Prickly Pear downunder

Forgot to upload a picture of the view from the back of the house - note omnipotent rugby posts. Rugby world cup has taken hold of an already rugby crazy nation. I checked the listings but apparently the all blacks don't have any home games out the back of our garden. In fact, not even any of the lesser teams (Namibia, Japan, England) are playing here.

Richie mccaw off scene, left

We bought a car. Pink is the safest colour for a car. They had no pink cars, so we opted for ABS and twin airbags instead.

Like nightrider, but in japanese. Heck in japan i might even pass as "the hoff"?

Its a Japanese import so many of the buttons are in japanese. As is the navigation system, and audio. Everytime we start it, it talks to us. I asked if we could change the sat nav to english, but I was assured that there was no point since sat nav didnt work in new zealand. combustion and brakes still work luckily.

Hamilton gardens are highly recommended, and we found out why. On the shores of Waikato river (New Zealands longest river).

Waikato river

Chinese garden

Indian garden (smelled good!)

Maori garden (we found the maori garden to be predominantly sweet potatos, flax and phalic symbolism)

In the centre of town we found an ice rink amid the palm trees (not pictured), and a statue of riff raff from the rocky horror picture show. The movies creator (richard o'brien) is from hamilton - so that might give a few of you an idea of what the place is really like. We did a bit of time warping on the way over, but I cant, for the life of me, find my suspenders or one of my stockings.

riff raff

Other than that, not much news. Agnes is shocked by the biscuit aisle in the local supermarket. Thandi considers life beyond mcvities digestives. 26% of new zealanders are obese - the 2nd highest level in the anglosphere (after the US and A). On the plus side, we seem to be the only ones in the biscuit aisle.

Finding the digestives here is akin to "Wheres Wally?" on the busy pirate page

In other news, we bought thandi a bath tub, so she can indulge in her number one passion. After carefully balancing finance and luxury we struck gold with this Ouduoya "Lucky Baby". The clincher for us was the "fine resin" and that it made "baby the best gesture possible". Our girl deserves the best.