Sacrilegious on so many levels.
I’m excited. Tonight I get to use our NZ Barbarians membership card for the Bledislow Cup match (ABs v Australia) at Eden Park. How I came by this membership card is the subject of an earlier blog post, suffice to say it is all legitimate and they know we are coming. So, we dropped the children off at various friends houses where they will be staying the night and head over to Eden Park. Continue reading
It’s a public holiday today in celebration of the Queen’s birthday. So we got-up early and were out of the house by 08.00 to travel 1½hrs south of Auckland to Nikau caves where we had arranged a 10.00 tour of the caves. Nikau caves is set on a private farm and guided tours are given by arrangements by the farm owner. This is a propers cave, health and safety takes a little bit of a back seat, no so much to be unsafe but not so all pervasive that you feel like you don’t need to keep you wits about you. Continue reading
NZ Premier of Kiwi Connections.
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Faster in more places – like the K-Road prostitutes I was to run into early on launch day.
Telecom New Zealand’s decision in 2001 to adopt CDMA technology for its mobile network rather than GSM was, with hindsight, a bad decision. Like the Betamax / VHS story, CDMA may have been the better technology standard but, as most of the world adopted GSM, it became the default standard. For New Zealanders using a CDMA device, calling from overseas is not possible in certain countries (e.g. Australia) and the range of available phones is diminishing and starting to look decidedly dated as handset manufacturers of are now stoping producing CDMA devices (which don’t use a SIM card). The game is all but over for the technology and Telecom is losing its share of the mobile market to Vodafone and its GSM network.
Fun at Whangarei Heads.
A trip to Kerikeri via Whangarei is on the cards and my plan it to complete the first leg (to Whangarei) by bike as part of my training for the New Zealand Half Ironman in March. So I leave Auckland (crossing the Waitamata by ferry as, to my knowledge, there is no way of getting across by bike) to begin the 200km ride to Whangerei where the plan Continue reading
After the Auckland Harbour Crossing swim.
Today is the Auckland Harbour swim so I get up at at 06.30 to watch Ireland loose to the All Blacks (the game turned on the penalty try. But the All Blacks failing to dominate Ireland in the way they might have done 3 or 4 years ago – more evidence perhaps that they are not the unbeatable force they have been in recent years). Afterwards Ruth ran me into town to catch the ferry to the start of the Harbour Swim (http://www.oceanswim.co.nz/) a 2.8Km swim across the Waitamata harbour from Bayswater (on the North Shore) to Viaduct Harbour (on the South Shore).
1200 people competed and, at the race briefing before the start, it was noted that the Orca Whales (killer whales) had been seen in the vicinity of the race course that morning (they have been swimming around the Waitamata Harbour all week and we’d see three when we were picnicking at Narrow Neck Beach the previous day). The safety advice was “if any one wants to pull out they can get a lift back in the boat”, nobody pulled out.
Anyway, the race was completed without any drama and, having prepared more thoroughly it was a lot easier than last year. But I was disappointed that, again, my navigation / awareness of the currents let me down and I certainly did not take the most direct route across !! Gillian & Hywel and Ruth and the children met me the other end and we stayed for the award ceremony (with overall prizes and age group prizes up to over 70s !)
The harbour swim is a great event and I determine that it will be a life ambition of mine to make the podium. The only conceivable way that this will happen is if I am still able to swim the distance when I get to 70 years of age as there were only 2 people in this age group. So that’s the plan, see you same place same time in 2038 !
Royal New Zealand Navy Band (thanks to Eventfinda.co.nz)
Today it’s my father-in-law Hywel’s birthday. So Gillian and Hywel popped across on the ferry to Devonport for a day out. Devonport is one of the oldest suburbs in Auckland having been first settled in 1840 (70 years after our house in Wales was built) and is also home to the Royal New Zealand navy and its 2 frigates, 6 patrol boats and 3 miscellaneous support craft.
Peter Leitch aka The Mad Butcher with Hywel, my father-in-law.
Today, the New Zealand Rugby League team play Tonga at Mount Smart Stadium. This is the final warm-up game for the Rugby League World Cup which starts next week. My very good friend Sam Walsh has secured passes for the Mad Butcher’s lounge at the stadium for both me and my father-in-law, Hywel.
What to do if there is a volcanic eruption.
The weather forecast for the weekend look’s great for skiing in Whakaapa, the ski area 3 hours south of Auckland. So I book accommodation for Sunday and Monday nights.
On Sunday we get up at 06.00 and are out of the house by 06.30 for the journey down to Whakapapa ski field at Mount Ruapheu, a dormant volcano. Continue reading
The tournament’s slightly homespun emblem.
Today is the final round of Auckland’s Four Nations rugby championship which sees teams representing Wales, England, Scotland and Ireland compete against one another. At short notice (as weather has cancelled a planned skiing trip) I’m available and have been asked to play for Wales in the wooden spoon decider against Scotland. So I duly make my way to College Rifles’ ground in Remuera where I am given standard issue XL shorts and XL Auckland Welsh jersey and shake hands with several team mates that I’d never met before. Continue reading
NewZealandly 