vintage views of the weekend

/ carved birds /

this past weekend reuben, his parents and i headed up to the all blacks game in hamilton, so i can now check that off my list of nz to dos. i admit that i can tolerate rugby about a million times better than american football, but somehow i think i'll have to attend a few of those when reuben and i get back to the states. fingers crossed alex, jacob or some other interested relative will be available to take him instead....

/ ceramic flowers /

anyway, i was adequately bundled, we were under cover when the rain started up and it was a shutout game in the all blacks favor, so it was a thoroughly enjoyable night on saturday. we actually drove up to taupo on friday night so that we would be halfway to hamilton on saturday in order to reduce the driving and stayed at the wairakei resort, which was actually more of a nice hotel than anything. no conditioner and no robes does not equal resort in my books, i don't care how many pools or golf greens you have.

/ on the main restaurant street in rotorua /

on our way up to hamilton on saturday morning, we went through rotorua so we could have brunch and say hi to emma. she took us on a personal tour of kiwi encounter so i could show reuben's parents where i did my research and they could see some kiwi. there weren't any chicks and only one egg since it isnt currently breeding season so they didn't get to see too much, but there were 4 of the captive kiwi in the nocturnal house, 3 of which i hadn't seen before so it was fun for me to see too.

/ quick stop to look at the inflatable dino /

we made it up to hamilton several hours earlier than we had anticipated so we had a look at the inflatable dino in front of the museum, poked our head into a great little art shop and had a very long and leisurely lunch and drinks before heading off to the game.

/ ceramic katipo spiders /

on sunday morning we decided to go have breakfast at l'arte cafe in acacia bay. amazing! i had heard great things about this place from jan and chris as well as my family who visited on their way to napier before the wedding. not only was the food delish, the whole place was surrounded by pieces from their ceramic studio. i could have bought a suitcase full of things i loved them so much! i settled on a very chunky necklace that i will try to find something to wear with this weekend for our formal dinners at the chateau's ruapehu room.

/ a bee buzzing away in the rosemary bush /

we also had to stop by the caravan in mototere to take down the leaking awning, which was made slightly better by the fact that it was bright and sunny and i got to collect some rosemary from the thriving bush there. i see some lamb shanks in our future this week i think...