Up and down the North Island in a brown rocket

Auckland adventures with Sarah ("Cookie")

The two weeks holidays are over and I'm now back at work.... After our adventures in the South Island, I had some time off in Wellington when I could catch up with friends and get set for our mission up to Auckland. Cookie and I had a fantastic weekend driving all over the North Island in the wonderful brown rocket, sharing the driving. We split up the big drive up by staying in Taupo on Thursday, and getting to Auckland at lunch on Friday.

The U2 Vertigo gig was AMAZING, and well worth the wait after it was cancelled in March. We got utterly drenched during the opening act and used the packed crowd of strangers as human heaters to help us dry out. Bono was on top form doing a spectacular pavarotti bit, and there were some amazing bits including Beautiful day (with kiwi appropriate changes), Elevation and City of Blinding Lights. Ahhh. And not forgetting One Tree Hill just for Auckland. Awesome. We were shattered but excited after only getting to sleep at 3am and being on our feet for houuuuuurs.

On Saturday afternoon I had lunch with the lovely Rich and Kath (with baby J bump!). As always, it was great to catch up with life in Auckland and hear how St Pauls is going.

With Rich and Kath in Auckland

We then beetled off down to Turangi, just south of Taupo and stayed in a bach there for the night. Our spectacular timing meant we arrived in Taupo as the 11,000 cyclists were making their departure, so we ended up having dinner by the lake and flagging sitting in any more traffic! My favourite quote from the weekend would be a certain friend saying "My foot really hurts from the accelerator" (referring to the long drive) in a supermarket surrounded by bow-legged lycra clad cyclists who had ridden 160km around the lake.

A lazy lazy sunday morning, then back on the road for the final stint down to Wellington. Highlights included the constant amusement trying to find a radio station, the cookie time covered aeroplane, squeaky windscreen wipers and oddles of traffic. Not forgetting, of course, the punctured tyre just south of Bulls, when we were rescued by a big bald man feeding roosters by the roadside (he was with a child, and for some reason this made him seem safer). All in all, a spectacular weekend that I didn't really want to end.

Cookie time plane

On Monday morning I took the Elkins to the airport as they set off on their 6 week family adventure around the UK, Italy and Hong Kong. The house seems really quiet without them now... it doesn't feel right!

Katie and Dave getting ready for their European Adventures by playing Ticket to Ride

Oh yeah, and if you haven't already seen it, check out this awesome video from Phono's tour in Australia. And another bit of musical genius that I'm loving at the moment is Brooke Fraser's new songs... The wonders of myspace. I'm looking forward to the album coming out on Dec 4th :o)