A great weekend and then a not so great one
A couple of weekends ago, we were lucky enough to have a break from the endless rain and cloud and have two whole sunny days in a row. I heard the other day that Rotorua has had a record low number of hours of sun this July which would explain why it always seems to be overcast or raining. Anyway, this particular weekend was a beautiful break from all that. On the Saturday, Matt and I took advantage of the sun and did a short walk around Tikitipu, otherwise known as the Blue Lake. The walk is about 5 kms through native bush around the edge of the lake and even though it's less than 10 minutes drive from my house, I had never done the walk before. Definately doing it again though - it's beautiful, especially on such a nice sunny day. There are heaps of little secret beaches around the lake too which I will have to remember for swimming in summer....
Then, on Sunday, a whole group of us went over to the beach at Ohope. Again it was a beautiful sunny day, so we had a picnic on the grass near the beach and then did a short walk over some cliffs to a smaller beach which was covered in shells and perfect for a game of soccer.
Me, Martin, Arne, Lucy and Alessio
Karen and I look for pretty shells
Not quite the Socceroos or the Azzuri but trying hard...
On the way home, we stopped off at some hot pools for some relaxing and some warmth. It was a very lovely day and a great weekend.
The not so great weekend was last weekend. It had some good bits, like a fabulous German movie on Friday night (called The Lives of Others - highly recommended) and the release of the new Harry book which is so gripping I read on Sunday for 11 hours straight. But the low light of the weekend will probably surprise some people. On Saturday, I drove up to Auckland with whole bunch of people from work to see the Wallabies play the All Blacks in the Tri Nations/Bledisloe Cup and, I'm afraid things didn't quite work out as I had expected. I can't confess to be a big enough rugby fan that I actually cared too much about the outcome of the game, it was bad because of a whole series of things went wrong. Here's what I learnt from my weekend at the rugby:
1) I still believe that McDonalds should only be eaten when you're jetlagged and it's the only plausable choice in the airport.
2) Watching sport live, no matter how exciting, is not nearly as fun when it is absolutely pouring with rain and you are wet and cold.
3) Getting caught in a crowd of people surging and pushing up the stairs can be very scary, especially when on your own.
4) Rugby isn't nearly as fun when you miss the haka and the national anthems because you've been held up by poor crowd control.
5) Kiwis aren't very nice to Australians when they are on the rugby field..... not nice at all. (You all thought George Gregan was mouthy...)
6) Rugby isn't nearly as fun when you are really hungry and can't get to the food stalls because of crowding.
7) Maybe rugby just isn't my game. (It probably helps too, if you understand the rules!!)
Anyway, in the end, I got my food and cheered up immensely. But I can't say that i will be in a huge hurry to be going back to Eden Park....
This post can't end without some mention of the other two major sporting events Australia played on Saturday night - The netball against New Zealand and the Asian Cup (soccer) semis against Japan. It was a sad night for Australian sport - we lost them all!! For me, the saddest one was the soccer. The netball game was one of three and Australia can still win the series if they win tonight (fingers crossed), but the Socceroos lost to Japan in a penalty shoot out and made an early and unexpected exit from their first Asia Cup. I had high hopes after their win over Thailand but alas, it was not to be. Pretty exciting game though from all accounts. Incidentally, my sister was actually at the game against Thailand, so everyone who knows her must join me in encouraging and harassing her to post some pictures of it on her blog....
Then, on Sunday, a whole group of us went over to the beach at Ohope. Again it was a beautiful sunny day, so we had a picnic on the grass near the beach and then did a short walk over some cliffs to a smaller beach which was covered in shells and perfect for a game of soccer.
Me, Martin, Arne, Lucy and Alessio
Karen and I look for pretty shells
Not quite the Socceroos or the Azzuri but trying hard...
The not so great weekend was last weekend. It had some good bits, like a fabulous German movie on Friday night (called The Lives of Others - highly recommended) and the release of the new Harry book which is so gripping I read on Sunday for 11 hours straight. But the low light of the weekend will probably surprise some people. On Saturday, I drove up to Auckland with whole bunch of people from work to see the Wallabies play the All Blacks in the Tri Nations/Bledisloe Cup and, I'm afraid things didn't quite work out as I had expected. I can't confess to be a big enough rugby fan that I actually cared too much about the outcome of the game, it was bad because of a whole series of things went wrong. Here's what I learnt from my weekend at the rugby:
1) I still believe that McDonalds should only be eaten when you're jetlagged and it's the only plausable choice in the airport.
2) Watching sport live, no matter how exciting, is not nearly as fun when it is absolutely pouring with rain and you are wet and cold.
3) Getting caught in a crowd of people surging and pushing up the stairs can be very scary, especially when on your own.
4) Rugby isn't nearly as fun when you miss the haka and the national anthems because you've been held up by poor crowd control.
5) Kiwis aren't very nice to Australians when they are on the rugby field..... not nice at all. (You all thought George Gregan was mouthy...)
6) Rugby isn't nearly as fun when you are really hungry and can't get to the food stalls because of crowding.
7) Maybe rugby just isn't my game. (It probably helps too, if you understand the rules!!)
Anyway, in the end, I got my food and cheered up immensely. But I can't say that i will be in a huge hurry to be going back to Eden Park....
This post can't end without some mention of the other two major sporting events Australia played on Saturday night - The netball against New Zealand and the Asian Cup (soccer) semis against Japan. It was a sad night for Australian sport - we lost them all!! For me, the saddest one was the soccer. The netball game was one of three and Australia can still win the series if they win tonight (fingers crossed), but the Socceroos lost to Japan in a penalty shoot out and made an early and unexpected exit from their first Asia Cup. I had high hopes after their win over Thailand but alas, it was not to be. Pretty exciting game though from all accounts. Incidentally, my sister was actually at the game against Thailand, so everyone who knows her must join me in encouraging and harassing her to post some pictures of it on her blog....
posted by anna at 5:54 pm
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