Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

Well, we didn't make it to the All Blacks parade up Queen Street last Monday, but around 250,000 others did! Instead we spent the bulk of Labour Day on the beach at Muriwai. It is one of two remaining west coast black beaches which we had not yet visited. It is very long and flat with firm sand and dunes which are eroding. It is the most commercial, or upmarket, depending on your view point, of the west coast beaches that we have been to. The car parking is very organised and landscaped, the toilet and changing facilities are quite modern, and there is a a good café and take away. We strolled for awhile and then just lazed in the sun after eating our picnic lunch. As you can see from this photo, by early afternoon is was getting really busy: The rest of the week as been quite eventful. Claire has been both revising and working on an assignment which replaces the exam for one of her modules. This had to be in on Thursday. Nicky had had a very busy week at work. Tuesday she was o...

Sorry about the delay in posting folks, but we were out very late last night at our local, just for the one night only, Rugby World Cup Fanzone - the big screen in the church. We took drinks and goodies and joined 20 or 30 other folks to cheer the All Blacks to victory. In the end the joy was underlined with relief. It has been a difficult year or so for NZ as a nation, what with the death of the 29 miners at Pike River, the Christchurch earthquakes with their death and destruction, and now the Rena running to ground and shedding oil and containers, victory by the All Blacks was seen as a positive turning point… so long as it happened. Now is has. On the downside it means the chances of National (the Torys) not winning the General Election in November are probably very slim. I had a real treat on Friday. A lady by the name of Ros, who lives in Wellington, bought two tickets for the Bronze Final, which turned out to be Wales - Australia. Via our Vicar (Sarah), who is a friend of hers, s...

We have had a quiet and routine seven days, though we were very pleased to start the week with the All Blacks still in the RWC. Work and Uni have been as busy as ever for Nicky and Claire, and I have done a couple of Mac jobs too - continuing the education of silver-haired ladies in the use of modern technology. On Monday evening I attended the camera club AGM and what will probably be my last meeting as I don't plan to renew my membership. I have found the club quite interesting and quite enjoyed doing the newsletter, but I don't really see photography as a competitive sport so have decided that the club isn't for me. I have joined a group that organises meeting via a website which might be much more my thing. Nicky had another good evening at house group on Wednesday - Helen and Warwick were back and hosting again. We have had quite a bit of rain this week, but the weather has improved over the weekend. Yesterday Nicky and I went to Parnell to have a look at some ne...

Well as you probably know by now the All Blacks won their quarter final against Argentina, so that's all good as they say here. It was a bit tense though.

The weekend has dominated the week, and the weekend has been dominated by the Rugby World Cup Quarter finals. Nicky and I enjoyed watching the Welsh beat the Irish, but were very disappointed that England lost, especially to the French. We have just watched Australia narrowly beat South Africa, and Nicky is now worrying about the All Blacks against Argentina, as all the quarter finals so far have been won by the team which came second in their group. So far, today has been a really nice day, with sunshine arriving early afternoon while we were at Pat and Clems for lunch. Paul and Jenny joined us, Kim, Shani and Tai were in residence with P&C, and Lorraine (a family friend) was also there. It was very low key and enjoyable, especially eating on the deck and the sun coming out. Yesterday was quite domestic, with laundry, cooking, and Scrabble with Steve and Ros. Then we settled down to watch the rugby. The rest of the week has been pretty routine. Nicky had an excellent day on ...

We have been continuing to enjoy the Rugby World Cup this week, with the last of the pool games taking place this evening. Only some of the games are shown live on the free TV channels, but we can follow each game on the RWC website. On Monday evening Nicky went to the annual Ballentynes fashion show which seemed to involve lots of food and people from church. She had a good time as usual. Nicky was hosting house group on Wednesday with Helen and Warwick (the usual hosts) being away, so Claire suggested that she and I go out for a drink for the evening (with her as the nominated driver). We went to De Post in Mt Eden where they sell a wide range of Belgian beers. Ryan joined us and we had a very pleasant evening. I had a taster tray of their six main draft beers, which also happens to come with a portion of chips. I liked the darker beers the most. The bulk of our fun this week occurred yesterday. Nicky was helping with the spring cleaning of the church in the morning, while I was ...