Turoa and learning to snowboard

After waiting patiently for the ski fields to open- they eventually did on the 19th June so that's where we went. I had the Friday off so I picked James up early from work and we headed down to Hamilton to meet Sal, Si and Laura (Sal's ICU friend) we then all headed down to Okahune together for a weekend of skiing. we arrived on Friday night to a lovely big bach with a log fire roaring in the corner. We got ourselves settled in then headed into the town to go and get some food and some beers before turning in for the night.

Saturday morning we were woken early to go to a pub in town to watch another shocking performance by England, luckily for us, our day did improve! We headed up to the ski slope at Turoa and after finding out that only the beginner slope was open decided it was the perfect opportunity to learn how to board! We hired boards for me, James, Laura and Sal and got ourselves an instructor for an hour and proceeded to spend the next several hours falling on our bums! Who ever said boarding was better than skiing is very wrong! (although in similar situations I may be tempted to give it another go!
After a full afternoon of boarding we decided to heal our wounded bodies (and pride) with a few beers. That evening after dinner Helen and one of her friends arrived and we carried on having a few beers - the evening turned into a very amusing one with several rounds of spoons (at which Si was terrible at!) with a couple of rounds of Queen.

Sunday morning we all woke up to the pouring rain, unfortunately that meant that the ski fields were completely closed, unfortunately due to the heavy rainfall so to was the white water rafting! So instead of a late one we decided to head back up to Auckland

Taranaki and All Blacks vs Ireland

So this week started with a change in jobs, I have now switched from the boring life of elective surgery to the much more interesting job of working in Middlemore hospital's critical care complex based in the HDU. A much more fast paced job with plenty of scope for learning - just what I like! After a week of settling in we headed to New Plymouth for a weekend of rugby.

After picking up James from work we headed down to Hamilton to collect Si and Sal's friend Esther who's here on holiday and set of down south to the coast. After a 3 1/2 hour car journey we arrived in a holiday park in the pouring rain, luckily for that night we had a cosy hut for us all to stay in. Soon after arriving we headed into town to get a curry (Si and James hungry enough to go to the 8 course special!) that evening we relaxed in out hut and got a good nights sleep.

Saturday we woke up to rain - with the prospect of putting tents up for that nights sleep we weren't to enthusiastic! The rain eased off a little and we found a nice sheltered spot to but the tents up (note to self must book earlier if planning on staying in a small town on a international rugby game night!) We managed to get the tents up without too much drama before heading into town to get breakfast. We had good intentions of going for a walk but with so much rain adn so many people around for the rugby we decided it would be rude not to go to a pub, watch some lower league and college rugby on the big screen and have a few beers. At around 5pm we grabbed a quick bite to eat, changed into some warm clothes and headed to the rugby. The atmosphere was amazing with the haka facing us and the majority of the tries scored our end it was a great game - just a shame an Irish player got himself sent off after 10mins leaving it a complete walk over for the All Blacks. After the rugby we headed to a couple of pubs for some drinks before turning in for the night in our tents (just as an electrical storm started!)

At 6am we got woken by the boys and practically dragged out of our tents to go and watch the 1st England world cup game (with Rob Green's performance we should have stayed in bed!) We then headed back to our campsite to take our tents down before heading back home.