Rangitoto or bust

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August has slipped quietly into September this week, and the Rugby World Cup draws ever closer. As you may recall, last Sunday evening I collected John, my nephew, from the Britomart train station, as he is spending is last week in NZ with us.


On Monday he went on a Whale and Dolphin safari with a ticket he had bought on Deal-a-Day when he was first with us. The weather wasn't bad and he saw both whales and dolphins and enjoyed the trip. On Tuesday we had planned to get the ferry over to Rangitoto and walk up to the summit but the weather was quite wet. Then fate forced our hand as while I was driving over to Mt Eden to collect Claire I had to brake suddenly to avoid driving into the ute in front of me which had also braked suddenly. Unfortunately, the chap behind me didn't brake as suddenly but came to a stop after coming into contact with Lilly's rear bumper. No one was hurt but Lilly sustained some damage which needs repairing, so I spent the rest of the morning talking to the insurance company and a local panel beater. By the time I was done it was to late to go to Rangitoto even though the weather had improved and we now had periods of sunshine. So, I took John to Waiwera instead for a wallow in the hot pools, which we both found very relaxing.


On Wednesday I took Nicky to Greenlane Clinical Centre to for a pre-op appointment to see the anaesthetic team. That went OK and after I got her back to work I made cannelloni and a self saucing chocolate pudding which turned out well. I also made chocolate custard which wasn't necessary but still enjoyable.


The weather was better on Thursday with some good sunny spells so John and I caught the 10.30 ferry over to Rangitoto and had a good time walking up to the summit, round the crater and than back down again for the 3.30 ferry back to the CBD. The views were as good as ever, but the weather added extra interest as we could see parts of Auckland in sunshine, and other parts getting some quite heavy rain. We ourselves only really got rained on while waiting for the return ferry, so we thought we had done very well. In the evening John took us out to dinner. We had chosen a bar in West Lynn called Malt which turned out to be a very good choice. The food, service and atmosphere were all very good, as was the beer, and we have a very enjoyable evening.


With Friday being John's last day some packing was required, but we managed a quick trip to the Arataki Visitor Centre in the Waitakere Ranges for one last "view" before I took Claire off to work, then John off to the airport, and then collected Nicky from her late night duty at work.



Nicky has had another full and busy week at work, and Claire has been taking advantage of her study leave to work on assignments and get some R&R.


Yesterday Nicky went off to Ranui for a quilting day, and discovered when she got there an afternoon meeting about the new Ranui library. This she stayed on for this and met people she hasn't seen for ages along with adding her two-peneth' to the meeting. I meanwhile was on laundry and hoovering duty. Today we have had a quiet day at home, pottering round the house. Claire came over and made us Brioche for tea as today is Fathers Day. She also bought me a set of food storage boxes which I got way to excited about - sad eh?


I have finally succumbed to one of the bugs that are going around and now have a drippy nose. I am surprised this has not happened before with all the things that have been coming into the house, but I think this is my first cold of winter which is not bad going as the winter is now starting to wane.


That's all for now,

have fun

Rick

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