Tommy took great pleasure during his traditional mad half hour in running around the clothes line with a towel attached to it. Unfortunately this lead to a you've been framed quality moment when he banged his head, looks worse than it is don't worry!

After pizza and pasta on mission bay beach last night..

Video of Tommy playing....

From now on i'm uploading all the videos to YouTube. Free hosting, and (almost) universal playback has gotta be good...

video of tommy's first feed, keith's attempts at diy, and bath time as tommy learns how to splash.

here we go, a 7MB whopper video to update you on all things tommy, with....

Video (6.9MB, wmv format)

demo of our new kettle!

tommy cooing!

tommy cooing again!

tommy crying!

annabel sending thank you cards!

annabel on the phone!

sneak preview of our new microwave

FREE!

tommy's first ever video exclusive. He shits, he smiles he sneezes! enjoy...

we didn't really do much camcordering, preferring to relax and take lots of photos, but what there is is here. Sorry about the file size, couldn't be arsed chopping it into bits.

Was trawling through the camcorder footage from the holiday and found some decent stuff;)

At the wedding...

Wedding Cake (2.1MB, Windows Media Video format)

at Colville a few days after the wedding....

Annabel's got a spot song (1.5MB, Windows Media Video format)

Keith learning to fall on his arse (1.4MB, Windows Media Video format)

Marco got a right royal send off on his last night with the annual starlight symphony, a great evening in the auckland domain. It's a bit of a tradition, a free concert in the park with lots of popular classical, opera, rock, jazz etc. and a big finale with fireworks, laser show and military guns firing off.

Ben, the picnic basket came in very handy, thanks!

Here's a short video of the proceedings - Starlight Symphony (2.8MB, WMV Format).

And some piccies...

We went to Pauanui on weekend of Nov 20th and had a really lovely weekend. We took Annabel's parents out to dinner for their birthday (within a week of each other), and got the ferry across the estuary to Tairua to visit the locally famous Shells restaurant.

The Dutch boat man Annabel remembered from her youth, as "he still has really hairy ears". Not hair growing from the hole bit, but like on the outside and in the curvy bits as well. It would be truly sickening if he wasn't such a lovely old man, although Annabel felt very guilty as she used to make fun of him with her mates when she was younger.

Someone should really tell him about inflation though as he appears to charge the same 4 dollars each that he was charging in 1986. I guess you don't operate a ferry from Pauanui to Tairua to make a million bucks...

Here is a short vid of the evening..

(Pauanui-Tairua Ferry, 1MB, Windows Media Video format)

Forget the latest Harry Potter, Captain K is here with another installment of NZ travel. Check out the 5 minutes of bonus footage available from our latest trip, this time down to Wellington, by car!

Wellington Video (5.7MB, Windows Media Video Format)

For those of you with slower connections, or patience, here are some stills taken from the camcorder.

really looking forward to seeing LUCY! my dad marco, ben for the wedding, and captain chris in March 2005 after he gets married too...fun fun fun.

Woke up on Saturday morning to blue skies. We both got very excited and scuttled down to the ferry which would take us across to Waiheke Island. A 30 min ferry ride away and we are on a most idyllic little spot.

Only there for the day, we didn't plan on doing much sightseeing. Rather we stopped to get fresh fish and chips with cokes, munched in the shade before stretching out to catch the rays at oneroa beach (http://www.ki-wi.co.nz/oneroa.htm).

After a few hours we then headed up to have some food before heading back on the evening ferry arriving back in downtown Auckland at sunset, a bit red in places...

A short clip of the day is available (look, my gut isn't as bad as it looks, it really was a bad angle...)

Waiheke Island Beach Outing (2MB, WMV Format)

And some Waiheke Island websites for those coming in January. Only $18 (£7) for a return ticket.
http://www.waiheke.co.nz/
http://www.gotowaiheke.co.nz/

Annabel was off doing a portrait session this morning and so we had a hired car for the day. Off to the North Shore again, this time to Takapuna Beach, only 15 minutes drive from central Auckland up and over the North Harbour bridge. A lovely sport, had a grogeous chicken salad with crispy noodles and satay sauce followed by chocolate ice cream and 2 lattes, walked off by lurching along the beach and back.

I made a short video of the beach, a bit cloudy, but we'll be back in summer for sure!

we had originally planned to go to waiheke island this weekend but decided to wait until the weather improved before doing anything so adventurous. Apparently, it's a degree colder this October than the average and we've had more rain in the first week than is average for the whole month! So much for sunnier climes, although all this weather talk is probagly heightened by the fact that we have had two winters now rolled into one. No-one knows what SADD is here;)

Anyway, we spend Saturday browsing down at Victoria Park Markets and doing huge supermarket shop, whilst on Sunday we braved the rain to spend a day a the zoo in Auckland which was great. Annabel was very excited about seeing some giraffes, but unfortunately there was none about on Saturday. We made this short film of the day. You should point at the screen with friends and scream the name of the animals as you see them.

The first email i receive with each animal in order will receive a free t-shirt...

The Zoo (3.47 MB, Windows Media Video Format, Windows Media Player required)

note: title of entry taken from fly poster at the fish and chip shop in Mangonui!

