Hello! Sorry for the hiatus in updates – been too busy/tired/couldn't be arsed! Last weekend was lovely – I explored the market in the morning and faffed about doing laundry etc in the afternoon, then James picked me up to take me to his and lucy's for dinner and to meet Holly. Holly is the cutest black lab/fox terrier cross you ever saw, and made me miss Luna a LOT. Awwwww. Some brilliant food – not what Dad would expect from dinner at a cardiologist's! Excellent NZ lamb, a beautiful flourless chocolate torte and lots of tasty wine. Yum yum. After a lovely evening (mainly spent talking about Newcastle medical school, various doctors we all knew, Jesmond life, the excellence of Skype, and how much James misses M&S prawn mayo sandwiches) James dropped me back off at my hostel amd I went to bed very grateful for all the nice doctors in the world!
The next morning I was up earlier than I wanted to be on a Sunday, to catch my ferry to Waiheke Island for the WINE TOUR! The ferry was rather fun, drinking coffee and reading the kindle and admiring the scenery (whch was a bit drizzly). It brightened up later on though, when I got to Waiheke and met Wayne, who was my wine tour guide for the day. There were a couple of Aucklanders on the tour as well. I keep hoping to meet like-minded lone travellers of about my age being all food and wine-geeky, but I think most normal people of my age are spending their money on going out partying.. alas. Also it's winter so it's quite quiet – apparently the whole of Auckland decamps to Waiheke and the Coromandel in the summer, at Christmas!
Had a great morning being driven about sampling wines from Mudbrick, Kennedy Point and Cable Bay before going back to Mudbrick for lunch. My companions decided to go back to their accommodation for lunch, leaving me with the terrifying prospect of eating lunch in a rather posh restaurant by myself …. fortunately it turned out not to be that bad, and a friendly little bird came and perched on the chair opposite me, so I had a dining companion of sorts, albeit a rather twitchy one who didn't speak English and flew away at random moments.
I had a delicious starter – not even sure what it was – and then ordered the fish of the day which was blue nose, with roasted kumara.
Oh my word – it was just beautiful. And because I was on a wine tour I went for some Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc (my new weakness). Went the whole hog and got orange crème brulée for pudding, and it was beautiful too (to look at and eat...) and all gluten free, even the wee tiramisu tower!! how amazing.
After coffee my driver came to pick me up (you can tell I'm loving playing the posh lady, oui?!) and there was time for a quick stop-off at the art gallery before heading to catch the ferry. I walked back to Parnell to clear my head hic and then spent the evening slobbing about.
On Monday I was convinced I had gout after all the rich food and alcohol, but it turned out to be a transient foot pain... By Wednesday I had diagnosed myself with melanoma because of a small itchy mole on my finger, which put all thoughts of gout out of my head. (Don't worry, is just the regular hypochondria....)
This week I've mainly been watching as many cardiology procedures as possible, as well as going to ward rounds and James's murmur clinic. I watched angiograms and angioplasties (stents) on Wednesday pm, and a biventricular pacemaker (or CRT – it's a treatment for heart failure) on Thursday morning. Thursday afternoon nothing was happening, so I googled gluten free fish and chips, found a fsih and chip shop near the Green Lane clinic, got on the hopper over, walked for about 45 mins and finally located this place at 711 Manukau Road. Manukau Road is possibly the longest road in Aucjland, and DEFNITELY longer than Welbeck Road....I arrived to find that the place was shut, but undeterred, sat down and read my kindle for the half hour before they opened. Then I went in and had a fantastic snapper, with chips and mushy peas.
Oh my goodness. Fish and chips in NZ are really very good -they fry the stuff as and when you order it, so it's fesh and crispy and awesome! They really do not undertand the soggy British fish and chips, and I can see why.... my batter was REALLY crispy and the snapper excellent and lemony. Yumyum.
Having disgracefully scoffed all that down, I waddled back along Manukau Road and into One Tree Hill park, which is gorgeous. I worked off the f&c with a steep climb up the hill, to discover a massive obelisk but no tree. (the settlers chopped down the original one in 1863, and the two pines planted there afterwards were damaged by a maori protester and the last was removed in 2002. no trees. Weepweep)
Good views though:
Adroitly managed to catch the last hopper back to Auckland City, then walked back through the park to the hostel. My friend caroline arrived frm wellington (she is a friend of Paula's from work in Galway) and we had a lovely catch up over a cuppa. She's flying home for her brother's wedding in August. Then I was off to bed to get my head down for 6 hours! For the Bay of Islands weekend! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
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