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Did you spot me ? Clue – I’m wearing my Man Utd shirt to the top right hand of the photo

Rock and Roll……and second rate footballers

Amy : Well I suppose it’s my turn to update our blog site. Been so pre-occupied with my Bebo site I forgot all about this one tee hee.

I suppose I better start by wishing Stu a Happy Birthday…..week :O) Yip it was the old boy’s birthday on Tuesday past and he’s been spoilt all week. Firstly by the amount of pressies from the UK and then by his darling wife who bought him a Sony PSP so now between him going to Phoenix matches and playing on the PSP I feel like a divorcee and all alone LOL.

As per Stu’s update you can guess that he is delighted that he now has a home football team to support. Those Phoenix lads do try hard and on occasion draw a game or two or even win one! They’re all pretty down to earth players as well. We were at the Powderfinger and Silverchair gig at the TSB Arena on Thursday with our friends Neil and Beccs and low and behold who do we bump into but some of the players. Could you imagine Ryan Gigs or David Beckham wandering around a concert like everyone else!?! Well in true Annan fashion Stu had to go up and wish them luck for this Sunday’s match. I don’t quite think they understood his mixed up Scottish accent but he sent his good wishes never the less.

And that leads me nicely onto the gig itself. What an awesome venue the TSB Arena is. It doesnt matter if you’re seated or standing you get a great view of the stage and the sound of the music is amazing it really gets you going. Powderfinger were brilliant. They sung loads of their new album but were only on for just under an hour with no encore. Bernard Fanning certainly does have some voice. Then on came Silverchair. I think I knew about two of their songs and the rest in mine and Beccs eye’s were just screams and yells. It really wasn’t our cuppa tea and did make our ears bleed slightly :O) I think Stu enjoyed them. Mind you him and Neil were drinking a fair old bit of beer so that probably helped!!

This weekend is a nice long weekend for all of NZ as it’s Labour weekend woo hoo. So we’re setting off tonight up the Kapiti Coast to camp for two nights. It would be 3 but Stu wants to come back for his last Phoenix match before we start our travels. The weather has picked up nicely today so just hoping it stays nice for Saturday at least. I’m sure we can fit a bit of fishing and tramping in if it stays nice. It’s been a great fishing season so it would be ideal if we caught something to cook on our new camp stove. Wish us luck, wont you.

Stu : I had a cracking time at the gig on Thursday but when Silverchair belted into one of their tracks I turned to Amy and said “Wow – that’s one of Daz’s old band Opiate’s songs that Silverchair are playing”. Took me a few moments to realise that it’s probably highly likely that Daz’s band used to cover Silverchair songs rather than vice versa Gotta love beer for those moments of clarity !

Football……in Wellington ?

Stu : Well as you can imagine we’ve not been doing anything too extravagant over the last few weeks due to our forthcoming travels which is sure to test our bank balance to the full.

A lot of our spare time has been taken up with the completion of our residency application. For those of you reading this that don’t yet know we’ve decided to stay in sunny….or even windy New Zealand indefinitely. Unfortunately that decision results in us having to poked, prodded and generally being giving a thorough going over…..and then there’s the medical ! They certainly don’t make things easy. Suffice it to say the total application complete with certificates, references and police checks was no less than 120 pages. Nice ! So much for eco friendly New Zealand eh. There goes another tree just on our application. The medical and checks certainly tested our mettle and you find a lot more about yourself than you expect. None more so than when my folks found it difficult to provide me with a valid birth certificate which did raise questions a few questions. Nah – unfortunately I share the Lloyd/Pate nose so there’s no mistaking my genes there !

Other than the joys of submitting our application we’ve generally been taking it easy although I have found a lot of my weekends at the Westpac stadium in Wellington supporting the local football team – The Wellington Phoenix ! Yup – for the first time ever Wellington has a professional football outfit playing in the Australian A-League (unfortunately that means every away game is played in Oz but who cares). So a few of us have been going to the home games to cheer them on. Few beers before the game in The Backbencher pub followed by a few more during the game certainly helps detract from the lack of skill on the pitch. To be honest it’s not so much English Premier League as it is East of Scotland league ala Annan Athletic v Dalbeattie Star Nah – it’s actually not bad at all and the Phoenix certainly provide good entertainment as the most recent home win of 4-1 suggests. It’s also a big deal for New Zealand football to be getting 13,000 fans into a stadium to watch the game when everyone else is only bothered about the rugby. Ah well – after the All Blacks were dumped out of the Rugby last weekend they needn’t bother. Who would have thought Scotland would have been in the Rugby World Cup longer than the All Blacks ! OK – only by 24 hours but I’ll take that !

