I guess that it's tricky for me to move on and blog about anything else until I've completed my blog update about the holiday. But the holiday was now more than a week ago and is (slowly) fading into my medium-long term memory. Oh well, let's have a go at things anyway. I really do have more recent stuff to write about, so let's get this done with!

Where did I leave things? Ah yes I think we were up to Wednesday! On Wednesday we left Whitianga to head southwards. After doing a big loops around Whitianga harbour we found ourselves at Hahei. Hahei is probably most famous for being the place where you walk to Cathederal Cove from, and we would have gone there except the weather was really threatening at that point and I so didn't want to end up 45 minutes from the car with it totally pissing down. Instead we wandered along the beach, I played silly buggers with a rope that was hanging from the tree (which was fun actually),we ummed and arrred about whether we should walk to Cathederal Cove after all, before deciding not to and heading on to Hot Water Beach.

Hot Water Beach is something special really. With a hot spring underneath the sand, at low tide you can dig out pools and bathe away in really nice warm (or hot!) water. It wasn't hard to find out where the hot spring was once we arrived at the beach, as there were many many people crowded around a small spot attempting to dig themselves pools that would immediately get washed away by the still-high tide, before trying again, or just standing there digging their toes into the sand and enjoying the warmth. After a while longer the tide was going far enough out for some of the pools to not get totally smashed up by the waves, and everyone got digging. It was pretty funny seeing all these adults basically building this giant sand-castle system. The springs were fairly localised, so in the space of a couple of metres you could go from having really hot water, to there being absolutely nothing. It was pretty damn crowded too, with reasonably polite staking out of areas taking place. Eventually Leila and I found a spot that had hot water coming out, although after a while it actually became a little too hot and everyone abandoned the central area, warning others walking through that they were about to roast their feet. It was pretty fun really, although slowly the tide eventually came back in and starting destroying most of the lower pools. We found a spot in one of the higher pools further up the beach, and dug it out a little more until it too became a bit too hot before eventually being destroyed by the sea. In any case it was a really fun and nice way to spend a few hours, even if it felt really strange for the beach to be that crowded.

After leaving Hot Water Beach we headed on through Tairua to Onemana. It was interesting to visit this place, as for many years when my parents were looking to buy their beach house we all thought this was the most likely place where we'd end up having it. It is a pretty cute little settlement, with an interesting beach that Leila and I ended up swimming at. Due to the slope of the beach the waves crash pretty close to the shore, and it was fun playing games where we'd either try to avoid their power or try to make it so they crashed on us in the largest possible way. Towards the end we got enormously dumped twice, which was a little scary, but it was fun to get some proper swimming in for the first time on the holiday. After Onemana we drove to Whangamata for our motel, and I got to watche the exciting finale to the tied NZ v England cricket match that was taking place that day.

Thursday was coming home day, but as there wasn't really any hurry to get home we tried to make the most of the day. Firstly we headed out to Opoutere, which is a really really nice beach, if slightly annoying that you have to walk for about 15 minutes from the carpark to get there. The weather wasn't quite as warm as the day before, but I had a good read on the beach and built a pretty impressive looking sand-castle (see the pictures at www.jarbury.net ) and all up it was really fun there. After that we drove up to Pauanui, which is pretty close to the road back to Auckland. The weather was getting a bit colder and windier once again, but I finished my book as we read on the beach for a while, before we eventually decided that it was time to start heading back to Auckland. On the way we stopped at the Ngatea gemstone shop, which was quite interesting as I haven't been there for years and remember being amazed by all the awesome looking quartz crystals. The drive back was pretty fun really, although damn I was tired at the end of it, especially when I realise it had been over 800 km of driving in the previous 5 days. Was definitely a good holiday though!

Well I guess I should continue my reporting on our Coromandel holiday fairly soon, before it disappears out of my memory.

After visiting the Square Kauri we headed off further north, to Coromandel township. This involved further awesome driving along the coast before cutting inland about 15 minutes before we reached Coromandel. It does seem pretty random that there's a town named the same as the whole peninsula, yet it isn't nearly the biggest town on the peninsula. I guess at some stage it might have been though, as the place has many old buildings and is actually quite cute and quaint.

But anyway, the main purpose of our visit was to go on the Driving Creek Railway. This attraction is surely one of the more amazing things that you can do in this part of the country. The owner of the Railway, Barry Brickle, has - since about the 1970s - slowly built himself a narrow gauge railway line further and further up the hill behind the pottery factory that he originally established on the site. Apparently the railway line was initially built to transport clay from the hills down to his pottery area, but he became so fascinated by the process of building the railway track that he just kept on extending it over the years. Now it runs about 3 km up the hill, rising about 150 m throughout that course - which is pretty damn steep for a railway line. There are bridges and tunnels, switchbacks and viaducts, and all sorts of other amazing features on this railway. Eventually we reached the top of the line and could climb up a nice wooden tower (known as the Eyefull Tower) to get a great view over the whole aea. The fact that this one guy, along with some fairly low-key local contractors and just a few helpers, has managed to build what is there is simply amazing. Amalia would have really loved the train ride, and I look forward to taking her on it in the future.