In the spirit of trying not to be lazy and making the most of our weekends, we decided at the last minute on Friday to simply 'go north'. I printed off a view details about how to get to places from the web and off we went.

We took duvet and pillows with us as we had intended to save a bit of money and sleep in the car on the first night. We managed to make it as far as Waipo Cove, which sitss about 100km above Auckland on the east coast. It was a little scary as there wasn't any light and there was a van parked downt the road. We were convinced that the occupants of the van were aiming to either molest/murder us in the order of their choosing, but much to our surprise, we made it through the night unscathed save for aching backs. (note to self: cars were not built to sleep in, if they were, this would be in the adverts, and not those smug sods you see tearing it round country lanes).

Because of the lack of home comforts we were up at the crack of dawn and zipping along up the east coast taking in the morning air. Passing through the northern most city of New Zealand in Whangarei, we headed up towards one of the countries most popular tourist locations in the Bay of Islands. When you get up this far, New Zealand becomes sub-tropical, although we only managed a paltry 16°c (well it is still mid-winter).

We stopped off for an hour for ice cream and coffee at Russel, a quaint little Victorian tourist spot which was hosting some the Bay of Islands Jazz festival that was going on over the weekend, and bands and guitarists were playing in the street along the harbour. A quick car ferry took us over to Paihia and from there it's only a few minutes drive to where the Waitangi Treaty was first signed. This treaty formed the basis of modern New Zealand in constitutional terms. i won't even attempt explain it here, but if you are even the slightest bit interested in New Zealand history, http://www.treatyofwaitangi.govt.nz/ is worth checking out.

After that, we used the great AA book for motels in NZ to ring up and book one with an amazing view at Mangonui, which sits under Doubtless Bay, just before you head up 90 mile beach (it's actually about 56 miles long!) to the top of NZ. We didn't make it up that far but stayed the night after a wondrous fish and chips with a side order of 'deep fried lasagne' which comes in a little breadcrumb battered square and is delicious. Although the view was great, the wind was even greater and several times we awoke to feel the roof creaking with the strain.

Today (Sunday) we made it back via much the same route, apart from a 1 hour detour down a gravel track which i wrongly thought would save us some time. Note to anyone coming to NZ: stay on the big red lines from the map, never, ever, think that any other roads will be any more than dirt tracks.

It was possibly a bit too much of a trip to fit in on a weekend, and we'd like to have stayed longer in many of the places we'd passed and visited, but it gave us a flavour and we'll be back up there soon i'm sure.

Check out the video i made of the day (wmv format, 5.5MB, windows media player required).

making the most of my last weekend before work begins, we headed up to Devonport for the day. After a huge lunch we headed up one of the two big hills/mounts in Devonport to get some decent views of Auckland and surrounding areas. As the video here shows, we still underestimate the changeability of the NZ weather; from blue sky the thinder in 5 mins flat!

Video of Devonport (1.4MB, wmv format, Windows Media Player required)

Barely 40 minutes out of Auckland and you have the stunning Waitakere Ranges, with the surfing hotspot of Piha (www.piha.co.nz) on the west coach beaches on their far side. The area is volcanic and the beaches are dark, ashen and invigorating. It reminds me a lot of Donegal in north west Ireland, one of my favourite places.

We spent the day tramping and driving through the ranges and did just three of the 144 tracks available in the region. I'm still amazed that we live in the centre of this major city but have this on our doorstep. Much as I loved London it always seemed so difficult to escape from, and today was just one of the many reasons we came to NZ in the first place. Please take a look at a short film i made of the day

Piha - Waitakere Ranges Film (5.7MB, wmv format, Windows Media Player required).

On the way back we stopped off for burger, fish and chips and boy did it taste good! Settling in now to watch the All Blacks vs Australia in the tri nations rematch. Again, i don't want them to lose so that everyone will be in a good mood when i start work on Monday!!

What a week! Not having our own car, we decided to hire own from Thames, a small town around 1 hour from Auckland and 30 mins from our base at Pauanui. We travelled up to Auckland on Monday morning (13/7/04) and stayed in a nice little central Motel until Wednesday. We've been back in Pauanui since then relaxing before our return to the big smoke.

Monday and Tuesday were spent by me battling a head cold and doing four interviews with IT agencies so i can start earning to pay for our loft apartment which was, fortuitously, the first one we went to see on Wednesday morning. Although we looked at other places afterwards both myself and Annabel had already in our heads moved in.

Have a look at the video of us checking out the flat [900KB, Windows Media Video (WMV) format, Windows Media Player required]. I'm operating on a 24K dial up at the moment, so you'll have to make do with a rather chunky 3 minute version;)

We're right in central Auckland so shouldn't need to get a car as most things are walkable or cyclable at a push. Apartment is a split level warehouse conversion with (don't laugh) a spa bath/jacuzzi! fingers crossed, the ADSL should be on by next Tuesday (when i'll really feel at home).

We're currently braving a few days of predicted rain (gasp horror), and i've taken a few rany shots below with my new Sharp GX-15 mobile.

Regular entries with more video and photos will resume once i get set up properly next week.

the view from our living room in Pauanui

 the waterfront area at Pauanui

annabel, her mum (Gill), and my right index finger