Last full week in Auckland

Hello again. We can't believe that we have just finished our last full week in Auckland..boooo!!!!

Amy's contract expired at L'Oreal and I just had a few sessions early in the morning which meant we could plan and spend the last week doing the things we saved to do.

Last Weekend

We have been looking forward to this since we arrived in our house. Alistair's family have a beach house in the Coramandal located in Pauanui, so 49 Duke Street had a weekend trip, all five of us and yes of course our little hariy friend Theo!!

Pauanui is the rich part of NZ where the houses range from 1 million upwards!!The houses are amazing - some having planes outside with a runway at the back which around 30 or so houses share!! Al's house looks onto the beach! We packed Sarah's car and set off after tea on Friday.

Saturday

Me and Alistrair woke up about 6:00 am and went fishing on the beach. We didn't get much but is was a great epxerince - Fishing, looking out at the Sunrise over the Pacfic, you just can't buy.

We got back and all the girls were up and had breakfast ready. After breakfast we went to the hot beach. This is where you dig your own little hotpool which is heated by the thermal activity under the sand. Jesus !!! it got hot, so you just got out to cool down in the sea and jumped back in!

After this we went to where the "Piano" was filmed in Cathedral Cove. This was gorgeous we saw views you can't explain. No dogs where allowed so we left Theo in the car and walked for a couple of hours down and around caves.

We got back and the dog must have got a bit ill to say the least as he was sick and did the worst smelling, wet, sloppy number 2 I have ever smelt all over the car!! ha ha lol. It stank!!

So after a while cleaning it up we drove back to the beach house with us all hanging our heads out of the window.. lol ha

Sunday

We deicided to go Sea fishing. We hired a boat and headed off for 6 hours of fishing. We went everywhere and the weather was good. It was Amy's first time and guess what.. she caught a 10 pound Baracuda!! lol. It nearly pulled here in!! A great day. There was even a seal that swam under the boat and started playing near us. Amy enjoyed hereslef that much she is going to make fishing her hobby.

After we got back we had a BBQ with the fish we caught and headed back home. It was a great weekend!

Monday

I am bored now of writing so I'll pass you over to Amy. I enjoyed my First Monday morning without working! That morning we just chilled out out and pottered. It was a nice day so we went for a walk to Mission Bay and had Ice cream and looked around the place. That evening we went to a Sushi Train Resturant.

Tuesday

Rich was coaching in the morning. We went to Botnay which is where Sarah is from and had a pub lunch. That evening we went to the pictures and got tickets in the Gold Class - Great! we had our own lazy chair and waiter!

Wednesday

We had walk up Mt Eden Volcano which is just 10 minutes walk from our house. We climbed right to the top of the crater and had a picnic lunch. That evening we got a Brian (Ferry) over to Devonport. People here have a great way of life. The ferry leaves every 30 mins and people commute to Auckland to work. The place was lovely and we had Fish n Chips on the beach.

Thursday

I arranged to get a car from L'oreal and drove to Piha Beach. Saved us a fortune on hiring a car and petrol! This is a black sand beach where the sand is magnetic becasue of all the iron in it from a volcanic explosion!! Really strange. After wandering around there we went to Waikatere Ranges where we did a rainforest walk. To finish of the day we went to Bethals beach, again black sands but this time there were sand Dunes around the place and it was a prettier beach.

Friday

Rich did his last coaching session so he's now finished work. It was a rainy day so we just stayed in and wathched a DVD and did some cleaning. That Night Sarah's got a new boyfriend so we had a flat meal and got to know him.

Saturday

Anita, my friend from L'Oreal took us to Matakana Market which is 1 hour drive away. It was lovely with an old fashioned Folk band playing and farmers selling all different kinds of things. After this we all went for a hot chocolate. Bill Clinton went to the same place when he was over here and we sat in his seat!

That afternoon we sold some Drawers we bought over here and made a profit!!

Sunday

We have been saving money each week we have been working and decided to go to Fiji with it. We fly out today and will be back in 10 days. We can't wait and will update you all when we get back!!

All our Love

Team RA

XXXXXX

Auckland Update

Hello all. We've had a busy week so we'd thought we would share it with you otherwise if we wait until this weekend it will be a BIG Blog update.