Photos from the train and at the top of the hill in Coromandel

After the train took us back down the hill again, and we had checked out some glass-blowing at the bottom of the line (really amazing stuff to watch), we headed off on our way again. We crossed over the Coromandel Ranges on the "309 Road", a fairly remote unsealed route that I don't think I've been on before. About halfway up there was a short walk to the best stand of mature Kauri trees on the whole peninsula, which were simply breath-taking. There is something about a huge Kauri tree that totally blows you away, the height and sheer size of them is really humbling, while the thought of the whole peninsula being covered in them a hundred or so years ago before they were logged really really gets me hacked off that these amazing trees used to be so plentiful but now are not. After we had made our way over the ranges we found our motel in Whitianga, and settled down there for the evening. After fish & chips for dinner by the beach it was nice to get some sleep after a pretty long and full-on day.

The next day, Tuesday, dawned with changeable looking weather, which wasn't exactly ideal. Initially it didn't really seem too bad, although the wind was blowing like crazy which would make it difficult to spend too long at any of the beaches we were heading to that day. We headed off north, on a reasonably short drive up to Kuaotunu (supposedly pronounced Koo-too-noo). Then we headed over the "Blackjack" a pretty short but really windy and steep gravel road that was pretty freaky to drive over. Especially on the way down from its summit it was quite a challenge to make sure I didn't end up skidding anywhere. Gravel roads are certainly a good way to improve your driving skills, as they really make sure you control your speed, the angle that you take corners and how much you brake. After driving a gravel road when I got back on sealed bits it felt like there was this amazing glue sticking my tires to the road, a glue that just wasn't there when driving on unsealed bits.

Once we had made it over the "Blackjack", we reached Otama Beach. This has always been one of my favourite beaches in the country, particularly on the Coromandel Peninsula. For some reason the sand on this beach is a particularly striking shade of white, while the area behind the beach is a reserve, which means it really does feel isolated from the world. Leila and I found a sheltered part of the beach (it was pretty damn windy) behind a sand-dune and sat down to read for a while. After returning to the car we headed off further down the road to Opito Beach. There was a bit of a larger settlement here, and it was interesting to note that the sand had a noticeably different colour even though it was in close proximity to Otama. There wasn't really anywhere much to shelter from the wind here, so we headed back to the car and drove back to Kuaotunu.

From there we continued on to Matarangi, which is one of the growing settlements on this part of the Coromandel. It's frustrating that the more recent an area has developed, the more stupid the houses seem to look. I guess these days those able to afford a beach-house altogether are probably likely to be pretty damn rich, and can therefore afford to splash out on a wanky monstrosity complete with stupid pillars. Unfortunately for Matarangi, a lot of its development has taken place pretty recently, so there's an awful lot of wank there. On the plus side, the beach there is unbelievably awesome, and stretched off in both directions from where we went down to it. Furthermore, fortunately there is a pretty big setback from the beach to the first lot of houses, so when you're actually on the beach it is quite tricky to see any houses at all.

At Matarangi the wind was really blowing like crazy, so once again after getting a few pictures we headed off on the next stage of our journey. Not too far along the road was Whangapoua, which in addition to a pretty cute little harbour-side town had yet another amazing surf-beach. We considered walking around the corner to New Chums Beach, which is apparently THE most amazing beach on the Coromandel Peninsula, but by then the weather was really starting to deteriorate. I hadn't really planned to visit any other places in this area, but as we'd been unable to really linger at any of the beaches we'd visited so far for particularly long, it wasn't actually that long through the day. So Leila and I decided that we'd do a little more exploring, drove back over another road that crosses the Coromandel Ranges, and then went off on a pretty long unsealed route up to Kennedy's Bay and Waikawau Bay - two very isolated spots way up near the very top of the Peninsula. Although this extension to our trip did involve a lot of driving, and eventually we ended up back in the Coromandel township which felt strange as we'd been there the day before, it was fun exploring different areas. Near Waikawau Bay we found a cute little beach with just about nobody else on it. There were two Pohutukawa Trees right on the beach that made for excellent climbing trees, and we hung out there for a while as the weather improved marginally. After that it was a fairly long trip back to Whitianga, and a damn good sleep that night!

Little Bay - Near Waikawau Bay

The groovy road back over the Ranges

(to be continued... shortly!)

Wow it feels like forever since I was in Auckland! Facebook has gone nuts and I get the feeling I;ll never really catch up with everything that's gone on. Oh well, my life doesn't revolve around the internet, honestly! Well actually I didn't find myself missing the internet too much while Leila and I were away, only on the occasion where I really wanted to check on the cricket score! But anyway, about 800 km later I look back and it's been quite a trip really! I think we saw just about every beach on the Coromandel Peninsula, quite some feat!

