Happy Easter everyone! I hope everyone has been enjoying the long weekend and weather (if you've been having that as well). In Auckland it's been absolutely beautiful with sunshine and temperatures of about 80 degrees! Other than thoroughly annoying public surcharges of 15% at every restaurant (including fast food burger joints!) there's been little to complain about. In fact as I've said before, life is good.

As promised here are some pics of our "Leggy"



Back on to the good stuff, Matt and i have been enjoying the long weekend. I never really appreciated a four day weekend but to be honest it feels as though it has lasted ages! Much better than those short normal 2 day weekends!

Friday we got the opportunity to put what we had seen in action on the polo field a few weeks ago in to practice. Victoria organized a polo lesson and Friday morning 7 of us went to the Auckland polo club to have a lesson and a chance to play around. Matt, Will (another American who had watched the NZ Polo open with us) and I were the more inexperienced riders and watched as our ponies were set up and bridled for us. Then the three of us went off with Justin, the head of the polo club and worked on getting our horse legs first before trying to hit anything. I managed to get my pony, Percy, in to a good trot and Matt reckons he got Barney in to a cantor! After a few minutes getting used to directing the horse we grabbed our mallets again and joined up with everyone and basically we just all hit balls down the field.

Polo looked incredibly difficult to me and wound up being even harder than it looked. Matt and i both got 52 inch mallets but for someone short like me that still means you have to lean down an awful lot while on the pony! I did learn however that you do not hit the ball with the small round end of the mallet - you actually get the whole length of the side of the mallet to use. I managed to get a few solid hits in and really had a great time doing it!

My pony Percy


Me


Matt in Action on Barney


Me in Action



We spent over an hour on the field and then came back in and gave the ponies a wash down. We decided to hang around and watch the match that was being played that afternoon.

Saturday was spent relaxing and then Matt and I went to see the Smashing Pumpkins in action at Vector Arena. Having seen the Smashing Pumpkins 6 times it was not a new show but was thoroughly enjoyable. We bought a floor ticket off of our friend Evan and then paid slightly more for another one off of TradeMe. It was a really good setlist and was great to hear some of the old classics along with new tracks that i'm quite fond of.

The "new" smashies


Hard to believe Billy Corgan still looks the same! And "he's 41 - and he's earned the right to do whatever the fuck he wants" (as said during the during the show).



Sunday morning was Easter! The easter bunny was very good to us this year and in particular to Matt who woke up to find that the easter bunny had hidden a load of chocolate eggs around our flat for him to find!

Matt on the hunt - he left no stone unturned and no cabinet unopened!


The rest of the weekend has been spent preparing for my Mom and Pat's arrival tomorrow morning. I'm really looking forward to seeing them and we've got a great trip planned. Stay tuned for an update after our trip to the South Island.