1 week of the holidays gone...

Last Saturday Will & I drove up to Hamilton to spend a few days with the folks. Will also had a couple of work commitments in that neck of the woods, so it was great that he could come with me. Saturday night we had tickets to the All-Blacks v Wales test match. It wasn't the greatest game in the world, but still, a good hard-fought victory to NZ. I thought the Wales defense was awesome & was pleased that they finally managed a try (for the first time in something like 5 years against the ABs!). Below are a couple of pics of the beautiful Mr Carter... Apart from Will, I think he is the most featured male on my blog!
Sunday was a lovely sunny day so we visited the Hamilton Zoo courtesy of a couple of free passes that dad had. We had a very enjoyable afternoon wandering around. Below is a selection of pics ranging from the cute, to the just plain weird. Will LOVED the Kune Kune pigs & I think he would have been quite happy to adopt one!

The rhinos were very cool, & two of them seemed intent on charging each other. There was the cutest little baby rhino as well.

Our favourite were the cheetahs. We were lucky enough to catch feeding time, & one of them was getting stuck into a hunk of meat right in front of us. It felt like we could almost reach out & pat the cute little kitty...

We had a much-needed sleep-in on Monday morning, then spent a few hours at 'The Base' shopping complex. It's fantastic out there & we picked up a few bits & pieces.

On Tuesday Will was up bright & early to head out to Kinleith Paper Mill near Tokoroa. He & another colleague from Victoria University, along with the Crown Institute, are looking at working together on a project there. That night we had cousin Renee & my mate Roger round for pizza night. I had made 4 huge pizzas using Jamie Oliver's fail-proof recipe, & they seemed to go down all right.

That night Will bought out his 'R2D2' to have bit of a play with, as he was hoping to use him the following night at his presentation. Unfortunately, much to Will's frustration, R2 wasn't behaving himself too well, & not following his commands.
This meant the next day R2 was 'operated' on. Will's initial diagnosis is a hearing problem (the robot is controlled by voice commands). He will get the technicians back at his University lab to have a go at fixing him.
Wednesday I had lunch with my friend Sara from St Peter's where I worked before heading on my OE. It was great catching up with her & getting all the news. She lives very close to my nana, so I also called in on her before heading home. That night Will had a promotion evening at the Novotel, trying to encourage prospective students to study engineering & computer science at Vic. He said it went well, although having R2D2 there would have helped. Will had decided not to take him as it could have been embarrassing for him having a robot there who refused to do what he was told!
On Thursday we drove back down to Wellington. The weather was much better than the drive up, & Will even got a some views of the mountains which had eluded him on the way up. We made it back in good time & I went to my badminton club night that evening.

On Saturday I had my first badminton tournament in about 9 years! It was the club handicap tournament, & it was loads of fun. We had all been given handicaps, & played 12 minute games, at which stage the person with the most points would go through to the next round. I had the largest handicap of all the women on -26. However I made it through to the womens' singles final, & lost 5-1 to a woman on a handicap of -14. Oh well, maybe next year...

Saturday evening we had a couple of my colleagues & their partners around for Mexican night. It was a really fun evening, ending up with us playing on the wii till after midnight.

That's about it in terms of news... On Tuesday Will heads off to a conference in the States for a week & a half, then on Thursday I'm off to Sydney for a week of sightseeing & catching up with friends, followed by 3 days of International Baccalaureate training for school.