So yeah, Leila and I set off on Sunday night, after we'd dropped Amalia home. We headed down the Southern Motorway, as we ventured further and further south it was interesting to see how the motorway became increasingly unfamiliar. Up to about Mt Wellington the motorway is incredibly familiar to me, as for one reason or another I probably drive that bit every week or two. After Mt Wellington, and up to Manukau City it's still familiar - but not quite as much. I think I probably go along this bit once every month or so, usually for something to do with work at Manukau City Council, or on our way out east for another site visit. But once we were past Manukau, the motorway was much less familiar. I'm not sure the last time I was on it even, perhaps on the way back from a site visit to Pukekohe at the beginning of last yeard, perhaps more recently, I'm not totally sure. We had dinner at the lay-by near Drury and then headed off further south still. Once again, as we continued onwards the roads became increasingly rare of use for me. However, as my childhood involved a hell of a lot of trips to Thames, the road is hardly unfamiliar to me.

I noticed the Mangatawhiri deviation just past the turn off to SH2. A fairly significant project to bypass one of the most dangerous bits of road in the country. After that fairly boring stretch of road (I can¿t quite believe that it's one of the most dangerous stretches of roads as it seems so normal) we headed onto SH25, which was a little more exciting for me as it is THE ROAD TO THAMES for me, and brought back many memories of going there as a kid. It was really nice to go to Thames for the first time since 1999 for a reason other than a funeral, to see the little town that formed a big part of my life as a kid. I had been a little worried that I wouldn't be able to find my way to my Auntie¿s place, who had kindly let us stay there for the night. It was nice catching up with her as I haven't really had the chance for a long time. We also had a great place to sleep for the night.

In the morning we headed off on our journey. First task was to have a little drive around Thames for some reminiscing. It was great to see my Grandmother's old house (although it looked quite different) again, to see the Arbury's clothing shop, to drive down Pollen Street (the main street) and so on. We stocked up at the supermarket, and then headed off up the coast. The road north of Thames is pretty awesome, and literally hugs the coast for ages, one little settlement after the next, stuck between the sea and the mountains it is really really nice. At Tapu, about half an hour north of Thames, we headed inland to check out the impressive Square Kauri, one of the biggest remaining Kauri trees on the Coromandel Peninsula. To get there we had to go along a gravel road for some of the way, which was interesting as I haven't driven on a gravel road for quite a few months (perhaps not since last year's holiday up north). The Kauri was amazing, we took some nice pictures and then headed back on the road.

(to be continued...)

I felt comfortable in my assertion that perhaps the great performance of the Black Caps on Saturday night was a once off. After all, haven't we lost most of the experience in our team over the last year or so? Isn't our coach a weird nut-job that seems intent on alienating every damn decent player we've got? Isn't our best bowler, and the number one ranked ODI bowler in the world, currently playing for the Canterbury team because of some stupid tension in India between two different cricket leagues that for some reason bars him from playing a game for New Zealand in New Zealand? Well I certainly still stand by these observations, but somehow the New Zealand team has suddenly, miraculously, turned brilliant. Or the England team, which looked pretty professional in their two Twenty20 games, has totally gone to crap.

It's one or the other. In any case, watching New Zealand totally hammer the crap out of England on Tuesday night was very satisfying. Some of the batting was truly amazing, an absolute joy to watch. I really do hope that we can keep it going, and that all the issues that I outlined above at least take a while longer before they truly start to hurt us. As a semi-boycott of Eden Park (due to their crapness last week) and also because it'd be a bloody mission anyway due to the stupidity of playing on a Friday, I'm not going to be going to the next ODI. If we can win that, we¿ll have the series wrapped up already. That'd be awesome!

To change topics completely, today happens to be Valentine's Day. Cue sickly, generic, commercialised ways of showing the person who means most to you how much you love them. Ugh, not for me! Fortunately I did manage to achieve that in a non-sickly, generic and commercialised manner, which I'm pretty proud of. This time last year Leila were at Cape Reinga' so I've managed it twice in 2 years.

Ooohh.. Cape Reinga, holiday, that reminds me about my this year¿s holiday, which Leila and I are heading off on, next week! I'll detail that further tomorrow, if I remember!

Mondays should be the best day for blogging. Often I don't find the time to update during the weekend, so therefore a lot is left for Monday, while the mere fact that a weekend has passed also means that there's likely to be much more to write about the next Monday. I've tried to get away from 'so this is what I got up to on the weekend', but in the end it's just such an easy topic that it is hard to avoid the temptation.

This was a strange weekend actually. In some ways it felt like it disappeared away really quickly, as it wasn't like I got up to an awfully large amount of stuff, but in other ways it seemed insanely long, almost like a long weekend because by the end of it, the beginning did feel like ages ago. A lot of stuff seemed to get sorted out, a bit personal and probably boring for others to read about, but which has seemed to finally make sense out of many issues that had popped up again and again. It is quite funny when the answer to so many questions has actually been sitting right in front of your face for so long, but for various weird reasons you've been strangely fighting it for ages, not because that battle seemed to make things better, but oddly because you felt like it was something that you should be doing, regardless of whether or not it was actually working and whether or not it was the right solution for you.

OK well I shall stop talking in gibberish now, as 98% of people reading this will have absolutely no idea what I'm on about, and most others will probably have the wrong idea of what I'm talking about. I guess I just wanted to make a record of it for myself, so I can look back in the future and go "ah.... so that's when that happened!" 

