So much done, so little brain to type with.

What a packed week it has been, but of the three significant events, it’s easy to pick the highlight: the visit of the daughter from the Deep South.

A new computer system required Claire to visit the Auckland office this week. We picked her up from the airport on Wednesday morning and returned her there on Friday afternoon. We had a very good evening together on Wednesday, and really enjoyed our meal up at Mt. Everest Kitchen. We had some appetisers as well as mains and probably ate a little too much. We will be finishing off the (frozen) doggie bags tomorrow. Claire enjoyed seeing Ayesha (who she worked with at Whitcoulls) on Thursday evening, but we had a disappointing Heritage Festival evening as the event we went to didn’t happen.

In addition to collecting Claire on Wednesday (Nicky had taken the day off) we had Zostavax vaccinations (prevention of shingles) and saw a solicitor about our wills and EPA’s. Nicky also had an interesting Heritage Festival workshop on how to date old photographs.

This weekend has been the last one of this year’s Heritage Festival. We were back in town on sunny Saturday morning for a tour of heritage sites in Grafton. In addition to the bridge, we walked along roads we had not previously visited and saw some of Auckland’s oldest houses. We had our picnic lunch in the park on the corner of Symond’s St and K’ Road, followed by a visit to a new Portuguese Bakery. I ordered two Portuguese Tarts and coffee and hot chocolate, only to discover a few minutes later that they had run out of the tarts. However, this was because a couple who were in the bakery had just bought the last half-dozen. When they heard me telling the proprietor about my only other experience of these wondrous delights 23 years ago in Lisbon, and that my wife had never had them (fresh), they insisted we had two of their half-dozen! They were just gorgeous - there is something special about the pastry, and we were very grateful for the generosity of strangers.


Our afternoon event was a tour of the University of Auckland campus, which didn’t actually have a great deal of heritage content but was interesting non the less. After seeing the campus I could understand why Claire liked Albany so much. At the end of this, while in town, we started visiting outdoor pursuit shops in search of waterproof jackets (we both need new ones) but felt too jaded to make sensible decisions, but the fact finding was useful. We enjoyed the day, and the first hint of summer sun (with spring breeze), to remind of what we hopefully have to come, as the major rainstorm on Thursday night was still very clear in our memories.

Today was duller again. I caught the 8am bus into town, and the 9.15 ferry to Rangitoto. Nicky caught the 9am bus into town and walked down to the Architecture School for her lecture on church architecture followed by a bus tour. This was good apparently, but not quite as good as it could have been as only one of the churches they visited was new to Nicky. On Rangitoto I walked over to Boulder Bay and Wreck Bay for a talk about the ships that were scuttled there between 1870 and 1930. Afterwards I got to have a look round a couple of the batches and meet to owners, and had a swim (my first in ages). It was a good trip but very hard on the legs as much of the walk was on very uneven and difficult ground.


The final excitement of the week has been the Local Council and Mayoral election results. Phil Goff is our new mayor (no surprise), but in a city of almost a million and a half, his total number of votes at 179,206 suggests to me that either the populous doesn’t care about their city, or doesn’t care for the instruments that govern it. It’s hardly a resounding mandate.

But wait, there’s more! Nicky paid another visit to Kanchan this week who is now home after her operation, and on Friday Shani and Clem joined us for dinner and then they and Nicky went up to the school to see Peter Pan and I went to The Block for a drink. We have also watched some telly - another non-surprise.


Take care, Rick

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