Surfing

Another Auckland based weekend.
I headed up on Friday evening on the bus, as Si was already up in Auckland on a paeds conference. Friday was a nice lazy evening with Gem watching a movie.
Saturday we packed up Chips van and headed up north to find some surf. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great and neither was the surf, but it didnt matter, we had fun. Saturday evening we were meant to be staying up north camping but as the weather was rubbish we decided that it would be better to head back down to Auckland for the evening. We checked out an amazing Japanese restaurant followed by a few drinks in a nice bar near Gems.

Sunday we got up early again in search of more surf, which unfortunately was alot further away but worth it. By the end of the day we were all suitably knackered and surfed out.

Auckland Birthday Weekend

Friday afternoon we went up to Auckland to attend a friends wedding at one of the vineyards, unfortunately in coincided with a storm that hit the North Island for 24 hours...so the outdoor wedding was moved indoors, still a beautiful wedding with a stunning bride.

Saturday Si and I spent the day together in Auckland whilst Gem was at a conference. Saturday night we joined a few friends that had come up for the weekend for another friends birthday. Turned out to be a pretty heavy one, great night!

Sunday we we went round to a friend place to have a good sunday brunch followed by chilling in the spa. Sunday evening we had a nice dinner with Gem in her new place with a movie before heading back to Auckland.

Birthday weekend

The weekend turned out to be the best birthday EVER!!
On the Friday afternoon 10 of us drove over to Rotorua to meet in an amazing huge holiday home. We went out for a good dinner in the pig and whistle before going back to the house to meet Gem, Bea and Bekha for some drinks, games and hot tub action. Saturday we got up nice and early to head to the river for river sledging (or so Gemma thought) however, we turned up much to her surprise at the skydive centre......HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEMMA!
AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING...plus to add more to the experience, James Nesbitt did the skydive right before us, major star stuck.....LOVE HIM!

After the skydive we headed back into town for lunch before ACTUALLY going river sledging and guess who we bumped into again....James Nesbitt! River sledging was really cool, but actually quite scary really fast rapids with a big heavy sledge, several bruises and 1 black eye later (not mine) and we were all heaving our knackered bodies out the water. Good fun!!
Saturday night we were expecting a heavy one, but didnt have the energy so we just headed into town for a nice meal together (again, bumping into James Nesbitt - think he was stalking us!) before heading back to the house for more games.

Sunday we started our day with a nice brunch before heading up the gondola for some luging. Again, great fun, similar to go karting but down hill and basic brakes. After luging we headed to one of Rotorua's lakes for some chilling time and swimming before heading back to Hamilton

Wet weather fun in the Waikato

The forecast for the weekend was set to be terrible. Luckily we had not a lot planned after the friday night....which was an OUTDOOR concert with Brooke Fraser, Opshop & Midnight Youth. Unfortunately it absolutely chucked it down but we didnt let it bother us to much as we were fully kitted out in waterproof gear and lots of brollys - might have got slightly diluted wine, but since the concert was at a winery there was plenty flowing!
Saturday we had a shopping day looking for birthday pressies for myself and Gem followed by the Chiefs match, in which we FINALLY saw them win - BONUS! After the party we headed over to a friends place for their house party, barbie/action man themed.....groan! Good fun anyway, one of the best house parties in a long while - maybe improved by the fact they had a swimming pool and sauna!
We spent most of Sunday sleeping it off and chilling!

The weekend we were meant to be canyoning!

Saturday was spent studying for upcoming exams. Simon picked up a locum Saturday shift with the paeds department.
Sunday, we planned to have an amazing day canyoning at The sleeping God canyon, about an hour and a half north of here. The plan was to meet Gem and her friend there and then head back to Hamilton after. At 6am we got up and drove up to the Coromandel to get a phone call from Gem saying that they'd decided to cancel the trip based on the overall 'fitness' of the group. The website claimed you only needed moderate level of fitness, which we all think we have. Turned out, that after all our complaining and ringing head office, the 2 guides were just trying to palm us off with excuses as they couldn't be bothered. We even got a phone call from the company boss who was in Chile at the time, saying he couldn't explain his guides actions but was sorry. We were absolutely fuming after getting up at 6am to do it. So instead we headed up to auckland and went on a little adventure up a river and had our own little canoning experience before heading over to a friends for a much needed BBQ. Not bad day in the end.