Midweek Treasures As a special treat, courtesy of Jezz's Mum, we went to the top of the Sky Tower- visible in any photographs of Auckland, protruding into the air - for a delicious meal. We each had the taster menu, Jez had a duck pie and, lamb for the main course, I had fresh tuna then chicken for my main course and we both had a scrummy hazelnut chocolate mousse and oki-pokey ice cream. It was a wonderful evening with beautiful views of the city, with the re...

All Blacks vs Springbocks Saturday 10th July saw the All Blacks take on South Africa in the opening game of the Tri-nations. We were seated just behind the posts at one end of the stadium - in amongst some SA supporters. There was one lady who on the train-ride there was joking with the Kiwi fans that she had plenty of tissues for them to share round on the ride home and the New Zealanders responded by trying to trick them into getting off the train at the s...

This Wednesday we hiked to the top of One Tree Hill. It's exactly what is says on the tin, it's a big hill, but apparently a Mauri man chopped the tree down in a rage so there isn't one particular tree to note. There were lots of sheep, some cows, some olive trees and an obelisque built as a homage to the Mauri people. It was a sunny day, which was lucky because when I realised I'd lost my phone we did the whole walk for a second time. Classic times (we found it ...

Waitakere! Last Saturday was a wild adventure day for us! Having seen a map, just to the left of Auckland was a large expanse of nature reserve, so Saturday's mission was to find it in the flesh. We set out on the bus in the morning with our packed-lunch. We bought a day-explorer pass and headed for, what, looked like, the nearest bus stop to our final destination. We hopped off the bus and began to walk.... two hours, and a few torrential downpours later, we f...

Just another week of saving lives this week! I saw a lady who hit her eye so hard when she fell that the pressure caused the coloured bit of her eye to squeeze out. It was wild and the surgeon said he'd never seen anything like it before. Staying for her emergency operation did cause me to miss the last bus back into town from the eye hospital, so it took me a fairly long time to walk, which resulted in a little concern back at the ranch... We had a little mosey...