Ragani and Glen

2007-06-02T10:16:00.000-07:00

New York New York!!

Cotton candy!! The Brooklyn Bridge
Glen walking the bridge after shopping up a storm...

On top of the Rockefeller Centre
Times Square
The Mets! (Shea Stadium)

God bless America!!
The boys at the Yankee Stadium.

2007-05-01T09:07:00.000-07:00

Lake Como - Italy

Como: after taking the funicular to the top of the hill (where we looked down onto the beautiful, glassy Lake Como), we stumbled upon this sweet little family run trattoria hidden among a whole lot of houses. There were no menus - you just chose between fresh pasta with meat or with cheese - delicious!
Bellagio - a picturesque little village on Lake Como, a couple of hours from Como by boat.

2007-04-10T10:47:00.000-07:00

The mainland - too right it is...

The Bay House Cafe, Tauranga Bay, West Coast with the Sinclairs, Cath and Oliver

Holding my gorgeous god-son Oliver...

The West Coast: the scenery, whitebait, beer, golf - what more could a man want?
Yes that's right - horse racing!

Hamo and son concentrating hard on the picks for the next race at Addington...

2007-02-02T11:11:00.000-08:00

Ski holiday in Bad Gastein, Austria, with the Fowkes and crew. Left - the gorgeous view from our bedroom window.
Below - the first day and all keen - no sore thighs, no banged knees from drunken sled accidents, no complaining cos I can only turn one way (yet!)...

If you aren't so proficient using skis the traditional way, try another technique! (Rags: I am going to stick to this type of skiing from now on - it is much easier on the thighs...)

Quality air guitar from Rags and Fowkie!!

2006-12-23T23:04:00.000-08:00

Caught out watching the final of X factor!
Christmas drinks at our house. Check out Ness and Bob's blogspot (go to links at the top right and click on NessandBob) for more photos!

Christmas in the Cotswolds: the boys and the goose! Cooking up a storm - boy does goose fat make roast potatoes taste so good!
Oh yeah!

2006-12-02T14:26:00.000-08:00

Wine club trip to Bratislava and ViennaBratislava - the view on this side, as you can see, is quite different to the Communist housing blocks on the other side of the river (below)! Below - the war of the worlds looking thing below is what we were standing on top of! The restaurant inside the glass thing you can see shook everytime a truck drove across the bridge!
After a night in Bratislava we took a taxi across the border into Austria - here we are at one of the many Christmas markets in Vienna drinking Gluwein!
Post-Gluwein...

Above - toilet in Vienna designed by Viennese artist Hundertwasser. Below - Hundertwasser's house. He also designed some toilets in NZ in Kawakawa. Apparently, he considered New Zealand his official home and always set his watch to NZ time, which is pretty cool considering what a great place Vienna is!

2006-09-30T08:02:00.000-07:00

Soweto

Below Dave Packham and Glen were asking the tour guide where they get the materials for the shanties from. He told them that they get whatever they can from the side of the road or wherever they can find it. 70% of people in this part of Soweto are unemployed.

2006-09-30T07:58:00.000-07:00

This georgeous little boy in Soweto asked me to take a picture of him on my camera -look at his pose!

2006-09-25T13:16:00.000-07:00

Sundown Lion Park - can I pleeeeeeeease take one home???

2006-09-24T12:40:00.000-07:00

On Safari at Mabula Game Lodge

These are pictures of us on safari at Mabula Game Reserve in South Africa. Horse riding through the wild game was awesome although we were a little close to that crocodile for our liking! Ragani wanted to keep the baby giraffe (or the baby rhino for that matter) but the respective mums had other ideas...

2006-09-24T12:31:00.000-07:00

More safari pics - check out our 'tent' - equipped with a bathroom at the back with bath, running hot water and flushing toilet!

The walls don't block the noise of the animals creeping round at night, I am convinced an elephant was right outside in the early hours of the morning!

2006-09-18T13:48:00.000-07:00

Packham and Lisa's wedding - Muldersdrift, South Africa

2006-09-07T10:48:00.000-07:00

Cape town: Nelson Mandela's cell on Robben Island, Lape and Rick's b'day, leopard, Cape of Good Hope, view from our apartment on the waterfront and up the top of Table Mountain.

2006-08-26T12:05:00.000-07:00

Photos from V-festival 2005 and 2006.

Highlights from 05 included Texas and the purchase of my festival gummies (thanks Kirst!)

Highlights from 06 included the Saw Doctors (Tommy K featured above!) and seeing the Magic Numbers move up to a bigger stage!

