Dunedin

I had a very enjoyable trip down to Dunedin. I never quite got the snow I was promised (that all arrived this week!) but it was bloody cold nevertheless. On Thursday Rach & I went for a walk to Lawyer's Head before we picked Alexander up from school. It was bracing to say the least, but we were rewarded with stunning views. 

Thursday evening it was off to Carisbrook for a rugby double-header. First up was the big local derby 1st XV match between Otago Boys (where Rich teaches) and Kings High. Otago Boys comfortably ran away with the match, but Kings took the prize for best school support. Their en masse haka behind the goal-posts was pretty awesome.

Next up was the NPC match between Otago & North Harbour. Again, it was another convincing victory to Otago. There was a bit of time to kill between the 2 matches, so we retired to the nearby pub to get a couple of warming(?) speights in. It was a freezing night, but I was nice & cosy under the blanket I had grabbed from the back of Richie's ute! 

 Friday afternoon Rich & I went for a walk around the new Dunedin Stadium. It looks pretty impressive. I wasn't aware that the roof was going to be permanently closed, I thought it was going to be like the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff which can be open or shut.

The new stadium is conveniently close to the Emmerson brewery which we paid a visit to so that Rich could pick up some supplies for the evening festivities. That evening the Roes were hosting a 'Tui Club' gathering. I had better not give away too many of their secrets ('what goes on tour, stays on tour' etc. etc.) but be assured that 'A treasury of New Zealand Bird Song' was given an airing (I guess you had to be there...).

The challenge for the evening was a time trial of the Shape O puzzle. 

Young Alexander & I cleaned up this particular challenge, so to spare the blushes of the prized trophy gnome potentially heading up to Wellington, it was decided to have a second blind-folded round.

This round only involved 3 pieces, but it was surprisingly difficult, especially when someone (Rich!) specifically selects the nastiest of pieces... Anyway, trophy gnome remained safely in Dunedin.

On Saturday morning Rich & I went to watch Alexander play soccer. The park he was playing at was right on the beach.

The weather wasn't too bad for the first half, but it packed in at half-time. Luckily a park right next to the field came available, so we had front-row seats watching the second half from the warmth & comfort of the vehicle.

That afternoon I had bit of a tour of the property, checking out what had been done since the last time I was there. They have stunning views looking out over St Clair. Eventually they are quite keen to build another house closer to the cliffs, to take full advantage of the view.

On Sunday we checked out the Otago museum which had an exhibition of 50 years of Peter Bush's rugby photos which was very cool. On Monday it was on a plane & back to Wellington. I got a glorious sunset on the way home...

Will also got back from his travels on Monday. He had a lovely time catching up with his family in the UK, & then his conference in Dublin went well. It is very nice having him back home, especially when he arrives back bearing gifts such as a kindle, & Le Creuset soup tureens to add to the ones we already had...

The middle week of the holidays was nice & chilled. On Tuesday night Will & I went to a pub quiz at the Four Kings with a couple of my badminton mates. We did pretty well, coming in 3rd only 2 points behind the winners... I like having a clever husband who knows all sorts of stuff!!! I have also been getting a few gym sessions in. I have rediscovered pump classes which I used to do a lot of in the Waikato. I had forgotten how good they are. I was also pretty obsessed in the middle week reading the Stieg Larrson Millennium trilogy. I read the first one down in Dunedin (which, coincidentally, Rach also happened to be reading) and then I read the next two on my kindle. I thought they were great, I struggled to put them down until they were finished. 

This week has also been nice & relaxed. On Sunday night I had badminton in the afternoon, then my friends Geoff & Hiria came round for dinner that evening. Monday was FREEZING. It was Wellington's coldest day on record. I didn't see any snow, but some fell in neighbouring Karori, & it was also seen down to sea-level on Lambton Quay which is pretty incredible. I managed to venture out to the gym, but then spent the rest of the day huddled in front of the fire catching up on the Sunday paper!  

On Tuesday I had a good session in the garden. We are wanting to convert another bed into a vegetable garden. At the moment it just has some (admittedly very attractive) ground cover shrubs on it. Several hours of hard yakka with a spade later and... pronto, a vege bed! 

I was very proud that I managed to dig them all out by myself. I took them out with a big root-ball as we plan on replanting a couple of them around the section, plus a friend of mine is quite keen to have a couple. Now all I have to do is dig a bit of compost & some sheep pellets through the bed, & in a couple of months it will be ready for planting. Another of my holiday jobs has been to get the seeds started off inside, so in 6-8 weeks we should be good to go. 

That's about all my news... Not much of the holiday left, but is has been a good one.

Holidays

The last couple of weeks flew by as usual. Last weekend was supposed to be my rugby team's last game of the season against Petone. Unfortunately the opposition defaulted as they couldn't put a team out due to injury. It was a shame because it was going to possibly be my last ever match since I'm not planning on playing next year. The only positive was that I got to spend more time with Will, as he flew to the UK that day to spend a bit of time with his family, before presenting at a conference in Dublin.

That night my team had an end of season cocktail party. The idea was that we buddy up & bring along ingredients for a cocktail, as well as a matching canape. I buddied up with my fellow prop Hiria (above) and we made a couple of big punch-bowls full of cosmopolitan. It has been great playing with Hiria again, as we first played together for Varsity back in '98! It is also nice that we have ended up living just around the corner from each other.

Sunday morning was rather quiet. It was probably a good thing that Will was away, as I didn't feel guilty for sleeping in most of the morning! That afternoon I had my usual Wellington Masters badminton hit which I am thoroughly enjoying at the moment. I'm already excited about playing for them next year!

The last week of school passed by without any worries. I had Monday morning off to attend an NCEA Maths cluster meeting which was quite informative.On Tuesday night I went to the school production with Lucy. It was '90 years of Broadway' and a joint production with our brother school Scots College. It was actually very very good. As one staff member put it, it was pretty much the best songs from the last 90 years of musicals, without the cheesy story lines and hammy acting... It really was just one song after another, with

excellent delivery and good choreography.

By the time I got to Friday afternoon I was pretty shattered. As much as I had a great time in Chile, it did mean I essentially worked 2 long terms back-to-back without a real break, so I was well and truly ready for a holiday! That evening I went round to Hiria's for dinner and to watch the Super-14 rugby final. It was disappointing that the Crusaders didn't get the fairy-tale ending they were after,but I think they showed real character to even get as far as they did.  

Sunday morning was gorgeous, so I went and checked out the garden. I can't believe the hyacinths are already flowering! The star magnolia is also a bit confused and starting to come out...

We also have rhododendrons and camilias in bloom

There is not a huge amount happening in the vege garden at the moment. The broad beans are flowering which is exciting. Hopefully the gale-force winds we have had lately haven't knocked them all off. We have planted quite a few brassicas, but they are a far way off yet. We are eating celery, beetroot and lettuce, but that is about it at the moment. The thing that has really taken off is the bright-lights silverbeet. I don't even like silverbeet (we mostly planted it for our future chickens!) but it looks quite spectacular in the garden.

Whenever I am out and about in the garden I usually get a visit from Evie, our neighbour's beautiful cat. She really is gorgeous, just unbelievably soft. 

On Sunday I also gave the house a good going-over, before badminton in the afternoon. It is nice to start the holidays with a nice clean house. Today was the first 'real' day of the holiday and I spent a productive few hours in town, doing a few errands and buying a few bits and pieces. I then finished with a good session at the gym, hopefully starting how I mean to go on during the break!

On Wednesday evening I fly to Dunedin to spend a few days with the Roes which I am looking forward to.