Something I've always wanted to do is see the All Blacks play and what better place to do it but out here in New Zealand, so we got tickets to see them play South Africa at the Westpak stadium which is in Wellington and just a train journey away for us. Here we are waiting for the train, as you can see Wellington didn't let us down on the weather front, wind, rain and cold temperatures....'sweet'!
We went for a drink to warm up before the match and look what we found on the wall, a signed Norwich City Football t-shirt - 'on the ball city'!
Then it was off to the stadium - you can just see it in the background....
Typically Dan and I nearly missed the Haka as we were q'ing for food and beers!....
We were so glad we didn't miss it as it was absolutely amazing to watch and must admit if I was the South Africans I'd be pretty scared.
We were so lucky as the seats we had chosen were facing away from the southerly wind and rain that was battering people on the other side of the stadium.....here's Krissie & Andy looking very smug about this.....
Dan wanted a picture of a kick with the ball in shot, luckily the All Blacks played so well he had loads of attempts to capture it....here's Dan Carter scoring one of many conversions....
I can't explain how exciting it was to watch and the atmosphere was fantastic.....
Check out the size of the pitch, sorry to those sports fans who've seen this a millions times but this was my first ever live sporting event so it was all a total novelty to me!
After the match the players walk around the pitch waving at fans and for those die hard fans who jump the barriers they sign autographs....well during the course of the match I'd become a big Dan Carter fan and felt I needed to get down to the pitch.....here's Dan Carter and the back of my head, I asked him to sign my hand....
I'm so happy with my autograph, my Dan doesn't look so impressed!
Then it was time to head off for some after match drinks....
We went to a bar that had a 'vip' room upstairs which just looked like a big wardrobe door (like the one out of 'The Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe') when you went through it there was another bar area, it was so cool I loved it. Somehow we managed to lose Dan, so Krissie being the good sister she is, went to find him and missed out on going in the special room, here they keeping themselves occupied while we're in the vip room, totally not 'bovered'!
Rona persuaded us the next bar was only a 10 minute walk...... more like 30 but had a laugh walking there along the cold waterfront. Andy and Krissie made the right choice catching the last train home, we on the other hand ended up paying $40 on a taxi a lot later and drunker on in the night.....
I spent the rest of the evening telling people about my autograph and saying I'll never wash my hand again....
We have made some lovely friends out here and a lady I work with has a wonderful house by the beach in a place called Paekakariki, when she and her partner recently went off on holiday they kindly let us stay for the weekend, so we packed enough clothes and food for a month and headed off for a weekend away.....here's Dan starting the log fire....
I can't explain how exciting it was to watch and the atmosphere was fantastic.....
Check out the size of the pitch, sorry to those sports fans who've seen this a millions times but this was my first ever live sporting event so it was all a total novelty to me!
Ceilia and John were meant to be coming but had to call off sick at the last minute so luckily Rona and her friend Jackie were on hand to take the tickets off their hands...
After the match the players walk around the pitch waving at fans and for those die hard fans who jump the barriers they sign autographs....well during the course of the match I'd become a big Dan Carter fan and felt I needed to get down to the pitch.....here's Dan Carter and the back of my head, I asked him to sign my hand....
I'm so happy with my autograph, my Dan doesn't look so impressed!
Then it was time to head off for some after match drinks....
We went to a bar that had a 'vip' room upstairs which just looked like a big wardrobe door (like the one out of 'The Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe') when you went through it there was another bar area, it was so cool I loved it. Somehow we managed to lose Dan, so Krissie being the good sister she is, went to find him and missed out on going in the special room, here they keeping themselves occupied while we're in the vip room, totally not 'bovered'!
You'd never guess they were related!
Rona persuaded us the next bar was only a 10 minute walk...... more like 30 but had a laugh walking there along the cold waterfront. Andy and Krissie made the right choice catching the last train home, we on the other hand ended up paying $40 on a taxi a lot later and drunker on in the night.....
I spent the rest of the evening telling people about my autograph and saying I'll never wash my hand again....
We have made some lovely friends out here and a lady I work with has a wonderful house by the beach in a place called Paekakariki, when she and her partner recently went off on holiday they kindly let us stay for the weekend, so we packed enough clothes and food for a month and headed off for a weekend away.....here's Dan starting the log fire....
Here's the open plan living/dining area with little steps going up to the tv room....
This s the view from the tv area....
Such a cool place we loved it - hence all the pictures!
Having a few drinks by the fire - my 2 favourite things burning stuff and drinking :)
The weather forecast was rain all weekend, this is what we woke to....
So we headed off to the local cafe for a coffee, while we were having coffee we spotted a tattoo shop and within 5 minutes Dan had been in and booked his next tattoo (that boy certainly doesn't hang around!). Then it was back to the house for breakfast....
We just had to go sit out in the sun, can you believe it was winter when this was taken.......
It was just beautiful and so peaceful, all you could hear was the waves and the sea.....total heaven.....
We went for a walk along the beach and got chatting to an old 'kiwi' lady who not only had heard of Norwich, had friends who lived on Hilly Plantation in Thorpe st Andrew (where we both grew up) and had been to Norwich and met the bishop at Norwich Cathedral!!
After that bit of excitement it was back to the deck for some drinks in the sun....god those winter months were hard!
As we watched the sun set we could see the South Island in the distance.....