Looking back first, at the title of this post suggests, it was a bloody weird weekend for sports - and by sports I mean cricket of course. After playing miserably in their two Twenty20 matches, the New Zealand team managed to absolutely hammer England in the first one-day international, showing the English team to actually appear worse than how we played during those previous matches - a task that I would have thought to be rather damn difficult. And then in the Australia v India game last night, India managed to achieve something fairly similar to NZ, and really hammer Australia - always a particularly satisfying result! Two rather unexpected results have both spiced up what had previously threatened to be two pretty damn boring series¿. I guess cricket always throws up some interesting results once in a while!

I have more to write about, particularly regarding what's coming up in the next couple of weeks. But I need some material for updates during the rest of the week so I think I'll leave it at that for now!

I guess that most people will probably read my blog updates on facebook first, but I definitely want to keep this one updated.

Well as readers of my normal blog ( http://www.jarbury.net ) will know, this isn't really the start of a blog, but is hopefully a way for me to provide myself with the inspriation to update more frequently. Throughout the past 6 months of http://www.jarbury.net (I think it's more properly called Realistic Surreality¿ but anyway) my frequency of posts (could one term that 'postage'?) has dropped away far too significantly. I think perhaps the idea that not many people actually read it has contributed to that fact, so this is my response!

Ha ha! With facebook it seems that everyone on my friends list gets notified as soon as I make an update. Whilst you¿re not forced to read my dribble, perhaps it might help me knowing that you're more likely to. I shall try to merge this with my regular blog in as many ways as possible (it seems like that is the easiest way to show photos etc.), as it would be rather tragic to just give up on something that I've been writing for 7 years now. In fact, what I really hope is that somehow the two can be interlinked as much as possible - although more realistically I think that every once in a while I'll copy across my blog updates from here to my regular place.

I had been kinda wishing that facebook had a blog application. It really seemed like the kind of place that needed that, so you could actually get an idea about what you¿re friends are up to rather than just get notified that their vampire/zombie/werewolf attacked some other person's!

Oh yes as the title indicates I have yet again got behind in my blog updating. Nothing too unusual there, although with a little help from facebook, hopefully in the future I may not find myself in this kind of situation again - or at least quite as frequently. With so many different things to "keep updated" and moan to on the internet, I think that some sort of connection between them may help things a little. But anyway, that's to be revealed shortly!

So, what have I been up to in the last week or so?

- Enjoyed having Ella, Pete and Joseph back in the country. Had them around for dinner on one night which was great. It really feels like our whole friends group is getting back towards being complete.

- Went to Nelson for one day, at the end of last week, for a work meet-up. Was pretty fun, although I did miss people in Auckland. The plane flights were cool though, and I took some nice photos that I'll hopefully remember to post on here at some stage.

- Went to Twenty20 cricket match at Eden Park. Got annoyed at the stupidity of the place that caused us to wait 45 minutes to get into the ground. Idiots couldn't organise a piss-up at a brewery, don't know how they'll run a World Cup!

Well Ella, Pete and Joseph did finally make it back to NZ last Monday. Thanks to the plethora of public holidays at the moment, I managed to have that day off work and could therefore head out to the airport to see them come in. Frustratingly, this turned into a process that took way longer than we originally anticipated, as their flights got totally muddled. Originally they were meant to fly from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, and then from KL to Auckland (not sure exactly why, I guess it must have been the cheapest and/or most convenient way to do it. However, their plane that was meant to do the first flight had mechanical issues, they got themselves onto a plane to Brisbane instead, and then had to wait until they could find another plane from Brisbane to Auckland. So after picking Amalia up, and being just about ready to get on the motorway out to the airport (we were literally 50 m away from turning onto it), we found out that they wouldn't be arriving for another 5 hours. Frustrating yes, although I guess after waiting for 14 months I guess a few more hours wouldn't be the end of the world.

Eventually the time did roll around, and we headed off to the airport properly this time. I was relived to find out that their plane had landed on time (this time), so after having a look around the observation deck we headed off to the arrivals area to wait for them to come through. I guess they didn't really take too long to get through customs and come out for us to see, but it certainly did feel like forever. Wondering each time a person came through whether this would be them is always really emotionally draining, as you feel almost duty bound to be the first one to "spot them" and announce it to everyone else. As my mum said, it's always when you're not paying attention that they finally come through and it seemed that way to me when they did finally come out. We took a few photos, although the best ones are still on my mum's digital camera (and will hopefully eventually get uploaded to here).

We all then headed back to my parents' place for dinner, which was really nice. It just felt so awesome to have them all back, and to give my little nephew Joseph the big cuddles that I'd been wanting to give him for ages and ages. Amalia also loved playing around with her cousin, and got some lovely smiles out of him!

It's really awesome just having everyone back in NZ. And they've found a place to live that's not too far away from where we live so it's all good!

Now's my chance to write a good post about cricket. All you people who don't find yourself interested in the game (gah... how is that possible?) may not wish to read further. That was your warning!