The week went normal with us both in our routine. At the weekend we hired a car and went to Waitomo caves. It was probably the worst car I have ever seen and driven but I loved it. I felt a bit like a foreign in taxi driver - soft steering wheel, the smell etc ,anyway enough of me ranting on about the car. We headed south from Auckland with Amy navigating...... so having been going in the wrong direction for a hour we turned around and made our way lol only joking she's got the hang of it now... just read what it says on the paper love and we will be fine.

Waitomo Caves is full of caves ( as you would have guessed) that were discovered in the mid 1960s. You can do loads of adventures like walking through, or abseil down them. We decided to do a 4 hour adventure which meant we got to do 70 ft abseil, rock climbing 70 ft under ground and crawling through the smallest caves you have ever seen - in the wet - looking at my chin its a wonder how the hell it fitted through!!! ha whats going on with it? -. We went had a group of 5 which really made it - we weren't waiting around for any fattys.. ha lol. It was class!

Amy was a natural at abseiling - no messing around in fact we were the only two that were allowed to do another rock climb as the others weren't getting to grips with it - soz experienced cavers!!! 4 hours of it though is more than enough. You can't imagine how tired you get!!!

On Saturday Night we called Ben to wish him all the best on his big day.. he sounded nervous bless him but by all accounts it was a fab day! good luck to the both of them.

On Sunday I went to do some selecting for the U13/14 grade looking for a team to take to the nationals. This was good there are some good footballers out here. That afternoon I headed off with the girls I coach for a 3 day Tournament. We took 3 girls and 4 boys teams in total. We all had tracksuits, each team had a physio! and all food paid for. I had the C team ( the only C team in the Tournament) but we ended up winning the Plate!! It was a great week and experience..

Amy stayed at home and had a nice few days. She went to a few BBQs with Laura Barker and a few people she works with. it was strange being away from other really..

This weekend just gone by. We watched New Zealand U17 girls team , had a BBQ and just relaxed on Saturday night. On Sunday we went to have some Yum Cha which is Cantonese breakfast with Amy's work mates. Lovely food - we have never had this before and we can now use chop sticks!!!

Well that's about it until the next update.

Happy Birthday mum on Wednesday!! have a great day.

lots of love

Team RA

Aucklsnd update

Now then all. The weeks are flying by at the moment. We can't believe its nearly October!!

The weather here is now getting warm - and they say its spring!!! god only knows how hot it will be out here in the summer! - good job Rich has a blanket of hair to protect his milky skin ! lol.

The past two weeks have been pretty good. the bowling was a good night even though we weren't very good but we still looked the part with our team T-shirts lol.

Rich's team won in the finale and guess what... yes he was on TV again!!! Its getting a joke now we can't walk down street to get some milk!!

Last week was fashion week in New Zealand with L'Oreal providing the make up etc. I got the chance to go to a fashion show with work!! It was mint. We drank champagne and got loads of freebies!! I didn't know who the people were but apparently there were a few All Blacks and some other famous people there..

At the weekend we had a day trip over to Waiheke island, which is just 30 minute boat trip from Auckland. The day was a lovely sunny day - great for what we had planned. We organised a private tour of the island which included Wine tasting at a number of Vine yards!. (We were on our way after the tasting lets put it that way!!!) We learned how the wine is made, how to taste it, how its bottled up etc. The island was beautiful with long beaches, green hills and super views over looking the Pacific. After the tour we went for a romantic dinner at the Mudbrick - a lovely restaurant in the middle of a Vine Yard. It was probably the best meal we have had since coming away!! After we decided not to have a cheese board but go on another wine tasting tour!!! Very funny because people on the tour thought we had just joined in and hadn't paid - muttering typical English!!! lol so we just toasted and smiled in their direction every time they looked at us trying to annoy them more..lol

To top off a mint day the boat we were going back on had around 8-9 dolphins swimming around us. We wanted to dive in but we didn't have any spare clothes and I didn't have my ear plug (rich's ear).. I find it a bit hard to swim with one hand and a finger in my ear. ha ha. Our camera stopped working again!! (fixed now, so the pictures were taken with a disposable - imagine how we looked in this posh restaurant winding the camera on!!)

