The Social Whirl

By Rick - October 05, 2014

Spring was starting to take hold at the beginning of the week, but late on Thursday winter returned, and the Desert Road was closed again by snow. I still find it interesting that the Desert Road doesn’t seem to be closed due to drifting sand, just snow.

We have been at the centre of Auckland’s social circuit this week, or at least it feels that way. Our faces have not yet made it to the pages of the glossy magazines, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time now.

After dinner on Tuesday I got a bus into town for the second-only meeting of the Auckland Life Model Collective. This is a group being set up by a model who encountered something similar in Sydney. It will provide artists and tutors with a “one stop shop” access to a range of experienced models. Getting together enabled us to get to know each other a little (life models rarely get to meet other life models) and contribute out thoughts on how the group should operate.

Wednesday night was house group social, and we met in Bricklane, again, and had a really good time, again. I picked Nicky up from work as she didn’t finish until 6pm, and we drove straight down. It was “any pasta for $15 night”, so Nicky had the lamb and herb meatballs with spaghetti, and I have the prawns, spinach and feta with penne. Both were excellent, and we finished with a pot of tea and kahlua coffee respectively.

The day had been gorgeous and sunny with not too much of a breeze, so I put out two loads of washing before heading out to Te Henga for a walk and swim, which was lovely. The sea is still cool, but it was much gentler and I was actually able to swim instead of just battle with the waves.

On Thursday evening we were both out again, but going our different ways. Nicky went down to Mexicalli Fresh in New Lynn for Faye’s retirement do, and I went into town for another discussion meet up, which was as interesting as usual.

So, when Friday evening came, with its wind and rain, we were both pleased not to be going out. The highlight of the evening was having a video-chat with Jancis in Loughborough.

Saturday was very windy with sunshine (which was lovely and warming) and showers (brief but damp). I had booked us to go to Cornwall Park for a Heritage Festival event - a Molten Magma Walk. This turned out to be very good, in-spite of the showers which assailed us three or four times in the two and a half hours. We learned all about the scoria and basalt which resulted from the three-cone eruption and created One Tree Hill, and the scoria-ash cloud which came from the Three Kings volcano later and covered much of the basalt. We walked round parts of the park which I had not been to before and didn’t even know existed. We realised things had also changed since Nicky's youth when we saw this sign:

We were also shown the All Blacks - the black sheep in the park farm. I assume their wool is used for the rugby teams jerseys. The walk concluded by the cherry blossoms, which were looking fantastic. I discovered that there are a range of “volcanic walks” offered regularly, so note to my sister: next time you are in Auckland I think you might find a trip to Cornwall Park interesting.

We ate our picnic in the car as the wind was still strong and fresh, and then went to Ranui as the new library opened earlier in the morning. It is a great new facility, and we were able to see the artwork which we had contributed to before going to Stella’s for Scrabble.

Stella had bought eccles cakes, and I enjoyed mine with a mug of coffee before coming home. Steve dropped Nicky home later. We spent the evening binge-watching “Masters of Sex”, a drama about the research in human sexual response done by Masters and Johnson in the 1950’s and ’60’s. It is very well done.

Today dawned calmer and dryer, though there was still some moisture around. Nicky went off to church before going onto the BHB cleanup. While making my way there to take some photos and set my hand to a broom I met Nicky just coming out of church. The cleanup wasn’t as well attended as previous years and didn’t seem as well organised. Nicky worked very hard on her own on the path which runs by the supermarket car park to the school.

After we had re-grouped at home and had lunch we drove to Titirangi for our next Heritage Festival event - a visit to Donner house, the home built by Auckland’s first City Architect. The house has been restored by its current owners and occupants and is a wonderful piece of design while still being a modest home. It is built on a sloping section which is the same height above sea level as the observation deck on Sky Tower. The rear garden is accessed from the second floor, and the flat roof from a spiral stair case on the deck. It was a most enjoyable visit, and we returned home restored and ready for a cup of tea and date tea cake, which was just about cool by then.