Yes I do realise that one of the main reasons I probably enjoy summer as much as I do (apart from the nice ability to not feel cold for at least a couple of months a year), is that it's the cricket season. In years past (quite a long time ago actually) that meant Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, or commonly both morning and afternoon cricket on Saturdays. Often I'd play solidly from about 9.15am until 6.00 pm, with just an hour and a bit in the middle to get from one game to the other (not good when you were playing your morning game in Henderson and your afternoon one in Howick). It was fun though, and often these days I do find myself really missing playing cricket. Perhaps one day it'll fit better into my lifestyle.

But anyway, these days I managed to placate myself over the summer months by watching, listening or simply following (thanks to the marvels of Cricinfo) international cricket as much as I possibly can. A couple of weeks back I was truly spoilt on one afternoon at Leila's parents with New Zealand playing Bangladesh on one channel and Australia playing India on another. In typical fashion, whilst I felt like I 'ought to' watch the New Zealand game, the Australia/India match was proving to be the far more interesting one. That particular match ended in heartbreak for India (and myself really, as an ardent supporter of anyone playing against Australia in cricket), with Australia managing to win right at the end, against all predictions. The controversies following that match I'll ignore, as in my opinion they ended up being a huge media beatup.

Fortunately, a couple of weeks later India managed to play almost the perfect game and beat Australia at Perth, probably the one ground in the world where India seemed least likely to win a match. I found myself tremendously excited by this, avidly following the match as it swung this way and that, a true classic in my opinion. But then I wondered whether it was strange for me to get more into Australia losing, than I had been about New Zealand winning its last couple of test matches (which had actually been really boring one-sided affairs with quite little to get excited about). Do I dislike the Australian cricket team more than I like the New Zealand team? An interesting question really, as it reminded me of another time, two and a half years ago when Australia were playing England at the same time as New Zealand were playing Zimbabwe. The NZ v Zim game was another one-sided bore-fest, added to the fact that morally we probably shouldn't have even been there in the first place, kind of sucked its interest out of me. Meanwhile, England were playing Australia in probably the best cricket series ever. One which they actually ended up winning (believe it or not). Both New Zealand and England were bowling in their respective matches, and I was most certainly more excited by the prospect of England getting a wicket in their closely fought match, than I was in New Zealand polishing off a team of average club-cricketers.

But on reflection, I think that this is probably a good thing, and a sign that in the end I am a true cricketing fan. Whilst it's hard to admire an amazing innings or bowling performance against New Zealand (particularly by an Australian), in the end what I really want to see is a truly competitive global game. Over the past 10-15 years, and particularly since about 1999, Australia seem to have dominated the game to an almost boring extent. Each year a team tours, gets hammered, goes home etc. This is even more depressing for New Zealand, who haven't actually beaten Australia in a test match since 1993 (oh I almost want to cry just typing that). I guess I would have felt similarly in the 1980s when the West Indies were bashing everyone in sight (if I'd been into cricket back then as much as I am now), and been excited by them being challenged for the crown of "best team in the world". After Australia's defeat in 2005 it was reasonable to think that perhaps their glory days were over: England winning a series against them for the first time since 1987 did seem pretty impressive, especially considering the English truly dominated them throughout that series and, in the end, the result flattered Australia as they clung on for dear life in each of the last 4 test matches. Yet here we are, two and a half years later, and if anything Australia have been even more dominant during this period than they ever were before 2005. However, with a few retirements either having happened (Warne, Martyn, Langer, McGrath) or not too far away (Hayden, Gilchrist), perhaps the current series is more like the "end of an era" I had hoped 2005 might be. I don't think it's that I want Australia to be beaten all the time, and have a particularly bad team (although that's probably necessary if NZ is to ever beat them again in a test), I just think cricket would be far more interesting with a number of teams competing for "best in the world". And hopefully that might be happening in to not-too-distant future.

OK, end of cricket rant.

Yes my lameness at updating has continued. Yes my moaning about my lack of updating has also continued. I guess some things never change.

Unfortunately, life has had to change in the last couple of weeks with me heading back to work. It was really awesome to enjoy the two and a half weeks of holidays that I had, particularly so because the weather managed to make itself brilliant for about 95% of that time. The other 5% involved me getting saturated while trying to deliver leaflets around Greenlane a couple of days before I headed back to work, but that was OK really as it had been so warm that getting wet was almost a welcome relief from the heat. And to be honest, work has been fairly cruisy since I've been back, at least compared with the mad scramble that it was before the end of the year. Settling back into some sort of routine hasn't been to bad either, and weirdly has meant that I've felt like doing more housework than I did when on holiday - truly bizarre!

I guess I've been up to a few things over the past couple of un-updated weeks. Leila and I went out to Piha one Sunday a couple of weeks back, and had a really nice day out there doing our best to avoid getting sunburnt (and actually managing it, at least compared with how we were after our day at the tennis!) It was good to have a swim and body-board in the Piha waves, the first time I've been properly swimming (as opposed to desperately trying to avoid getting soaked in the shallows with Amalia) since last summer. Although the surf at Piha wasn't quite its normal wild self, it was still pretty cool. I also took some really nice photos with my camera, which hopefully I'll eventually get around to uploading on to here. As I upload photos to Kiwiscrapers, Facebook and to here at times, it can end up feeling like a bit of a mission to show off my pictures. But as I've finally figured out how to use some of the more random settings of my camera to create some truly magnificent effects, I'll do my best to get some of them online here.

