Last weekend a few of us drove across the country to Mount Ruapehu. And even though I’ve driven the way a million, billion times, I’m still struck by how pretty New Zealand can be.

I have to say, I love this drive. Is there a particular drive that you are loving right now??

Last weekend was a long weekend. That is to say that we got a glorious extra Monday off. That Monday I happened to be a Snells Beach, where friends have a cute little bach that sits right on the water.

Sunday night was filled with red wine and catching up and eating and ALOT of memories. Mostly from 3 years ago, but I don’t want to go there. On Monday things had perked up, and everything seemed a lot less dire (I suspect this is due to the lack of red wine in my system).

Anyway, Rob + John, the wonderful people that they are, took The Second Quarter, Liz and I out on the boat for some ‘it’s almost summer’ fun.

I say almost summer, because it didn’t feel like summer. It was cold, and overcast, and we were all in wetsuits and I still got blue lips in the end. But the point is, it may have been cold, but we went WAKEBOARDING, and SEA BISCUITING! (And The Second Quarter, the ski ponce that he is, also went waterskiing). We also rescued some kina before they got eaten. We’re good lovely people and all that.

It was brilliant. Really, it was. Wakeboarding is a ridiculous amount of fun, and getting up on the first try was SO BRILLIANT! And by the end of my turn I was grinning from ear to ear, and would cheer empathetically during everyone else’s go. It was a ridiculous amount of fun.

There was much cheering for falling over (or off, in the case of the sea biscuit). There was much cheering all round, really.

It was such a brilliant, brilliant way to spend an hour or two, and I was just so PUMPED after! Sure, there were sore muscles the next day (clinging to a sea-biscuit will kill your shoulders, seriously) but it seemed such a small price to pay for getting to partake in such an AWESOME sport. Seriously, check out the grins after:

I have to say, that wakeboarding? It totally made my weekend awesome. :)

I have a bunch of posts saved up to post for when I don’t have the time or energy to write a post. But it seems lately I’ve come to rely on them, and have started posting ONLY the “filler” posts. With work, and Sinter/Rarg Designs work, and all the other social commitements that I have at the moment it seems that any “real” posts get left on the way side. Posts about what I’ve been up to, thinking, wanting, wondering, that kind of thing. A “real” post, then.

Last weekend The Boy and I went to Melbourne to see the brilliant, and wonderful Liz. We ate so much food (Melbourne is SO GREAT for foods!), and admired the street art (I love that Melbourne allows such urban street art to exist, rather than painting over it. Whether it was intentional or because they can’t afford to paint over it is kind of moot at the moment. The point is Melbourne is TEEMING with awesome street art).

We did some touristy things too, we wandered all around town, saw Federation Square and it’s messed up buildings. We walked by Flinders Station, and breakfasted on Chapel St. We went to Melbourne Zoo, and did a behind the scenes tour. We TOUCHED AN ELEPHANT. Totally. Amazing. :)

(Excuse the quality, we took stills from the video camera . . .)

It really was awesome. Their hide is tough and leathery, and their trunks super dexterous, and pretty strong too! We did a whole bunch of things as part of her enrichment activities. We painted, and kicked a ball around, fed her carrots and apples, it was amazing. It was a pretty fantastic thing, to be standing next to an elephant, and have her look at you knowing full well that if she wanted to, she could knock you over and squish you. Plus, she was HUGE. I didn’t realise how HUGE huge could be till I was standing right next to her.

And seriously? Three days is not enough time to be hanging with your best friend. Who is amazing. And who feeds you, and lets you crash at her apartment, and reintroduces you to the BEST cupcake place ever, and acts a tourist guide and puts up with your grumpy moods because some how you misheard the Australian Accent and brought eight professional photos of you hanging out with the elephant for $59.95 instead of $15.95 (No love, Melbourne Zoo, No love). Three days is NOT LONG ENOUGH!

It was a really, really brilliant weekend. And today at work it’s slow and I’m working on niggly projects that require the details to be perfect across all browsers (gaaah IE6 I hate you) and I wish that somehow we’d not been able to get on a plane and were still in Melbourne. Where the art is awesome, the food brilliant, and the best friends are THE BEST EVER.

Last weekend I was meant to fly to Melbourne to spend the weekend being frivilous with the brilliant Liz. We had a weekend of zoo’s and aquariums and circus visits and drinking planned. It was going to be so grand! And I was so looking forward to it. I hadn’t seen Miss Liz since her wedding in March!

