Waiheke Island sandflies

Hi there

I've just returned from Auckland.  While there, I went swimming on Waiheke Island (two different beaches), and at Mission Bay, and also Takapuna Beach.

Oneroa Beach on Waiheke is lovely and so is (the water at)  Palm Beach.  But Palm Beach has sandflies.  Lots of little hippity-hoppity sandflies.  Most of them wanting to surround obviously only me.  I decided to laze up high on a wooden bench, but they surrounded me up there, too.   Who knew the little blighters could jump so high?

Cutting short my enjoyment of a lovely afternoon, I stomped angrily back into the changing shed where a fellow swimmer pointed out that I was in the centre of a ball of sandflies.

"Oooh, they're in your hair!" she shrieked.  "Go-get-a-shower!-go-get-a-shower!" 

She all but pushed me out of the shed.

Water is scarce on Waiheke but I stayed under that outside shower a good ten minutes.  I didn't care about passersby looking meaningfully at their watches, or even if they were staring at my big thighs. 

All I could think of was that I must have looked awfully like Pigpen, the character from the Peanuts comic strip ...

***
PS:  I don't know what sandflies are called outside of New Zealand.  Maybe 'midges'?

PPS:  no lasting effects from my bubble bath bathroom flood, except I was up till 2 am washing and drying dozens of towels.

Mary Poppins, Auckland and my foot!

Well, I'm back from four days in Auckland.  I went up there to see "Mary Poppins - the musical".  What a magnificent theatre the Civic in Queen Street is.  I can't think why they don't charge a few dollars (when shows aren't on) for sightseers to pop in and ooh and ahh over the wonderful decor.   It's a heritage building and has a sort of Arabian Nights theme, with a bit of exotic India thrown in.  I guess it's how the architects of the day visualised Arabia and India!  The theatre was built in 1929 and if you wikiopedia it, you will see some pictures that don't do the theatre justice.  When it used to show movies, I remember sitting there to see Elvis in "Love Me Tender".  I can still recall the moment waiting for the movie to start and the stars in the night-sky-ceiling came gradually on and twinkled down on me.

As usual, the tallest bloke in the theatre was sat in front of me (happens every show I go to).  But  I still thought the special effects in "Mary Poppins" were wonderful.   Most of the songs from the movie were there but some had been switched around and came in different places,.  New songs were added that didn't seem to have the pep of the originals but this was probably because I was unfamiliar with them.  Some songs were missed out, eg the that lovely votes-for-women song that Glynis Johns sings in the original.  Dancing, singing statues were in place of the 'penguins'.

A few days before I left for Auckland, out of nowhere, I got a sore foot.  I had to wear trainers the whole time in Auckland and this meant that all the wonderful female-type floaty summer confections I was going to wear had to go out the window and I had to dress down to match my shoes.  Oh, well, there'll be another day to be all feminine..

I figured my sore foot would only last a few days but several people (a stranger at the airport, plus a friend - are you reading this, J?) have gleefully announced that they had the same symptoms and I'll have my sore foot for a year!  All I could do in Auckland was sit in cafes.  I could hardly hobble across my hotel room.  I was so embarrassed when the Jetstar flight attendants ushered me and my hiking stick (vanity wouldnt allow me to use a walking stick) onto the plane first.

I swam at Mission Bay watched by, oh, about a hundred people.  I was the only one in the water, then I had to trudge up the beach to the changing sheds with every eye upon my big fat thighs.  It was my own personal hobble of shame.  The water was lovely.  Everybody in the city were in shorts and three-quarter pants, and t-shirts.  Come on, Wellington weather, don't show me up.  When are we getting summer?