This weekend was another busy weekend. We went out with Amy's work mates on the Friday night.. It was a big one but all paid for so we took full advantage of it! We didn't really know anyone other than Amy's mates but we soon mixed. Eight of us went to another bar and racked up a $500 bar bill in 1hr 30 mins!! thanks L'Oreal..

The next day we went sailing on an America's cup sailing boat.. Feeling hung over as ever we sailed for 3 hours around the Auckland bay and raced against another boat. The boat was huge with a sail of about 500 ( whatever that means lol) we were in teams and we had to grind up the sail, grind it down, turn direction - it was pretty cool. The angle the boat sails on is amazing. The sea is sometimes above the boat! After the race we just sailed the boat for a hour or so, each taking it in turns to steer.

That night we were meant to go to someones house warming but the whole weekend caught up with us so we decided to stay in, have a curry and hit the hay.. It took a good 2 days to get over Friday night!!

I hope everyone is all well at home. Good luck on Saturday Ben and Lucy for your wedding and I hope the weather is good.

All our love

Team RA

xxxxx

Auckland Update

kia ora,

Jika koka humo.... Oh sorry about that - just our Maori coming out, please forgive me if this happens again. soz hard!. To our calculation its been about 2 weeks since we updated the blog.

Ok, so last weekend we started our weekend adventures with a harbour lunch cruise. This just showed the whole harbour and the Hauraki gulf - the islands surrounding Auckland. It was a windy day but it kept dry which is the main thing... Since we have been here we haven't seen rain like it... its been chucking it down all the time!!! big fat rain. After the cruise we did the Auckland Harbour bridge Climb. Which basically is what it says.. we climbed the Auckland Bridge. We got to climb right to the highest point and stood between the two flags looking out at the sky line of Auckland. It was awesome.!! That night the day caught up with us so we just stayed in and watched TV.

Sunday - I went to do some coaching but it wasn't normal day - oh no. Only the bloody BBC turned up didn't they!!!They were doing a Documentary on a family moving Down Under who had a U12 girl who played footy. Anyway She ended up in my group so I was all wired up etc and filmed for 90 mins or so.... Very funny, however, this acting game isn't all its cracked up to be.They kept shouting "Cut!!" - god what now....I wonder if Bruno Brooks had this issue??, I'm trying to bloody coach here.. All good fun though and it will be screened in January in England.

Amy on the other hand met with her tree hugger friends (work mates) and did some Yoga at the gym.

During the week I went out with my work mates for a few drinks after work and rich did his coaching on the evenings, just a steady week really living the Kiwi life.

This weekend:

Amy decided to plan the weekend trip. She'd planned for us to Kayak across to the Rangitoto Volcano - an island just off Auckland Harbour. It sounded ace but what we didn't realise is that in total we covered at least 19km!!! nice one Amy.. We kayaked for 1 hour or so over the Pacific sea!!!! with Amy steering......badly. we must of doubled the distance we actually needed to cover. This plus the fact we were laughing to much made it hard work!! When we arrived at the volcano the sun was out and it was a really hot day (for winter). We moored our kayaks and walked to the summit where we had lunch with our guide. The island was mint, just covered in loads of black rock (magma) etc. It took about 1 hour or so ramble up to the the summit where we saw the crater at the top which was huge!! When we got back we found out that in the past there had been sightings of sharks around the area in the past!!

The pictures is actually the distance we Kayaked!!! How far is it you may ask.. 8 km one way.

The way back was a different kettle of fish.. The sea was more choppy and we had a head wind. We set off with waves crashing over us. It was fun at first until after about 2 hours of it we were still 2 km away from land and with both of us having a go at who's rowing the most it seemed we were doomed!!! The guide told us we were going too slow and he was cold so he towed us all the way back... god we were knackered with blisters on both hands! We eventually got back soaking wet, tired but back on speaking terms lol, what an awesome day.

That night we went out with my work mates from L'Oreal for a Japanese meal and some drinks in town, we didn't stay out for much of a late one because the next morning we were up early again. Our flatmates took us scalloping to Clark's Bay, about 30minute drive from our house. Quite a muddy bay, we thought we'd need money for ice cream, we were picturing a sandy beach and clear waters but it knee deep mud and star fish and crabs everywhere, it was pretty cool though, we had to feel with our feet for scallop shells and dive in to get them, only problem is there were none there - we only got one and even that was too small (the fisheries commission measure them before you can take them home). We were dead excited about having them on the BBQ that night so we were a bit gutted but we made up for it. We had a great night drinking wine and cooking Flounder fish on the BBQ with our flatmates, a proper summer Kiwi BBQ (well Spring), it really made us not want to leave in October......

