckland since I arrived here. That is until this weekend. Jo's birthday present to me was a weekend away to Paihia in the Bay of Islands which is a few hours drive north of Auckland. Interestingly enough this is where NZ's first game of cricket was held (thank you Wikipedia).

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and after checking in to the imaginatively named Hotel Paihia we headed just up the road to Waitangi where a very important Treaty was signed in 1840. The Treaty of Waitangi is effectively the document on which modern day New Zealand was founded. The British chucked a few guns and blankets the way of the Maoris in exchange for the land. Or something dastardly like that anyway.

For the centenary celebrations a replica waka taua (war canoe) was built using traditional methods...

80 paddlers brought it to shore containing as many Maori warriors with scary war faces like this...

This is all that remains of the tree from which the canoe was fashioned...

One of the first Maori chiefs to sign the Treaty was Hone Heke. He was a bit of a monkey though and protested against the British by chopping down the flagstaff in the grounds on four occasions. The cheeky rascal. It's metal now though...

Chop that down with your little flint tomahawk.

After our cultural afternoon we went out for some food and a few drinks in town. There isn't a great deal there except a few backpackers which were too far to walk in the rain. We went to seemingly the only bar in the centre showing the All Blacks test against Australia. After a solid first half the ABs did bugger all in the second and lost to two late scores. Maybe the world cup won't be the walkover a lot of people expect.

Sunday was a day to get up early and head even further north for the surprise activity organised by Jo. We're in NZ so it had to be something adrenelin fuelled and it was...QUAD BIKING!!!

The weather was awful for the whole drive up to Ahipara which is just outside Kaitaia and the southernmost point of 90 mile beach (which is actually only 55 miles long... Global warming no doubt). But the rain stopped just as we got to the offices of Tua Tua Tours. Only Jo and I were booked on a tour so we had the guide to ourselves. We spent 2 hours hooning over flat sand beaches (reaching speeds of 75 km/hr), teetering over coastal rocks, skiding up sand dunes and sliding down the other side of them. Utterly fantastic couple of hours. I have some good video footage which I'll release soon. Here are a few pics...

Our guide Greg, followed by Jo

Taking a breather

In the background are the shacks of the many local seaweed scroungers. They extract the agar which they sell at market. They could do with buying themselves some dulux. Although seeing as they have no power or running water they probably have other things to worry about.

We make quad biking look cool

From the windy coastline to desert like conditions

This was steeper than it looks...lots of fun

Hands down the best thing I've done in New Zealand and if anyone fancies coming over here to visit we'll gladly join you on a quad bike tour.

With smiles embedded on our chops we headed back to the hotel stopping off at New Zealand's oldest building (1819 - snigger, my parents house is older than that)

And Haruru Falls...

The heavy rainful making the normally clear water a lighter shade of brown.

On Monday we caught the ferry over to Russell, the first major port of New Zealand. It's early population of ex-convicts and drunken sailors earned it the title "Hell Hole of the Pacific". Sadly Auckland took over as the main port and the country's capital and Russell became the quaint fishing village it is today...

On our way back home we stopped off at Kawakawa, a tiny little town with nothing to write home about except some unique public conveniences...

They are apparently "world famous" - here is why

Our final stop was the Kauri museum. I found this really interesting, with lots of interactive displays which kept my short attention span entertained. Here I am sat inside what looked like a portaloo, carved from a Kauri swamp log which was buried underwater for over 3000 years...

I look very pleased with myself. Although staff would probably rather I'd buried my own swamp log back in Kawakawa.

I thought I had it bad...

...when I was out working in the rain the other day.


This picture (courtesy of the BBC South Yorkshire website) is at the road at the bottom of my parents drive. Fortunately they live on a small hill so the house is ok but plenty of others aren't so lucky. Such as our neighbours whose house is just out of shot to the right at ground level.

Freebies...

I went to the annual Green Acres trade show and conference on Thursday. No free trip to far flung exciting destinations but there were free nibbles and lots of prize giveaways.

It was good to chat with a few people from head office and even better to win movie tickets, a mini tool, a new head for my trimmer and a big coil of trimmer line. Well over a 100 bucks worth of prizes which sound a bit boring but it's always good to be a winner...

Boring post but my people demand updates. Not that it matters, everyone is on facebook these days.