Okay so we had to get a sunset shot.....we could almost be back in Thailand!
It all got too much for one tired soldier!....
Next up is our trip to Mount Ruapehua for a Boarding/Skiing trip. The amazing thing about NZ is you only have to drive a few hours and you find snow capped Mountains....so on Friday afternoon we packed up the van and headed off to the Mountain....
Check us all out trying to be cool boarders or is it a Phones 4u advert!
We arrived at about 9.30pm and the local hire shops were still open so we headed off to get kitted out.....
The Boarders:
The Skiers:
Very excited.....
Then it was off to check out our Bach (that's a chalet to us Brits!) This picture reminds me of when I was a kid jumping into to bed fully clothed, you just never grow up ay!
Then it was up very early to get to the slopes.....here I am standing up which didn't last long! Luckily after a lesson I was 'flying'
Here's Krissie in her new hat
The new member of our gang is Buzz, who works with Andy.
In recent photographs Dan got told off for pulling a stupid smile so here he is trying out a new smile....
Time for a close up...
Keep your eye out for new smiles by Dan soon....
Here we are having a few drinks after a day on the slopes, I was just celebrating still being alive :)
We headed out for a meal in the evening but after a few drinks we were so tired it was back home a movie and bed ready for another early start on the slopes.
There'd been a lot of snow overnight which was wicked and made it lots easier to ski/board.
You'll be relieved to hear we didn't take many pics as our camera got so cold it refused to work!
We had an amazing time, Krissie was fantastic on the slopes only falling over once and very supportive of me when I got stuck up the mountain! Andy was re-named the bulett as his logic to boarding is go as fast as you can. After 1 lesson Dan went straight up the mountain and spent the next 2 days learning from every fall and by the end was boarding really well with Buzz. He had a few close calls, one where he boarded into a japanese girl who ended up going down the slope on his lap - poor girl! After another lesson I got brave and went back up the mountain and made it all the way down without falling over.
These are the nursery slopes I spent a lot of time here:
Time for coffee before we hit the road and headed home. We all totally loved the weekend and think it's up there with one of our best NZ experiences....
This s the view from the tv area....
Such a cool place we loved it - hence all the pictures!
Having a few drinks by the fire - my 2 favourite things burning stuff and drinking :)
The weather forecast was rain all weekend, this is what we woke to....
So we headed off to the local cafe for a coffee, while we were having coffee we spotted a tattoo shop and within 5 minutes Dan had been in and booked his next tattoo (that boy certainly doesn't hang around!). Then it was back to the house for breakfast....
We just had to go sit out in the sun, can you believe it was winter when this was taken.......
It was just beautiful and so peaceful, all you could hear was the waves and the sea.....total heaven.....
We went for a walk along the beach and got chatting to an old 'kiwi' lady who not only had heard of Norwich, had friends who lived on Hilly Plantation in Thorpe st Andrew (where we both grew up) and had been to Norwich and met the bishop at Norwich Cathedral!!
After that bit of excitement it was back to the deck for some drinks in the sun....god those winter months were hard!
As we watched the sun set we could see the South Island in the distance.....
Okay so we had to get a sunset shot.....we could almost be back in Thailand!
It all got too much for one tired soldier!....
Next up is our trip to Mount Ruapehua for a Boarding/Skiing trip. The amazing thing about NZ is you only have to drive a few hours and you find snow capped Mountains....so on Friday afternoon we packed up the van and headed off to the Mountain....
Check us all out trying to be cool boarders or is it a Phones 4u advert!
We arrived at about 9.30pm and the local hire shops were still open so we headed off to get kitted out.....
The Boarders:
The Skiers:
Very excited.....
Then it was off to check out our Bach (that's a chalet to us Brits!) This picture reminds me of when I was a kid jumping into to bed fully clothed, you just never grow up ay!
Then it was up very early to get to the slopes.....here I am standing up which didn't last long! Luckily after a lesson I was 'flying'
Here's Krissie in her new hat
The new member of our gang is Buzz, who works with Andy.
In recent photographs Dan got told off for pulling a stupid smile so here he is trying out a new smile....
Time for a close up...
Keep your eye out for new smiles by Dan soon....
Here we are having a few drinks after a day on the slopes, I was just celebrating still being alive :)
We headed out for a meal in the evening but after a few drinks we were so tired it was back home a movie and bed ready for another early start on the slopes.
There'd been a lot of snow overnight which was wicked and made it lots easier to ski/board.
You'll be relieved to hear we didn't take many pics as our camera got so cold it refused to work!
We had an amazing time, Krissie was fantastic on the slopes only falling over once and very supportive of me when I got stuck up the mountain! Andy was re-named the bulett as his logic to boarding is go as fast as you can. After 1 lesson Dan went straight up the mountain and spent the next 2 days learning from every fall and by the end was boarding really well with Buzz. He had a few close calls, one where he boarded into a japanese girl who ended up going down the slope on his lap - poor girl! After another lesson I got brave and went back up the mountain and made it all the way down without falling over.
These are the nursery slopes I spent a lot of time here:
Time for coffee before we hit the road and headed home. We all totally loved the weekend and think it's up there with one of our best NZ experiences....
So we are totally converted to skiing/boarding and looking forward many more holiday's with the gang back home :)
Next blog will be Dan's birthday, hopefully lots of sunny shots as it's spring here now......until then x
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