so obviously I booked it as annual leave! After doing a few chores such as sorting out my NZ drivers license and looking into credit cards I got the bus down to Hamilton with the intention of an afternoon's surfing. Unfortunately on arriving to Hamilton I learnt that the surf was entirely flat and we had to find something else to entertain ourselves till Sal finished work - namely joining Si in a search for a card for valentines day for Sal, which he
managed very successfully. After picking Sal up for work we headed over to Charlies to collect surf boards and stop for a natter and tea.At around 19:30 James arrived down from Auckland (2hr30 mins to drive 120km due to terrible traffic) and we all
went for a lovely meal in a vineyard just outside of Hamilton.The next morning the boys got up early and headed down to the tennis courts for a game or 2 while Sal and I wandered round the town & grabbed a coffee. At 11am we headed off to Matamata to visit Hobbiton!
Just as we arrived in Hobbiton the sun came out and we went for a lovely
tour around the film set of the shire, walking through the party field to the party tree, inside bilbo baggins hobbit hole and hearing all about the intricate details of how they filmed the scenes - well recommended tour.After Matamata we headed over to Mt Manganui.
Out on the Mount, the boys were
exhausted so headed in for a kip whilst Sal & I went shopping and wandered up to a beautiful island off the beach. That evening we headed out in to town for an excellent seafood meal. Many glasses of wine later and a missile launch drama we decided it was about time we headed back to the hostel to bed.The next day (a rather hungover affair) we spent the day on the beach in the scorching sun giving our bodies a healthy bronzed glow (well at least attempting to). Again the surf unfortunately didn't exist but we still managed to entertain ourselves with a volley ball!
I'm on nights next weekend so looking forward to more fun (and hopefully surfing) in 2 weeks time.
