Kia Ora

Monday 23rd February marked the start of our 16th week here in Auckland and the time has really gone quickly.It really doesn't seem 2 minutes since we were on the beach on Xmas Day and now we are nearly in March.Mel has settled in well at wotk and I am happy doing my thing around the place till the visas are issued.

We had dinner with Arnold and Vi on Monday evening and it was nice to catch up with them and also have some home cooked food as at the motel we have been living on take outs,healthily I might add!!!

On Tuesday I got a call from the bike shop letting me know that my helmet had arrived so I took a ride over there to collect it.After picking Mel up we took our walk around One Tree Hill,and found out it was 3km around the base,which is why it was taking a while!!!!

As I was out and about on Wednesday I spotted "Kiwi Roast" who sold roast dinners and thought that it would be a nice change.We rocked up there that evening and couldn't believe our luck.We had a choice of meat with roast potatoes,kumara,pumpkin and peas with gravy.We opted for the pork and even got crackling it was superb and left us very full and conteneted.

Unfortunately on Thursday evening we got a call from Richard saying that they were unable to make the weekend as Jill was ill,and we were all dissappointed (Get well soon Jill) but decided that we could catch up again soon.While on another of my walkabouts I had spotted a presentation at the Stardome Observatory about astronauts which looked good so I booked us on for Friday evening.

At the observatory we were called into the thetre and were surprised when the seats were at 45 degrees so you were looking up at the domed ceiling,but the big surprise was when the picture was projected onto the dome and you felt like you were really there floating in space.What followed was anarrative by Ewan McGregor on what astronauts have to endure to get to space,which was excellent and good fun as we floated around space for an hour.

Got a call from Lesley on Saturday morning letting me now that Dads operation had gone well which we were pleased about and he would be home on Saturday at some point.We decided to visit a couple of places we had planned to take Jill and Richard but the weather was terrible and the rain was bouncing down so they weren't missing anything.

I started this piece saying we were in our 16th week and Sunday was the 1st March,which was hard to believe and we were excited about seeing Billy Connolly this evening.We remebered buying the tickets within 2 weeks of arriving and now the show was here.We had dinner in Auckland at the Viaduct with the sun shining and the boats bobbing on the water before walking down to Vector Arena.

The show was a sellout and his second night of three in Auckland.The place was sold out and everyone was waiting for him to take the stage.He came out in Black and White striped pants and his usual smock type top,and spent the next 2 hours making the audience laugh as you would expect and he even made Mel cry with laughter at one point!!!!

We arrived back at the motel knowing it was our last night before we went back to the cottage tomorrow afternoon,which we were excited about.

Speak to you all soon from the cottage.

Lots of Love

M & M
xx