Sky City Starlight Symphony!

What a night!

This was a fantastic music in the park (at the Domain) to be enjoyed by anyone in Auckland.

We arrived around 6pm for the 7.30 start and already the streets were jammed with parked cars, cars looking for spaces, road closures and hundreds of people walking towards the park with their heavy picnic, deck chair and rug loads. Luckily we saw a very enterprising young man selling car parking spaces for $5 (brandishing a huge home-made cardboard sign) and took him up on it.

Following the hoards of people towards the park, I began to really feel excited about the coming performances. As we arrived, there were 100s of people already set up in front of the stage - we could also see 4 huge cannons, set up by the Royal New Zealand Artillery, ready for the 1812 Overture - wow!

A lovely spot was found and then a variety of directions were sent to friends joining us from the North Shore via mobile phones - 'we are near the cannons' and 'look for the St John's Ambulance' etc. Anyway, they eventually found us ( I was even waving to the wrong people at one point - oops) and we settled down for a fun-filled evening.



Lots of people setting up camp!



The performances were all very impressive. My favourites were the Auckland Youth Choir and their BRILLIANT rendition of The Space Odyssey (I think that was it), the Emperor Waltz (dubbed the 'crowd waltz' due to the fact that everyone in the audience was invited to waltz - we had a go - but I can't waltz and neither can Kev - great fun), the beautiful voice and good looks of Geoff Sewell ( O Sole Mio, Unchained Melody and Nessun dorma), Perfect Day ( I love that song), Somebody To Love, Good Vibrations, Raining Men, Sway, Star Wars (accompanied by a fantastic laser show in the sky), Land of Hope and Glory (of course!), the 1812 Overture (accompanied by 4 VERY LOUD cannons, green lasers and fireworks - truly spectacular) and, finally, the national anthem (first in Maori - which I can just about remember now - then in English). Wow! What a night.

The firework, cannon and laser show for the 1812 Overture was amazing and sooo beautiful! The cannons were bang (ha) on time and everything just stopped together at the end - excellent. Best outdoor show I've ever been to and it cost NOTHING - just the petrol to get there, parking, a picnic and a gold coin given for the charity of the night.





What a lovely evening!

Other stuff:

Wednesday night saw Auckland hit by 3 earthquakes! Of course, I never felt a thing - unlike 1000's of other people! The airport was closed in order to check the safety of the runway and it was breaking news on the TV. Hey ho! Here's a link for you (They struck in Orewa - north of us):

http://www.geonet.org.nz/recent_quakes.html

Friday night saw me being dive bombed by a mad cicada!

I was on the phone with daughter when it flew into the sitting room from outside at the speed of light and proceeded to madly dive into walls and ceiling etc, finally ending with a dive bomb at my head!

Needless to say, I , with a mad shriek, jumped up with amazingly fast speed for a lady of my years (quite impressed when I look back upon this) and ran out of the room - at the same time ordering husband to immediately get rid of said creature.

Daughter thought my shriek was some sort of excitement at a comment she had made until I was finally capable of explaing the situation - I was making sure I was safely out the flight path of the mad insect at the time.

Whew!

Well - today we are off to the cultural festival of Auckland - funnily enough in the same place as last night's performance - shall let you know how it goes. Must do some work first though - BORRRRIIIING.

Must put some more Welly photos on too at some point.

Well - tara fer nooo!

x Sue

Offshore boat racing at Maraetai - woooohoooooo!

Wow - what a fun day!

Arrived at Maraetai around 9.20am and, after safely parking car, we immediately did the most important thing possible - yes, you guessed it - ate some breakfast in the lovely cafe there!

It was a beautiful day - sun shining brightly and the water twinkling in the sun.

After eggs benedict with bacon, we wandered down to look at the boats and to generally be very nosey!

They were beauties!

Here're some:











Aren't they cool!? Of course, by this point, I was dying to see them on the water!

It was at this point we noticed the cranes further along and the fact that they were lowering other speed boats carefully into the water - so, yep, we went along - attracted just like smaller magnets to bigger ones or flies to the proverbial - whatever - we went!

I couldn't believe it - we were allowed to just wander around as close as you like and watch these boats go in! FAB! Here you go:


Ropes being connected.


Tightening up.


Up she goes!
Right over my head ( had to make a swift gettaway here out of the way of the man with the rope!).


Heading for the water.


Nearly there.......


And safely down - whew!


Off it goes - chugging along towards its goal - the open water.

What a brilliant sight! I left Kev still enthralled by boats and engines and manly things and made my way to a spot on the beach (of which there was plenty). After setting up the parasol and mat, I relaxed in the shade reading the Sunday papers whilst every so often watching the odd speed boat race by in practise mode - exciting!

Eventually, Kev returned and we settled down with a chocolate and mint ice-cream concoction to wait for the race to begin - hurry up.......!

