All Blacks

On Thursday, Georgie and I joined mom and dad on a bus tour of Auckland city. We decided to do the full circuit and not the hop on, hop off version, so we bussed it in to Auckland, had a nice lunch in the city, and then hopped on the tour bus for a relaxing and informative 1 hour tour of the hot spots in Auckland. Georgia loved it. We were sitting on the upper tier at the front of the bus, so she was able to bounce on our knees, bang on the hand rail in front of her, and loved her unobstructed views out the windows. In my opinion, the city (downtown proper) doesn't have the same character and sophistication that Melbourne does, but there are lots of areas we have yet to explore, so I think my first impressions may change.

Touring Auckland on the double decker bus

At the waterfront (with Georgie snoozing) - world class racing sailboats behind us

Two exciting things happened on Saturday - (1) we received tickets through Scott's work to watch the famous All Blacks rugby team play South Africa , and (2) we found a great babysitter in the neighbourhood - woo hoo! Pip is a 21 year old recent Uni graduate who has a lot of nannying experience, is lovely, and best of all, lives next door! She came over to watch the little lady (mom and dad are on their 6 day excursion of the south island) while Scott and I went to the All Blacks game.

All Blacks fans

It was a neat experience. Rugby is the most popular sport in New Zealand, and the fans may be even more dedicated and obsessed (ie. fanatical) than the Melbourne footy fans are, so watching the crowd was as fun as watching the game. The best part for us was seeing the team perform their world famous Haka (traditional Maori war dance) at the beginning of the match. It is one of the most intimidating displays I have ever seen - definitely worth a You Tube search of 'All Blacks Haka' if you haven't seen it before. The crowd was rewarded with a substantial victory over SA - 33 to 12 - the country celebrated! Scott and I celebrated this, and also knowing that we have someone we trust to hang out with G when we want to get out of the house past 6pm. Everyone was a winner.

Pre-game Haka...I'm obsessed with it