Lots of happenings, all in Auckland, all brilliant.

Hokey dokey, so I know I haven't updated for aaaaaaaaaaaages but that is because I've been eating amazing food and drinking so much Tui that I think I'm going to turn into a bottle of it but here goes a little precis of what has been going on for the last week or so...

There's a bar in the middle of Auckland where there is poker every night so basically I've learnt to play it and so last Thursday there were a couple of new inductees into YHA Auckland.  They are a bloke called London and a bird named Flanders.  London, funnily enough, lives in London and Flanders is from Belgium.  The joy of the nickname continues.  Anyhoo, so we did that and meeting London made me a) miss English people and b) miss England.  He's an architect so we got to chatting about buildings (as you do) and how charming the architecture in Britain is and he's from Newmarket so he used to always hang around in Cambridge and as people who know me know, Cambridge to me is like an idyll of Britain and I heart it on a grand scale.

There have also been some South Americans staying at the hostel and some night last week, I want to say Wednesday, they cooked up a FEAST of epic proportions.  I think I might have posted about this.  In any case, it was amazing, being a selection of three dishes including Spaghetti Bolognese and this AWESOME salmon with pasta in a wonderfully tasty creamy sauce.  Eleven of us, some wine, some beer, some cards, $3 a pop.  It was superb.

This past weekend we went over to Piha, which is a volcanic beach on the west coast about an hour from Auckland and we bought the most amazing humungous joint of beef and had some sausages and rice and camped and there was a kids' playground so we played around on that in the dark before playing I Have Never.  This was a group of nine people who packed into two cars and included TheGuitarist, me, London, Flanders, a German girl (no nickname because I can't think of one, frankly), TheChileans, TheMexican and ThePoleVaulter and we walked along the rockeries on the beach which I probably shouldn't have done because I was wearing slippery sandals and had had four beers but it was still amazing and actually even though the sand was black it was also shiny and wonderful.  Then we stood in the sea with our trousers rolled up to see if we could avoid the water submerging said trousers.  I failed on an epic scale but it was funny in any case.  Even if the sea does smell a bit funny.

And so now for the last two nights the boys have cooked awesome meals.  Last night was barbecue chicken wings with caesar salad and stuffed potatoes and tonight was even better, being tacos with made from scratch salsa and quesadillas.  There were also avocados and lime and sour cream.  Oh my gosh, I'm just remembering it and it really was awesome.

So now I'm in the internet cafe updating this whilst nursing my third Tui of the evening.  This weekend to Te Puke but first I must a) play poker and speed pool at Globe Bar and b) tomorrow is my turn to cook and I'm making a Russian dish that I can't spell in English but maybe Daddy can because he's good at that sort of thing.  It's got cabbage and mince and sour cream in it.  Actually hopefully he'll read this and help me with the recipe.

Hm, that's all.  But I love the little gang of us at the hostel and it's been awesome having mates around to do stuff with.  Which reminds me.  Tomorrow we're doing the coast to coast walk which is 16kms.  I'm thinking my body is going to HURT on Thursday. Boohoo for me.  I'm looking forward to it, though, because I haven't been to One Tree Hill.  One Tree Hill, by the way, no longer has a tree.