But I lost my passport before I could make it to Melbourne. And after missing flights and trying to get a new passport I gave up. And brought new tickets for a couple months down the track, and spent the afternoon Skyping with Liz instead. We comiserated the waste of what would have been THE BEST weekend ever.

One good things about not going is that The Third Quarters birthday party was that Friday night. I was going to miss it and meet them in Melbourne a few days later but alas. As THAT didn’t happen I went to the party in Auckland instead.

And wow. What a party it was! It was ‘Asian Yellow Fever’ theme’d (it’s an in-joke, so no insult to anyone is meant. Please don’t take offense!) and I went in bright yellow stockings (the only yellow piece of clothing I had, other than one of my Dads ties that I stole). But everyone went so hard out! There were ninja’s, and fantastic asian fancy dress. There was a panda and face paint and hats and The Second Quarter even covered himself with Yellow Food Colouring. It was pretty phenomonal!

I had a great time. Unfortunately though, because I started the night on a bit of a downer (you know, not being in Melbourne and all) the solution appeared to be ‘drink more’. Which I did (I’m easily convinced, see). And the most ridiculous thing happened. It appears that the more drunk I get, the more inappropriate subjects become suddenly appropriate conversation. There was much talk about tail-pipes, and big-bore exhuasts and it was just BAD. Horribly horribly bad. Particularly because there where people who were mostly sober, and still remember my conversations about such things. Still, it appears that I was not the only silly intoxicated person.

While perhaps not quite as refined as Melbourne would have been (there would have been drinking in bars, in pretty dresses instead of the safety of The Square in which all manner of things happen which are not suitable for the public eye) it was still a fairly brilliant night.

Let’s hope that all weekends that start with a down can be followed with a drunken and much fun up. :)

These were taken when we were in New Plymouth a while back. It’s been so dismal in Auckland the last little while. Rain and wind . . . and often it’s so dark by the time that I get home that it’s not me taking Quinn for daily walks anymore. :(

I’m glad we still have all these photos. It was a great weekend away, the walks were new and different and quite dramatic, actually (check out the surf, and the black sand, and the driftwood scattered over the beach). We don’t have walks like this in Auckland.

I’m holding out till the weekend, we’ll have our walks then, I think.

Before we drove the 5 hour drive back to Auckland The Boy and I took Quinn for a walk to tire him out (there’s nothing worse than a hyperactive little dog on a long car trip. Last time he wiggled under the drivers chair and kept popping out by the pedals).

The easiest way to tire him out is to have him run back and forth between The Boy and I, standing maybe 50 metres apart.

Worked like a charm :)

While in New Plymouth we went to visit one of The Boy’s very good friends. It was brilliant to see him again. Anyway, he keeps llamas! I’d never seen a llama up close before, so I walked out to the field to admire them.

First thing you notice is that llamas SMELL. Something I hadn’t really considered before because all I was really thinking about was how fuzzy they looked from far away, and how cool llamas were in Disney’s “The Emperors New Groove”. And I can tell you, straight up, they don’t have humour that Kuzco did.

They weren’t very happy with Quinn being around. He wasn’t even interested in them, really. He’s a bit of a wuss when it comes to things bigger than him (which is mostly everything). So after exhibiting some ‘not cool’ mannerisms I picked up Quinn and stuffed him in my jacket. The llamas were fine after that.

And then I realised that there was a baby llama! Which obviously was why they were a bit uptight and all. Anyway, once they calmed down they responded to my talking to them, which was amusing. They’d look up and waggle their ears and pretend not to notice me talking to them some more.

Which was fine really, because about 5 minutes in I realised that some of them had 70’s haircuts and couldn’t stop giggling.

After a while they all moved away and I lost interest in giggling at their haircuts. So I entertained myself with cam-whore photos. Because what else am I going to do with a dog down my jacket, really?

So, in conclusion: Wet llamas SMELL, are not sociable, are without humour, and have amusing haircuts. :) Not a bad bunch of things to learn on a grey afternoon!

Last weekend The Boy and I left the city to attend a Nautical Party.

