A catch up...

The lack of posts may give the impression that I've done absolutely nothing since I got back but that's not strictly true.

Take a couple of weeks ago for example... Jo's mum scored some free passes to a corporate box for finals day at the NZ Beach Volleyball Open. She kindly donated the tickets to Jo so we went along with Rob, Bonzo and Sonya. Forgot my camera so here are a few images from day one my cursory internet search found. It was a great day and our box was nicely placed courtside, I felt like Spike Lee at the Knicks. We had an umbrella for shade and a cool box for the 3 beers we bought there. Definitely not for any illegally smuggled in ones. Sadly, the NZ ladies team lost to Brazil in the final to the delight of the samba gang who took over one stand but the mens team (ranked only a few outside Olympic qualifying) scored a fine win to save the day.

Last weekend Jo and I took a trip to one of the 400,000 beaches within an hour of Auckland. Even though it only took 40 minutes to get to Bethells Beach and we weren't there that long it felt like going away on holiday. The beach was pretty busy but given it's size that didn't matter. It's a west coast beach which means black, volcanic sand and wild surf. In fact, the Independent apparently voted it in the world's top 10 beaches a few years ago.

Finally, this week sees the start of the England cricket team's tour of NZ. I remember seeing the planned 2008 tour a few years ago when I was first thinking of making the big move. It sounded so far into the future, but here we are. The first game is a 2020 at Eden Park, just up the road, on Tuesday evening. This will be my first limited overs live England game, quickly followed by my second as Jo and I are off to Wellington next weekend, with the first ODI coincidentally there on Saturday. What a stroke of luck. For me, anyway.

Sadly no test matches in Auckland, the nearest being in Hamilton, mainly due to the poor attendances at tests at Eden Park in recent years. Speaking of which, I made my radio debut (any face for radio gags like Jo's are not welcome) the other day during a phone in on Radio Sport. For those who are interested in my view point, miss hearing my voice or simply fancy a chuckle as I get a dry throat and nearly choke only a few seconds in, the link is below. You have to skip forward about 6 minutes in for my bit.

Click here for me on my soapbox

More pictures to come in the next couple of days...