At last, lots of white foam in the distance appeared, eventually followed by the roar of engines. A mighty crescendo took place as they roared towards us - it was sooooo cool! They were soooo loud and colourful too. The larger boats were inevitably in the front, followed by their more miniature siblings - wooohooooo!

Not only were these things shooting by on the water, but they were being tracked by 3 helicopters. One copter especially was following the lead boat each time it would pass by us and it was so wicked to watch it suddenlymake a sharp turn in the sky above us as the boats followed the curve of the circuit. They were so low too. I waved at the copter later on as it filmed the spectators - but no idea what programmed they're filming for and I missed the evening news..... Anyway, I was wearing a black hat, red t-shirt and white 3/4 length trousers just in case any of you spot me!

Imagine the scene:
Families playing in the water
Teenagers jumping off the end of the wharf
Spectators watching the boats
Me and Kev sharing an ice-cream
Beautiful blue skies and shimmering water
The roar of the boats and the yadda yadda of the helicopters

Wow.



Well - needless to say, we returned home full of our tales of the day to bore son with and were happily sunburned too (well Kev was)! How lucky we are to go to something like this in such beautiful surroundings and all it cost was the petrol plus anything else you might want to buy (such as brekkie and ice-cream)......

Next year, I will take a chair, a radio (for commentary) and my togs for swimming - the water was sooo warm when I paddled!

Hey ho - Sunday was spent participating in housework and school prep - have to come down to earth at some point eh?!

And on that point, I'm off - watching World's Fastest Indian on TV at the mo.....

x Sue

What we have been mostly up to!

Well - great big congrats to son who did very well in his AS Levels and is very proud as are we! He was also dead chuffed to get his first job in the local pub all on the same day - what a happy boy!

Hubby and I had a lovely trip down to Welly via the Overlander (a 12 hour train journey through some fabulous countryside).

Here is the train:
Front end:


Back end (for viewing):


Here we are going at the speed of light! (not):


It was such a cool journey - I thought we'd be dead bored and slitting our wrists by the end, but no - it was really enjoyable. Beautiful scenery (the train actually slows down at the most scenic points), chats with our fellow passengers (Pommy couple who've been here for 40 years, Pommy couple who were here on holiday and 2 lovely Dutch ladies), a running commentary from the mystery voice and the delight of watching cows and sheep running like mad into the distance as we mosied along next to them! Sadly, we also saw at least 4 cars that had come off the road and crashed down the hills or cliffs.

This is a piccie of a very secluded platform in:

The Middle of Nowhere,
Between Auckland and Wellington
North Island,
New Zealand.



On the way down, we went past a HUGE volcano (Mount Ruapehu), which is about to overflow at some point soon, sending a lahar running down the valley:



Had to copy this photo as the top of the volcano was shrouded with clouds and mist when we went by!

We were carried past the sight of the tragic area of the 1953 eruption (Tangiwai) and learned of the lives lost there (including a train load of passengers like us). Now, with the threat of the lahar, safety is paramount and farmers have had to move their sheep (one farmer has moved 2500 of his sheep). Digger and bulldozer workers working nearby have to report into Wellington Railway Station every half hour.

When the collapse of the crater happens, 1.2 million cu m of volacanic ash, rock and water will plunge down the Whangaehu River bed. The lahar could be fronted by a bow wave of up to 2 m high.

From newspaper reports, it seems that everyone and everything is being prepared as much as they can be - but who knows what will happen? As I am learning fast in this country, nature is a very unpredictable thing!

Our journey also took us along the world famous Raurimu Spiral - basically taking us higher without going up too steeply (I think!) - here is some better info, explaining it in more detail for those of you who are more technically minded and more interested:

http://www.websnz.com/ttt/nzr/nzrrs.php3

Here is our train going around one of the curves (at the speed of light):



It was quite cool really!

We set off at 7.30 am from Auckland and arrived in Wellington at 7.30 pm! Luckily, our hotel was very close to the railway station, so we trotted up the hill and collapsed in our room for half an hour or so. After that, it was time to find dinner. We walked to the other end of the city, taking in the evening sights and proceeded to eat a lovely meal (as recommended by an internet friend) in the Masala Indian Restaurant! Yum....


More adventures in Wellington to follow.....

Right now it is Saturday morning and I'm about to get ready to go to Maraetai (pronounced My right eye). It is the offshore speedboat championships - should be really cool! And it's free too! Later on, we will go to a neighbours to celebrate 70 years and tonight is a 50th birthday party! Whew! Tomorrow - will be getting stuff ready for school - ah well........ Yep I'm back at school and another new school year has begun!

Typically, the weather is very hot and lovely and I want to be in the sea.... sigh......

Sorry I've been so long in blogging - been enjoying the summer here - it's GREAT!