It was QUITE nautical. I was pretty impressed with the effort – walking in was a little intimidating. Everyone was dressed up, and woo! The decorations!! There was black lights, smoke machines, drunken sea creatures, a ship,lilos and blow up sharks . . . it was pretty damn impressive:

And then there was The People! The Crazy Crazy People from New Plymouth. They went hard out too – there was lobsters, and mermaids, and fishermen and jellyfish and octopi (with multiple moving legs that lift up suggestively when strings are pulled). And that was just the people who MADE their costumes! There were also sailors and pirates and beach girls and oh! There was a dead chick. Well, a chick that had grey ‘concrete’ boxes on her feet, in a suit, with white make up and blue lips. A drowned dead chick. I was impressed with her morbid creativity.

My attempt at “imaginary fisherman” (ie, chick with a newspaper sailor hat and toy fishing rod) didn’t quite cut it. But the fishing rod was a hit, and honestly? The drunker people got the less it mattered what everyone was wearing.

And then, as the night wore on and people got more and more drunk, there were many ‘I’m on a boat‘ moments, too. And a few reenactments of Titanic. It was imperative that many photos were taken.

I don’t often go down to New Plymouth when The Boy goes, and I’m 100% completely deaf to his occasional suggestions that we move there, but I have to say that his NP friends are actually pretty cool and that I definitely enjoyed this trip more than I have others. In saying that, I think that’s mostly because right now I’m pretty much drunk in love with The Boy who drinks beer through his snorkel.

It was a good party. :P

On Sunday a bunch of us caught the ferry out to Waiheke Island for the day. Not only was the weather phenomenal, we had a really brilliant day. The company was awesome, the ginger beer delicious, and it was great last hurrah to summer.

The Fourth Quarter and I only just made it to the ferry (we ran from his apartment in town, having decided last minute that we were still keen). It was a pretty awesome ferry ride out, we met a bunch of people (I recognized one of the girls from my past – she was going out with one of my ex’s friends! It was a pretty crazy reminder of that time)

Our first stop was Wild On Waiheke, which allowed you to do something like 8 tastings for $6. It was pretty fantastic (I fell in love with their ginger beer, actually). We ended up outside in the sun, playing anti-chess (which the Third Quarter totally pwned at) and tetherball (until alas, I got all enthusiastic and broke the silly thing. The Fourth Quarter fixed it so no one would know!)

From there it was a looong walk up a dusty driveway to get to Stoneyridge, which was by far the most overpriced stuck up place I’d ever been. Lucky for them their bruschetta and their brut was absolutely gorgeous.

After lounging and gossiping over lunch, we caught the bus back to the beach, where we spent the afternoon playing beach soccer, swimming, sunbathing and indulging in some frisbee before getting back on the ferry home.

It was an fantastic way to spend the day. So incredibly relaxing and very much a ‘enjoy the last of summer’ day. Hurrah!

Over the weekend, my Best Friend, The Out of Town Bride, got married. It was an epic weekend, wildly successful and one of those amazing weekends that you’re both glad and a little disappointed that it’s over.

I left Auckland on the Friday (on a random bus in a crazy storm) to arrive in Rawhiti a mere 5.5 hours later (it usually a 3.5 – 4 hour trip). It was gorgeous up there, blue skies and almost stupidly hot! The bridal party did our own little powhiri (which was short and sweet and necessary, as we’d be walking onto the marae post powhiri the next day).

Then us girls left to head to the Bridal Batch, which was AMAZING! It was all so well designed, and was gorgeous. Surprisingly, it was only the ‘bunkhouse’ – the main batch was HUGE and down the way! We wandered down the mostly private beach and enjoyed a late afternoon swim. It was pretty awesome. The Bay of Islands is truly gorgeous!

That night before the wedding was pretty fun. We headed back to the Marae to set up the last minute details (it was pretty easy to slot back into ‘marae’ mode, and washed dishes, peeled kumura with the mokopuna, made signs and arranged flowers), and on our return to the Bridal Batch we spent the evening drinking champagne, painting nails, tacking dresses and opening presents! The Bride got all us bridesmaids pearl studs, and a bracelet to match! I was blown away by her generosity, for serious. She also got us a pair of gold jandals each, and a pair of red gumboots, depending on how the weather went (none of us planned to be wearing our fancy shoes at the reception, nor in the bridal photos). This thoughtfulness is in part, why I adore The Out of Town Bride!!

The next morning, I snuck in early to the Brides room to see if she was awake (she was, of course) and we had a little squee together. It was her Wedding Day! We spent a little while discussing plans and then the morning came in full swing. We curled each others hair, fixed nails that had broke, did makeup, tried on our boots and did all the cute girly things you do before walking down an aisle.