With the exception of a few days earlier this week, when it was overcast and unbearably humid and sticky, I feel that we've been truly blessed by an awesome summer weather-wise, at least so far. My whole outlook on life seems to be more positive when it's nice and sunny, reasonably warm (though it did get a little hot last Saturday, when the air-con in my car measured the outside temperature at 31 degrees) and you can hear the sounds of summer (good old cicadas!) I'm glad that we're only reaching the end of January, rather than the end of February, at it would be quite depressing to think of summer as coming to a close. Generally February seems to have the best weather of the whole year, and hopefully that rings true so Leila and I can get the most out of the one week's holiday to the Coromandel Peninsula that we're going to get around to at some stage in the next month.

Everything has seemed to be 'up in the air' recently, largely because it's now only a few days away from Ella, Peter and little Joseph coming home! After being reasonably OK at dealing with my little sister being on the other side of the world for most of last year, the last couple of months have seemed to be particularly difficult and January 28th has loomed large as a day to hugely look forward to. I think it's been the lack of contact over the last 2 months, as they've been travelling around Europe and now in Singapore, as well as me finally having a "they're back" date to look forward to. Well after counting down all the days for ages, it's now really not too far away at all. I'm very much looking forward to heading out to the airport on Monday to welcome them back!

Well with a new digital camera it has been pretty cool for me being able to track the holidays more effectively.

One day we went out to Long Bay with Amalia and Leila's parents. It was a really nice day at the beach, warm as anything but cool as Amalia got out into the surf for a bit. Took some groovy photos.

Then on Jan 7th Leila, Bernice and I went to the tennis. It was actually pretty damn cool going there, seeing some of the best players in the world (although unfortunately we missed out on the day that David Ferrer was playing). Furthermore, there were three New Zealanders playing that day, although sadly only one of them won their match. I got to see Rubin Statham play, the number two ranked New Zealand player. The interesting things about Rubin is that my Dad knows her mum through some bizarre method, and we used to go over to their place when I was little. And then a few years later, when I was in 7th form, I tutored him for a while in maths. Even back then my Dad was always reporting the advances that he'd made in under 14 Australasian tournaments, and it's really awesome to see him come through. While he's only 560 in the world now, he's still only 18 and by the way he seemed to be playing against the number 44 guy in the world, he could well end up being a top 100 player at the very least.

^^ Rubin.

Well I have been pretty slack with my updates. Time to do a little bit of back-dating I think.

Let's start with New Year's. After going out 'on the town' for the last couple of years (which had become increasingly lame with having to battle millions of other people for a drink) Amber, Leila and I headed off to a party to celebrate the New Year. Although the getting there and home proved to be a slight logistical mission, in the end we had a really good time, including a nice count-down to midnight and we were also able to see a good fireworks display from the Sky Tower.

I may get around to posting photos, but seriously the ones of me semi-drunk aren't that great. I slept the night (eventually) in the loft of a sleep-out, which was weird as I can't even remember the last time I didn't sleep in my bed, and incredibly hot, but in the end quite satisfactory.

Well it seems like I've finally caught up on my blog posts. With so much happening in the last few days it's felt really amazing to actually have something to write about. I haven't just been getting up, going to work, coming home, sometimes having Amalia, going to bed, waking up... repeat, repeat, repeat. Summer holidays are good like that, and the fact that every day seems quite significantly different to all the others means that it actually feels like I've now been on holiday for quite some time. I think I worked out that today's the exact halfway point of my break, which actually makes me feel pretty good as work feels like it was quite a long time ago, and if I've got that much time left before I need to head back to work, then that's pretty cool. There's no doubt I'll be a bit grumpy on the evening before I have to head back to work, but I guess I'll at least have the knowledge that it's not too long until we go on a Coromandel holiday in February, and then not too long after that before we head off in May to Europe!

So wow, the last day of 2007. I guess that means I should provide some interesting insights and reflections into the year as a whole. It definitely feels like the year had two distinct parts to it: before May 25th and after it. Of course, May 25th was the day that we moved into the flat. Before that point it had been quite tricky with two people cooped up inside what is a very small bedroom at my parents' place. The search for a flat wasn't easy, with many many different criteria to meet and us continuously getting hacked off at real estate agents for being totally useless. However, in the end I guess one has to be thankful for how useless earlier people were, as our current flat has really turned out to be a perfect place. It seems really odd remembering the time that Amber, Amalia and I first checked it out, almost unreal that the same place which was so obviously not our, has becomes our home. Although the lack of dishwasher has been a bit of an annoyance, everything else about the place has seemed almost perfect. The thing that still stands out is how big and spacious it is, which often has the unintended consequence of absorbing heaps of stuff before we actually notice that it's messy. The location is awesome, walking distance to Sandringham shops, the bus stop literally visible from our front door and close enough to work for me to come home for lunches (although it took me about 5 months to figure that out!) The whole flat dynamic has worked really well too, and looks like it'll only get better into the next year.

