Relaxing weekend in and around Hamilton

One of the few saving graces of the current job I'm doing is that it's quiet and doesn't seem to tire me out to much. Tuesday I met up with a friend from CCU (previous job) and went for drinks and food in Mt Eden, really nice evening, and good to be getting out doing something different of an evening. Wednesday Sal and Si came up to Auckland to say goodbye to Si's parents and drop them off at the airport so they joined us for dinner before heading back down to Hamilton.
Thursday we met up with Gemma Cartwright and her boyfriend Byron and went in to Auckland city for dinner before going to the Civic theatre to watch a performance of Avenue Q! Brilliantly funny, and really light-hearted comedy, and, surprise surprise, just James' type of comedy!

For the weekend since Sal was working 4pm till 10pm with call back till 8am we decided to spend the weekend down in Hamilton.

(photo - Si looking special!)

We arrived around 7pm and headed out for a curry, we spent the evening in with Si having take-away and watching a DVD. Saturday morning we got up relatively early and headed over to Rotorua to the Redwood forest. On one side of the Redwood forest there is a couple who have set up business from a campervan with the hiring of good quality mountain bikes. Heading in to the forest there is an amazing mountain biking course set up with loads of different tracks rated from 1-5 depending on difficulty, they are all 1 way and no access to hikers, which makes it the perfect playgound!
After spending 2 hours in the forest we headed straight back to Hamilton for Sal to go to work. After dropping Sal off we went to the tennis courts and played several rounds, then just in case people thought we were slacking Si and I decided to to finish the day with a 20 minute run! Si then cooked James and me a lovely spag bol and we curled up in front of a good movie until Sal got home.

Sunday we all had a good lie in, on waking I cooked everyone a good eggs benedict to fill our stomachs before heading over to Raglan to hit the surf. Perfect surfing conditions for beginners with 2-3ft waves that were clean and crisp, managed to stand up several times and ride the waves in to the beach - perfect! We then grabbed a coffee in Raglan before heading back to Auckland for a home cooked roast lamb - New Zealands best!