Once we were all good and ready, we rushed down the road to await the Father of the Bride to appear (he was part of the Powhiri, and would meet us 5 minutes before it was done!) As we had time to kill, we did what all girls who had just gotten all dressed up would do, and we were cam whores. :)

The father of the bride appeared, and we walked down the aisle (followed by a gaggle of children) and we watched The Out of Town Bride get married. It was a touching moment, listening to their vows. It wasn’t without drama though, someone had misplaced the actual marriage license (so we signed a scrap peice of paper for the photographer and signed the real thing later on in the day), and the tent for the children wasn’t set up, so they ended up sitting at our feet. Which would have been fine had they been a bit older. They weren’t, so they were darting around from person to person, and around the bridal couples feet. Sigh.

The group photos after were pretty fun, as was the eating. Oh the eating! I love Marae food. There was fry bread and mussel fritters and fancy cocktails and punch and boil up, and cup cupcakes . . . it was all done in small cute little finger food packages, suitable for a wedding. Having been starved at breakfast I pretty much devoured anything that was put in front of me. At one point I was in the marae kitchen eating the fry bread as it came out of the pan! Oh, the perks of being maid of honour :)

The Bridal Party photos came soon after, and oh we had lots of fun! We were all drinking little bottles of champagne (yum!) and dancing around. We took lots of silly photos of ourselves, to balance up the ’serious’ photos the professional photographers were taking. It was QUITE fun!

Unfortunately we were in an old farm like property, with long grass. And we were all in jandals – our poor feet got absolutely ATTACKED by the bugs! We were all itching our tootsies at the reception!!

The reception was quite fun too. It was held at Russell, which was a good 40 minute drive away (which was good, because it gave us some downtime). Once there we spent a good while socialising, and wandering around. It was good to see alot of the people that were there. The food was amazing (despite the small cockup, the staff had forgotten that they were to serve the bridal table, and as such we ended up watching other people eat till food came), and by this time I was well into the Champagne, and more than worried at the thought of having to do my speech!

But, the speeches did come. Both the Father of the Bride and the Father of the Groom spoke so eloquently of their children. The Best Man did quite a humorous speech and his speech was well received. Then it was my turn. I apologised for being nervous (and was lucky to have people yell out to tautoko me) and I plowed right ahead. It was good, everyone laughed when they were meant to (in fact my one joke was so well received that I had to pause twice, and mention that yes, it was funny well after the delivery of it. The silly thing was, it was funny because it was TRUE :P).

The worse bit, though came at the end. I’d left all the sentimental emotion for the last line of my speech, and I choked up. I looked at the bride, with her ridiculously big eyes filled with tears and I wanted to bawl my eyes out. I managed to stammer out the rest of my speech, and when I raised my glass for the toast I looked up to see both the Father of the Bride, and the Father of the Groom wiping their eyes, and past them, easily half the guests crying into their hands.

I didn’t feel so stupid crying after that, knowing that everyone else was crying too. The Father of the Groom came up especially to clink my glass for the toast And I got loads of compliments for being brave enough to share that emotion in my speech, and to be THAT sentimental. I didn’t want to cry, but it didn’t seem so bad once I’d seen that everyone else was crying right along with me.

The rest of the night was devoted to dancing, the eating of the cake, the first dance and much socialising (Particularly with The Square)!!

It was such a long day, and I retired gratefully when the Bride and Groom did around two. Early the next morning we met up with the Bridal Party for breakfast (which was delicious! I’m a huuuge fan of scrambled eggs!) where there were more compliments, and congratulations offered to the married couple. We helped pack up what was left, packed all the cars and The Boy and I made it away just before lunch.

This time we DID make 3.5 hour drive in the expected time, though I think I slept through most of it :) We got home, and I had enough time for a lunch and a quick nap before I met the Bride and Groom in Auckland. We opened the rest of the presents (marking down who got what so the Bride could send out thank you notes), and enjoyed cheese and crackers while we looked through the photos that had been taken.

After a Thai dinner, I took the wedding dress (to be dry cleaned and preserved – the Bride would be leaving too early the next morning to do it herself), said good bye (for I wouldn’t be seeing the Bride again till June!) and was on my way. I was SO EXHAUSTED and both glad and a little disappointed the weekend was over.

In saying that, it was a pretty amazing weekend. Incredibly successful, very few issues and the result was a happily married couple. <3