A weekend in the City

So here I am - I haven't written in my blog for a long time! But I wanted to tell you about the weekend and the Rugby World Cup and there is too much to say to put in a Facebook status update. So welcome, dear reader. :-)
First of all, on Friday we had a Teacher Only Day at school and we had to dress in the colours of the team we supported. So the staff room was a sea of black with just a few exceptions!


This is me with Mandy, and Gillian who looked good supporting Samoa and Japan.
So anyway, the school day finished at 1.00 and I raced off home, had a bite to eat and toddled off the the station with my little suitcase.Interesting.... the station was PACKED! I thought I must have been in London or Paris! The train was late, and then it arrived. But it was full and wouldn't let anyone on. This was not a good sign! Another train eventually arrived and I squashed myself on. It took almost an hour going very slowly into Britomart, stopping at all the stations in case people wanted to get off, but not letting anyone on. Obviously all afternoon the trains were going to fill up at the first stops - I wonder if people in Glen Innes and Orakei ever made it!

Anyway, I got into town and once again thought I was at Paris Montparnasse or similar - you could barely move in the station. But I popped up into Queen St and then quickly got to Albert St and the lovely Stamford Plaza, where Nadean and I had got a 75% off deal! Great stuff. As Nadean was at Waipuna Lodge at a conference, I wandered down to the waterfront myself. Well..... Packed would be something of an understatement. After I had texted Nadean about the trains she got a taxi into town, and cruised in easily on the motorway! We poked around in Quay St, but the big screen near us wasn't working. Hmmm.... We endeavoured to get round to the other side, but it was near impossible and as a short person I felt hemmed in and a bit claustrophobic. You couldn't move anywhere, and we didn't even consider trying to get iinto the concert area. The photo doesn't really show what it was like as it was taken up the street a bit. Anyway, we couldn't see anything at all, so we went back to the hotel, had a room service meal, and watched the fabulous proceedings on TV! We did pop outside for the fireworks, which were just fabulous! So that was our Friday Waterfront Experience. The weather was perfect, the people were good-natured and I kept hearing French people talking which was so cool - they were not the only foreign languages around of course, but French is my favourite!

Anyway, wasn't the opening ceremony at Eden Park just wonderful? I really loved it. And I loved watching the rugby too. Yay to the All Blacks!
Had a very pleasant spa and so Friday drew to a close.
On Saturday morning Nadean had to go back to her conference and so I hit the shops alone and in a single-minded manner! In fact I only bought one thing but I enjoyed looking. :-)
Nadean got back about 1.30 and we finally made it to the waterfront to have a look around. It was good, and there was a great atmosphere. It's great that a few changes have been made, but there is still sooooooo much untapped potential. It must be one of the most beautiful harbours in the world, and it's crying out for much more redevelopment. Oh look, I'm probably being a bit harsh - I know there's a long-term plan and it can't all be done at once. Anyway, we walked along to the new Wynyard Quarter, and did the tram ride, which was a wee bit of a non-event. But never mind. It was a great afternoon, and the weather was glorious once again. The photos are of me and Nadean in front of The Cloud, a Fijian cultural group performing, a street performer, a waka in the Viaduct Basin, a view of the Viaduct area, and that's it!






Last night we had a meal at Mecca Chancery - another GrabOne special deal - lol - followed by another spa back at the hotel. We chatted to an Australian couple in the pool. She had won a trip over to see the Australia match which is on this afternoon. Pity about the weather! Yes, we had thought that we might go to the Art Gallery today, or wander round the new shopping complex at Britomart, but the weather entirely packed up overnight, and it was so wet and awful that we just came on home. Where I will watch more rugby on TV!
So that was our Girls' Weekend in the City, and jolly nice it was too!
To any of my American friends reading this - the Rugby World Cup has just begun in New Zealand. I know it won't be making the news channels in the US, but it's big here!