I think the other big event of 2007 was obviously Ella giving birth to my little nephew, Joseph (who we all think of as Jofuss thanks to Amalia). Unfortunately I've been limited to seeing just photos of him as Ella's still a month away from coming back to New Zealand, but it's exciting to think that I have a little nephew out there. It's also interesting to note how much more I seem to have found myself missing Ella in the last couple of months. We have had a lot less contact with her, because she and Pete have been all over Europe (and will continue to be until they head back to NZ), and haven't really been contactable since early December. I think the other thing that's made me miss her way more is the knowledge of when she's coming back, having a date to count down to and look forward to. Before that it was just a general knowledge that she was coming back "some time early next year", and as a result I couldn't really imagine that stage as well as I can now. Being able to imagine her being back, knowing that it's not actually too far away, that they'll probably stay with us for a while as they look for a place to live, is all very exciting, yet at the same time really makes me look forward to January 28th in an enormous way. I think not having my little sister around for over a year now has really made me realise how much our relationship means to me, and how much I do value having her in my life.

I think another one of the highlights of this year has been how my relationship with Leila has continued to blossom. I guess at the start of the year there was the chance that the whole "honeymoon period" would be over, and it would be difficult to keep things going after that point. Obviously nothing is ever perfect (and if it seems to be then that's probably NOT a good thing), but in general it's awesome how things have gone this year. Although we were already sort of living together at the start of the year, obviously having our own place has taken things to another level, which is great. The way that we're so well suited to each other often seems to mean that we don't quite realise how good things are, because it just feels normal for them to be that way, but when I think about the 26,000 little things about our relationship that feel like they could never be replicated, I realise that indeed, this is it.

So I guess overall it has been a good year. I feel in some ways that it's been a very insular year, where I've got closer to people I already knew well but haven't really gotten to know anyone new, and because of the large number of people I know who are overseas or have moved out of Auckland, it does feel like my friends circle has become a lot smaller, which is less than ideal. A lot of this was obviously fairly unavoidable on my behalf though. I think next year will hopefully sort out a lot of those issues, especially with Ella and Pete back in the country. Next year also has the huge excitement of a trip to Europe: a place that seemingly most people I know have been to apart from me. The nice new digital camera that I bought a couple of days ago will be very handy on that trip, where hopefully I am able to store photos that I take on my iPod so we don't run out of memory awfully quickly. As I wrote a few days ago, work this year was kind of strange at times, and it felt like although the work I was doing seemed more "valuable", I was doing quite a bit less of it. I suppose that there are always busier and quieter times, and that the few new jobs that popped up towards the end of the year will eventually keep me pretty busy. I also probably need to discipline myself a little more, but I think that's a habit which will eventually come back to me.

All in all, a pretty good, stable year. 2008 promises to be much more exciting though!

Wow the last week has been a truly awesome time. Holidays, summer, awesome weather, the ability to sleep in, being able to just not worry about the time... reminds me exactly why this is totally my favourite time of the year. It feels like I've been to just about every beach in Auckland at some stage of the last few days: Bethells a couple of weeks ago, Karekare a few days ago, Browns Bay with Amalia and Aston a couple of days back, and then Takapuna beach later that night where Leila and I had a really nice kebab by the side of the beach watching the peacefulness of everything. Once again I do think pictures tell the story a little better than words.

I'd never really been to Brown's Bay much until lately. Generally my family went to Long Bay, Castor Bay or Milford. I don't think it was ever that deliberate, we just didn't really go there. Then a couple of years ago we did go there, and I really liked the place. I remember playing a good game of beach cricket with my dad, and there seemed to be a million dogs on the beach. Then over the last few months we have seemed to end up there on a few occasions. I've been really impressed by the playground there, and just before Guy Fawkes Leila and I had a really pleasant evening watching people let off firecrackers. So we brought Amalia and Aston to the park for a couple of hours, and then we had a nice time at the beach too.

Then earlier today Leila and I headed off to Cornwall Park for the afternoon. We had an exceptionally pleasant time just hanging out in the park, reading books and just watching the people around us enjoying the afternoon. There was one group who were playing frisbee until it got stuck up a tree; then they tried to get it down by throwing a soccer ball at it; then the soccer ball got stuck up in the tree as well which was kind of hilarious. Eventually one of the guys climbed up the tree to get down both the frisbee and the soccer ball. I was a bit freaked out he was going to fall down, but he was very agile and managed to get everything down without falling. We then headed up One Tree Hill to take some nice pictures of Auckland.

It was a nice day so Amber, Leila and I headed out to Karekare beach on Auckland's west coast. I built an awesome dam too!

It was such a nice day. Really did feel like the perfect way to spend it. I probably should have taken my wet-suit and bodyboard too, as the waves were awesome. Next time I guess.

Damn I love this time of year!

