Coromandel........again

Friday night was James' work Christmas do, I intended to met him in Parnell after work for some drinks however after waiting an hour for a taxi I made it in time to join them for the meal. We had a lovely meal in Java a good restaurant with a range of food from all over Asia. After food we headed out for a few drinks. I turned in early, exhausted from my new job whilst James stayed out late to have a few more drinks.
After waking up a groggy, hungover James on Saturday morning we headed over to the Coromandel with Bea and Emma. Unfortunately on the way over we came across a motorcycle accident which meant we were over an hour late meeting Sal, Si, Jen and Sonia (2 of Sal's friends from Hamilton) Once we arrived we headed straight to Cathedral cove to play around on the beach and in the sea. After playing at Cathedral cove we headed over to Cooks beach to our favourite bach. After a beer on the balcony the girls thought it would be an awesome idea to go for a early evening swim (and it was!) We swam for about 20mins across the bay before heading in for an amazing BBQ and wine. That evening was an alcohol fuelled affair with lots of silly games (James surprised us all with his flexibility in the cardboard box game!)

Sunday morning after a bit of a lie in we woke up to a brilliant blue sky and 30 degree heat. We spent the morning chilling at the bach before heading over to Hahei. On route to Hahei we stopped at a beautiful vineyard (we had been left 2 bottles of wine from that vineyard by the owners of the bach we were staying at) and we had a bit of a wine tasting session with some bread and chutneys. On arriving at Hahei we all endulged in a pizza before heading over to snorkel the trail at sting ray bay. After snorkling we all chilled out on Hahei beach before heading back to Auckland

Another amazing weekend at our favourite bach.

Climbing and Surfing

Sal and I have both taken to climbing since arriving in New Zealand, however up until now all we have been doing is building up our strength and technique indoors on climbing walls, so this weekend we recruited some friends and headed south of Hamilton to an awesome climbing spot. One of my friends from Middlemore, Chip, and one of Sals colleagues, Andrew, have both been into climbing for a while and brought along all their climbing ropes and gear (along with some spare harnesses and shoes) and we (me, James, Sal, Bea, Chip and Andrew) set up for the day at the foot of some good climbs, we spent the whole day challenging ourselves to harder climbs before finishing with a beer and heading back to Hamilton.
That evening we all (minus Andrew) went for a Thai before having a few beers in Hamilton to complete the day.
After a bit of a lie in on Sunday morning we headed over to Raglan for a cooked breakfast before spending a day chilling on the beach, Bea got to open her Christmas present from Sal and Si early as it was a body board for her to enjoy on the waves at Raglan. We spent the afternoon in the sea, surfing, body boarding and skim boarding before getting an Ice cream and heading back up to Auckland, my first outdoor climbing experience.....and I'm hooked!

Ponsonby & Waiheke with the girls

So the weekend began with Sallie and Simon driving up to Auckland with one of their friends from hamilton, Fiona. It was a beautiful spring evening so we decided to have a BBQ in our flat before heading out for a night out on Ponsonby, (given that Sal and Si hadn't yet experienced a night out in Auckland!) Ponsonby always makes for a great night wih plenty of wine and cocktail bars and great company (also joined by some of my ED colleagues and Bea) we had an entertaining and drunken night ending in burger fuel at 3am.
Saturday morning (not feeling too flash hot) Sal, Bea, Fiona and I decided to abandon the boys (James went shooting and Si was about to start his APLS course in Auckland) dragged ourselves out of bed in a hungover stupor to catch the 12pm ferry to Waiheke Island for a girls weekend. Luckily it was a beautifully hot day, so as soon as we had arrived in our hostel we dumped our stuff and headed straight to the beach where we lay for the rest of the afternoon!
Feeling a little brighter after a couple of hours of beach sleep we headed back to get showered and changed before heading up to Oneroa for a glass of wine (really sorted us out) and dinner at an amazing Turkish restaurant.
Sunday morning (feeling considerably brighter than the previous morning) we checked out of the hostel and headed into Oneroa for breakfast before hiring some kayaks for sea kayaking around the Island. The weather was perfect and we pulled our Kayaks into Cable bay winery and walked up to the top of the hill for some stunning views of the island. That afternoon we caught the ferry back to Auckland before taking Sal and Fiona climbing in the climbing gym near us to complete our weekend.... another fun packed weekend.

Waiheke Weekend

So this week was an eventful week! I started the week on nights having spent Monday helping get Bea sorted, the nights went ok until 05.20am when I developed some right flank pain, needless to say I ended my night shift with 1g Paracetamol, 60mg Codeine, 20mg IV Morphine and 75mg Diclofenac before I was eventually pain free having passed my kidney stone- all in all not my finest moment!
Having recovered from that and home around lunchtime on Friday, I went to bed for a couple of hours before getting up and packing for a weekend on Waiheke Island. So that evening James, Bea and I collected the Lemon (their yellow people carrier) from Andy and Em (they wanted to get the passenger ferry) and we drove onto the car ferry to Waiheke.

We arrived in Waiheke around 9pm to a beautiful rainforest retreat, we were greeted by the others with a glass of wine before stoking up the BBQ. That evening was spent with plenty of wine, a good BBQ and friends, chilling out in swimwear and dressing gowns in the spa pool and in front of a lovely outdoor fire.