This week there's not much planned, we're in my works bowling team on Thursday night, not sure how, but I bigged up Rich's bowling skills so everyone thinks we're going to win! he's only been a few times ha lol. Rich is at a finale with the team he coaches on Wednesday - other than that its just a normal Kiwi week for us.

ka kite ano, oops sorry here we go again (that means see you later by the way)

Hope everyone is doing well

All our love

Team RA

xxxxx

Still loving Auckland

Hello all. Just an update really to let you all know how we are bearing. We have settled into a good routine at the moment. We work all week then do activities over the weekend. So from now on we will update the blog every week. We've put some pictures of the house and the flatmates we share with.

This weekend we found out Alistair -the lad who we stay with , plays in a band that was supporting a group that has just released a CD - so we went to watch him on Friday night. Really good fun. Met loads of people and talked about saving the world and the bother that's going on in Georgia - play music not your guns lol - only joking, no it was a really good night - had a few too many shots tho!!Jesus we were hung over on Saturday!!!!

Saturday, me and Amy had a lovely day just walking around Auckland. We ended up going down Lorne Street, had a bit of sushi (our new favourite food - soz liberal people - yes liberal that was my word) After we went up to Parnell street (This is where all the little quirky shops are)
and just pottered.

Sunday it was just really bad weather. Training got called off so we went to the pictures to see The Bank Job.












Both jobs are going great. Amy's doing really well - getting to grips with the NZ market etc and I on the other hand, am coaching with Kevin Fallon in the mornings . This is as well as coaching the U12. For those who don't know, hes the one who took NZ to the 82 World Cup - Great bloke and learning so much from him. He has a academy at a grammer school age from 15 - 18. After, he sends players to clubs over in England , USA etc. He lets me coach the reserves, keeper, (however I don't do the shooting lol.) then I shadow him doing sessions with the 1st team. After we have a chat for 1 hour or so its brilliant!!

Well, we best love and leave you all. We will update the blog next weekend.

All our Love

Team RA xxx

Staying in Auckland

Hi everyone. Its been a while but a lot has been going really. Basically things were changing everyday so we thought we'd let the dust settle then update the blog. We don't have our camera at the mo so we will just add some pictures from facebook from my birthday.

We arrived in Auckland and stayed with Laura Barker ( for those who are not from Stamford.. a girl we know form the village). We stayed here for few days had My birthday, etc. We also decided to stay in Auckland for a few months and get a work visa so it was good to have a base whilst we were sorting everything out. We didn't expect it to be as busy as it was - because we applied for a visa in NZ we had to have a medical which was fun.. anyway we got the all clear.. no HIV for TEAM RA....

After this we got our national insurance number and went house hunting. We viewed loads of houses, some were lovely but with weird people and some houses were just plain horrible. One of houses we saw was a gorgeous place, dead modern and everything, the trouble was the guy who owned it was a magician that did shows at kids parties. He had a fake rabbit that he kept in a cage outside, that put us off straight away! We finally got a house but that fell through, it wasn't long before we found a lovely little house in Mount Roskill. We are sharing with 3 others, Alistair (a boat builder), Emma and Sarah (design students) oh and Theo the little dog (like a terrier) they have who is just mint - has a great collection of jumpers lol. We don't have any pictures yet of the house etc but we will update the blog next week with them. We all get on really well as we are more or less the same age etc.

On the job front Amy has got herself a great job at L'Oreal in marketing looking after the skin care range, a similar kind of role to what she did at Nestle but reporting directly to the marketing director. Me on the other hand have got a footy coaching job at the Auckland Football Federation School of Excellence where I have a group of U12. These are the ones that we put on a scheme which the aim in the long run is to get them playing at international level. so all pretty "sweet" as they say over here..

Like I said, we will update the blog again shortly with pictures of everything. hope all is good and well at home.



All our Love

Team RA xxxxx