 I'm not quite sure exactly what it was, but everyone this year seems to have thought that Xmas was one of the best yet. I certainly had a pretty damn good day, highlighted by getting to play Santa for Amalia, getting some damn nice presents myself, and also through eating an enormous amount of really nice food.

In the past the Xmas situation has been reasonably well set, largely because it's quite difficult to shift things around with seemingly 10 million different families involved. It worked out reasonably well, although the down-side was that I'd never had Amalia on Christmas morning which was rather frustrating. Last year she had a pillow-case from Santa which she opened up later on in the morning when I picked her up, but it wasn't quite the same as the real thing I had enjoyed as a child. Fortunately, after much reorganisation everyone managed to figure out a way for me to have her on Xmas morning this year. We set up some milk and cookies for Santa, a bucket of water out in the garden for the reindeer and a pillow case by the fireplace for all the pressies to go into. We're lucky having such an awesome fireplace that there isn't the whole "but how on earth does Santa fit down the chimney?" question that I always used to wonder about at my parents' place. I'm sure that one year I demanded they kept the door to the fireplace open so Santa wouldn't be stuck in there.

Xmas morning went well, with Amalia amazingly sleeping in until about 8.40am, giving Leila and I the chance to have a nice sleep in. We then did the Santa presents, followed by our presents, of which there were plenty (added to the ones my parents and Leila's parents had already given Amalia over the previous couple of days it felt like we'd need an extra room just to accommodate them all!) Leila got me a couple of very nice things, including the first season DVD of "Third Watch", a TV program that I used to watch all the time. After the mass-unwrapping it was off to Natalie's to drop Amalia back, and then over to Leila's parents for lunch, which turned into dinner (a very good thing as I had stuffed myself with yummy croissants at Natalie's). I spent most of the afternoon playing PS2 cricket with Stuart, which was a particularly nice and relaxing way to spend a Xmas day. After another enormous feed we staggered back to the flat, pretty exhausted by everything to be honest. But it had been an awesome day!

Well it's a while ago now, but with the help of a little back-dating I can write about my last week at work.

It was a crazy week of work actually, with a huge project that was to be finished by Friday. We had hoped to get everything necessary to write our report about two weeks before we had to get it done, but in the end all our specialist reports and the final architectural drawings came in only at the start of the final week. This led to much craziness, as Duncan (my boss) and I ended up writing most of our report in the space of a week. In the end it was actually quite a cool report that we put together, and I felt that I'd learned a lot through the process. Often for smaller jobs many aspects of the District Plan don't apply to the particular consent that you're applying for, so you often feel like you can get through the consent reasonably enough without actually knowing the particular District Plan you're dealing with inside out. For this consent I've done quite a few reports for applications within North Shore City, but I definitely feel like I know their plan a million times better now.

On Thursday and Friday Leila actually came in to the office to help us with binding and proof-reading. It was pretty cool to have her in the office, mixing the two main aspects of my life for the first time. It was actually really useful having her too, especially for proof-reading as she found about a million little mistakes that had been made in our 50-odd page report. On Friday our client actually said that we should delay lodging our consent until the new year, largely so we could add a few "broader ideas" in promoting the reasons for the development, which made a lot of sense although at the same time it was a little frustrating as we'd gone nuts to try to get it done by Friday, but such is life.

Friday afternoon was particularly awesome though, with the knowledge that I was off work for, literally, the rest of the year and not back until January 10th. This is my first holiday of note since February, so it's great to have the chance to get a good break from work and enjoy life a little more than is possible with the usual daily grind. It had really started to finally feel like summer in that last week, with it being hot enough to need to open windows/turn on fans etc., which in the end is the ideal time to start the holidays. So yeah, a slightly frustrating end to the week, but at the same time very satisfying to be able to put work out of my mind for a few weeks, to let the various worries of different jobs disappear for a while.

Work-wise, I actually felt quite amazed that the whole year had passed by. Compared to last year it felt a whole pile less crazy, and in many ways really different. Whilst the sheer quantity of work that I did was probably a bit less, simply because with only one Director there was less going on than before; in many ways it was WAY different with my interaction with clients being at least 10 times what it was before. After initially being freaked out by it, and occasionally frustrated when things weren't quite working properly, overall I did find myself greatly enjoying this part of the job, and felt like I was starting to get in a position where I could definitely trust my judgement and hold up my role in a meeting as the "planning expert" without looking like a newbie, or an idiot. A couple of the jobs that I had been the main contact person for seemed to like what I'd done so much that we've ended up with more work out of them, and hopefully that may continue even more into the future. I guess the 2nd year was always going to be tricky in a few ways though, with the newness of the first year no longer there and actually having to stand on my own two feet a lot more. But overall I think I handled it reasonably well. 

Took quite a few photos, so I think I'll let them do the talking.

Went out to a few bars last night. There was this big ball on Vulcan Lane that I tried to push to no avail. Someone else about 2 seconds later jumped on it and got told off by a couple of very bored security guards.

Bethells Beach sand dunes.

The beach itself... Leila and I decided to make a sand sculpture. Cool Santa hat chicks too.