So until the next home game…..

Oh Wellington…is Won-der-ful,
Oh Wellington…is Won-der-ful,
We’ve got the wind, the rain and the Phoenix,
Oh Wellington is won-der-ful !

And remember people…..90 minutes, 90 emotions

Kiwis hammer the frogs

Stu : We went to see the All Blacks v France rugby test at the Westpac stadium in Wellington last night. Was an awesome, if not very cold, night. The All Blacks won 61-10 against a very under-strength French team. Who cares though, the French got hammered ! Hurrah. Seeing the Haka being performed in front of a staunch Kiwi crowd was a superb experience. Almost as good as Flower of Scotland before a Scotland footy match.

We managed to keep ourselves warm by getting our beer jackets on with a few bottles of Tui beer whilst watching the game. The sooner Murrayfield and the likes allow beer during sports the better. Lets be honest the sporting activities on display at Murrayfield are usually not enough to keep you entertained so a few beers would make for a welcome distraction. Even if it was just limited to rugby games it would be a start…..because, as we all know, rugby is boring !! All the stop, starting is a bit crap. Ah well, we still had a cracking night anyhoo. Even seen some guy get headbutted and stagger off the pitch with a broken jaw. All good fun !

A long weekend of wine and worms in The Wairarapa

Amy : Well it’s been a wee whiley since we updated our blog so thought it best to give you a wee update.

Since our amazing weekend Sky-diving we have had fairly relaxing few weeks where we have done various tramps around New Zealand’s countryside and coastlines.

On one of the weekends we went 7kms along the coast to a place called Red Rocks….and you guessed it, the rocks there are red! They are red as a result of submarine volcanic eruptions over 200 million years ago !! Interesting stuff eh, then again Maori legend has it that they are red because the Maori warrior Maui stained the rocks when he used his blood to bait his fishing hooks. You decide which you prefer. Pretty amazing sight anyway but unfortunately cos of the time of day we walked along there the sun wasnt on our side and we couldnt get the eye catching pictures we wanted. On the up side as it’s now Winter we did get to see a male fur seal colony just over the ridge at Red Rocks. We were about 10m away from these amazing animals and got to sit watching them as they went about their daily business, which mostly consisted of sleeping.

Another country walk we did was out past Whitby. It was very much a bush walk and filled with the odd mud slides as well which made it interesting. When we reached the summit the hillside views were pretty cool. The photo attached is of us on the top of Battle Hill. Luckily it was a clear day and we got to see all the surrounding areas.

Now onto this weekend. It was a long weekend for the Queen’s Birthday which is a national holiday over here….go figure ! We had a wonderful time. We went away on Friday night to Martinborough in the Wairarpa region which is about an hour away from Wellington. We stayed in a lovely little cottage just near the town centre and enjoyed Martinboroughs fine wines and a few outdoor heated spa baths in the middle of winter…it was bliss.

We also took in a tramp to the Pinnacles which you wont believe are naturally made. These things look like something out of a film set. They were awesome. Although it did get slightly scarey when we were sitting at the bottom of the pinnacles eating lunch and all we could hear was a waterfall of large rocks rolling down. We were sure there was going to be an avalanche. Luckily we finished up and headed back to the car. Didnt fancy getting squashed. After that wee adventure we went off to find the Glow Worm caves. We had to walk knee deep in a cold stream through pitch black caves to see these wee blighters but man it was worth it. The whole experience was a child’s heaven. And boy did Stu act like a wee kid wandering through the caves :O) Just as well our torch batteries survived !

After our back to childlike experience we opted for the adult experience of Coneys Vineyard, voted Martinboroughs best for the year. Supped a few Pinot Noirs and Rieslings and off we went back home to chill in front of the fire with a wee bottle of red. All in all it was a top weekend!!!

We won’t mention anything about the stray mouse I had to catch in the cottage on Saturday night though will we Stu :OP