After a lie in on Saturday morning we woke up to bacon butties before heading out to the Olive festival on Waiheke. We spent the day drinking wine accompanied by cheese and olives before heading back to the retreat. That evening we spent another very relaxing evening in much the same way as the previous night with a full on team pizza making effort with the stone baked pizza oven and plenty of wine flowing.

Sunday was spent chilling on the beach before catching the ferry home.

Goat Island Camping - Bea arrives in NZ

So after having worked the past 3 weekends on the trot (actually wasn't too bad as I have gotten to know a few of the ED guys pretty well and have had many BBQ's, surf days and drinking sessions with them on our days off!) I eventually had a weekend off with James, Sal and Si. I was working till 1am and Si till 11pm so they drove up to Auckland after Si finished work and arrived just before I did! We all headed straight to bed so we could get up and do something with our day. Just as we got up on Saturday we got a message from Bea saying that she had arrived and was staying in a hotel near the airport so Sal went to collect her as we got ready to go away for the weekend.
After picking Bea up we headed straight up north to Matakana a quiet little town an hour north of Auckland, we wandered around the shops and market before heading up to the Goat Island campsite to pitch our tents. We then headed to Pakiri beach in gorgeous sunshine with the skim board and a rugby ball to enjoy a bit of chilling. That evening we headed into Matakana for a pizza and some wine before heading back to the campsite for games.
Sunday morning we got up early due to the sweltering heat in the tents, packed the tents up and headed down to Goat Island, we got Bea a wet suit (well, 2- just to keep her cosy!))and we all headed down for some snorkling. We spent an hour in the water with the fishes before we got a bit too cold and went into Matakana for some lunch. The afternoon was spent chilling playing volley ball and beach games on Omaha beach before heading back to Auckland for a beautiful fish based BBQ. I think Bea enjoyed her introduction to NZ!

Pukawa Bay

So after a busy week at work we all (bar Si - boo) had the weekend off! I finished work at 5ish and Em at 4.30ish, James and Andy both finished a little earlier so they headed over to Middlemore hospital and waited for me to finish work so we could all set off down south in the lemon! Di and Ash (Em and Andy's friends from home) live in Wellington so they arranged a weekend away all together half way between Auckland and Hamilton, which just happened to be the south west end of lake Taupo. We headed off down south via Hamilton where they dropped me off to wait for Sal and keep her company on the drive down.
As it happened we arrived down in Taupo not long after the others, and we all enjoyed a few glasses of wine/ beer together before turning in for the night.
Saturday morning we woke up to an amazing day with clear blue skys and a beautiful view through the trees of lake Taupo. We headed out after bacon butties to pick up our Kayaks. Ash had arranged a 4hour kayak tour in the local area which started in the back yard of the lady who owned the kayaks. We started off down a beautiful brook that ran through the fields, it was amazing, a real feeling of being in the middle of nowhere, and would have been really peaceful if it wasn't for the boys having water fights with everyone. The brook eventually ended on Lake Taupo where we pulled up and had some lunch. We then continued in the afternoon down a wider river where Em and Sal were sharing a 2 man kayak and thought it would be good fun to try and capsize my kayak, we nearly perfected the dry capsize with me climbing onto their kayak however the final tip meant I went in, pulling both of them in with me! On the way back, following along the brook we found the amazing little hot springs, incredible kayaking along, and dipping in to a little bay where the water is so hot it is steaming and then kayaking a few cm into the brook where it becomes as cold as any other river. After finishing kayaking at around 4.30pm we headed up the road to the natural hot springs where we relaxed in the sun with the hot pools and a cold drink. We went back to the bach via the supermarket to pick up food and alcohol for our first BBQ of the season.
That evening we had a lovely BBQ followed by a few too many drinks! I got sufficiently inebriated after a few too many drinking games and decided to turn in for the night - one of my better decisions!
As expected we woke up Sunday morning to a grey sky. We spent Sun morning cleaning the bach and enjoying bacon and egg butties before heading into Tirangi to find out what to do with our day, as there wasn't much to do in wet weather we spotted the crazy golf and spent the next 2 hours enjoying a great game before heading off home! Another great weekend in NZ, thanks to Di and Ash for organising it!

Raglan and Rotarua

So this weekend was a bit of a last minute weekend. James and I both had the weekend off and so did Andy and Si however both Sal and Emma were working, and with Em's hours being so crap we didn't want to do too much without her. After a week of work and a few evening drinks we went out for a nice evening to CAC with Em and Andy. James had won a $100 voucher for food and drinks so we decided to make use of it! Saturday morning after a lie in and pancakes for breakfast we decided to head down to Hamilton with Andy to meet Si. That afternoon we headed over to Raglan for my first surf of the season. I managed to get up on the board a few times and despite the messy surf we still had a fun time. After surfing we headed into Raglan town for a coffee then headed back to Hamilton. After much pestering from James we went out for a curry in town followed by some drinks.
We woke up Sunday morning and unfortunately Si was feeling terrible with the flu so we left him behind and James, Andy, and I headed over to Rotorua for mountain biking. We intended to only do 2 hours of biking however Helen and a few friends turned up after an hour of biking and convinced us to keep going for another 3 hours. We cycled a killer uphill for a 1 hour then enjoyed the downhill even if it did result in one of the guys (not James or Andy) face planting and having to go down the mountain with concussion and me going over the handlebars twice, resulting in a few scrapes and bruises!
After leaving the other guys as they headed back to Hamilton, James, Andy and I decided to ease our aching bruised muscles in the Rotorua Polynesian spa, a great way to end a fun weekend.