April holidays

Hello all,
It has been far too long and thanks to the constant pestering/requests from my father, I thought I'd throw in an update. (a disclaimer though - I haven't received the pictures from May yet so I will throw those on here when I get them in a week or so)

Being a great school I'm at, we had 3 weeks off and I was lucky enough to go and visit May in Sydney, AUS and then we went to Auckland, NZ for 10 days. It was quite a great trip, nice and relaxed with lots of good times.

Sydney was great. May had organized a surfing trip out to Bondi beach and we tried surfing for 2 hours. It was quite fun - didn't pick it up at all (well, I got up a few times but in no way am I anything special.) But it was a blast even though it was fall after fall. Great times - we met an actor there too. A fella by the name of Kevin who was in Mystery Alaska (as the big goofy character Tree) and he's in the new Wild Hogz movie, as the big guy, shaved head. It was pretty funny. But I know the next time I go back to Auzzieland, I will try out the surfing again. So addicting.

We relaxed a lot there, kind of just went around the city. Shopped for a whole day since I was on a mission for my father to get some products for him. Oh to be Rick's son... We were also lucky enough to see Ben Harper in concert. It was absolutely outstanding. Such a great performer - one of the best performers I've seen. I was lucky because it was a colleague that had just recommended the week before and we bought tickets on Ebay.

We were off on Good Friday to see Mark. What a great lad - awesome to see him and we had a ball the whole time. We went for a walk across Auckland to see one of the big hills - such an awesome, beautiful country with so much nature. Great to see all of that greenery. The next day, we took a drive up to a beach called Piha. Incredible scenery and good times throwing frisbee with Mark and May. They did quite well together - May put up with all of his over the line jokes and she loved them. Awesome (and she lost 4 nights in a row in cards so she had to dishes for those nights...too bad) Mark was a great host too because he cooked for us every night. Wonderful meals (May and I were easily impressed since she's at University and I have a small kitchen so I can't do as much) But it was wonderful to have him cooking. Another day we were really ambitions - we left at 5am to drive down to Waitamo caves (only 2.5 hrs away so we were there an hour early...), where there is a huge amount glowworms. They light up the cave ceiling in blueish dots (resemblant to stars in the sky) and it was great floating down a little river looking up to the ceiling and seeing all the glow worms.

Then we went 2 hours East to Rotorura, which is famous for its Maori villages. We booked a dinner and entertainment thing and it was quite entertaining. They sang and danced traditional pieces (well at least they said it - it was a performance but heh, interesting to see). The food was good with the hundreds of other tourists and nice to meet some other people. And finally, at 1am, we rolled back into Auckland. So glad we didn't travel the touristy thing like that everyday so that was nice. Nice and relaxed.... We also spent a day in a nice park playing cards and throwing frisbees....and walnuts. Pretty funny.....

Other than that, really, really relaxed with Mark in Auckland. Sophie was there for the last 2 days with her friend Chanel from Canada and it was fun to hang with them, and have some good dinners and wines. I do admit that I have been turned onto the Sauvignon Blanc from NZ (Hawkes Bay or Marlborough).... never been a big fan for white but I think I've found some keepers. Lots of wine drunk though which is always a good thing right?

MAy and I made our way back to Australia again on Sunday and we went for dinner at Manly Beach with some Aunts of hers. Really nice people and nice to see more of Australia. They toured us around the waterfront, seeing the Wharf with the celebrities houses and the great views of the Opera house and the bridge. The next day we took off to the Blue mountains to meet up with a colleague of mine, Bruce. A 2 hour train West and it was awesome - a national park that had great nature there. We saw the different cliffs and peaks and watched the sunset off of one...so gorgeous. He has a great little home there and it was nice to spend some good time with him.

And now I'm back in Singapore, starting school for the last 8 weeks. Crazy how fast it has gone and I'm sure the last 2 months will go ridiculously fast. The brothers are coming around the end of May, and I'm off to Bali in 2 weekends. And there is always the issue of school...but it is all good. Nice to be home too and back to things. I'm currently awaiting the birth of the first niece and nephew - Yuko went into labour today around noon and I have yet to hear from Matt but I'm pretty excited. Luke's hoping for the birth since it is his bday today.

I'll throw up some photos when I get them.
Take care all and I hope life is well for you,
Adam