2006-08-21T13:58:00.000-07:00

Scarecrow festival - Kettlewell, Yorkshire, with the Jacksons, the Fowkes and the Glennies!

2006-07-24T13:32:00.000-07:00

Croatia again - summer holiday in Dubrovik and on the islands of Korcula, Mljet and Hvar

The island of Mljet - the water was like a bath!

View from our window in Hvar

Walking around the wall that surrounds Dubrovnik - it was so hot!
View from our balcony, Korcula.

2006-06-10T10:53:00.000-07:00

Toast New Zealand - a little bit of kiwiana (and a lot of Pelorus Bay bubbles) go a long way towards coping with life so far away from home...

Daisy was loving Dave Dobbyn!!!

Post Toast and looking rather sunburnt!

Scotty and I look like brother and sister!

2006-05-21T11:05:00.000-07:00

Barcelona with Lolls and Rich: La Sagrada Familia

Looks like a Paparazzi shot of Lolls doesn't it - I am far too engrossed in my ice cream to look like any kind of celeb!!

2006-05-06T08:54:00.000-07:00

Ragani's 3oth - come as something starting with R! Raggedy Anne really appreciated the effort made by all!

Prizes were given out for:

Most realistic: Jacko and Fowkie as the two Ronnies

The Runner Reward: Scott as Rod Dixon (Emma, as Runner Bean was a close 2nd!)

The Roman Reward: Carlene (yes, there were that many Romans that a Roman prize was compulsory!)

Repetitive Reward (the most 'R's): Bob as Raul Ramerez from Roland Garros

Real great effort Reward: Stuie for Rubix cube

2006-04-28T21:56:00.000-07:00

Saying goodbye to Liz, Scott and Emma and happy birthday to Jeff

I wonder what we are laughing at...

2006-04-19T21:08:00.000-07:00

Photos from our wonderful week in Bergerac with Scott x2, Jan, Liz and little Emma over Easter weekend and my birthday 2006. Aaaaah, the good stuff!!

Emma and 'Gen' hanging out by the water

Our villa in Bergerac
Montbazillac
My birthday dinner, oh my god I had eaten a lot of cheese by now!

2005-12-25T14:06:00.000-08:00

Christmas in Cornwall Stevo as Father Christmas again!
Christmas dinner
Rick Stein's restaurant

St Ives
Secret Santa buys Ness new knickers...
A cold, but picturesque place to play golf!

2005-10-29T10:30:00.000-07:00

Trip to Cardiff to watch the All Blacks vs Wales

Cardiff Castle
The National Anthem - the acoustics inside the Millenium Stadium were awesome.

OK, the Guiness signs give it away - this is obviously the Ireland game a week later but it is such a great photo!

2005-10-09T11:20:00.000-07:00

Scotland

Our netball team won a tour of the Highlands and the Isle of Skye. Isn't Scotland one of the most beautiful countries in the world - almost as beautiful as NZ!

2005-10-02T10:34:00.000-07:00

Trip to Spain with Hamo and Judy - the Alhambra (Granada), Ronda and Seville

2005-09-26T13:13:00.000-07:00

Rome is an amazing city. Strangely, we did not take many photos here. I think it is because it is really hard to capture the sheer beauty and magnitude of the sights (Rags: well, certainly with my photography!). Below is a tiny little bit of the Collosseum, the Trevi fountain and a few roman ruins near the Collosseum. The Sistine Chapel was amazing - but of course, you could not take photos of it as the flash causes the paint to fade. I recommend you visit it if you get the chance - if you can face the queue of people for literally 1.5-2km to get in!

2005-07-24T14:02:00.000-07:00

Girls trip to Madrid

Not the most picturesque city in the world - but an awesome place to party all night long!!

2005-07-21T14:14:00.000-07:00

The races! Photos from Ascot 04 and Epsom 05

2005-06-04T12:47:00.000-07:00

Hello hello...we're in a place called Vertigo...........

U2 concert in Croke Park, Dublin, Ireland.

The debacle with london ticketshop cancelling our tickets at the last minute and refusing to refund us was long forgotten!!!

2005-04-28T14:10:00.000-07:00

Easter weekend in Budapest with the Jacksons

One hour in the all you can drink Hungarian House of Wine followed by 'special recipe' cocktails...

2004-12-25T09:41:00.000-08:00

Russia - Christmas 2004. Left Stevo is Santa (again...).

Below - the girls in Vladmir on the coldest day (can't you tell?) - yes there are people underneath all that fur and yes, I am wearing 2 hats!

Left - the Winter Palace, St Petersburg, below - St Basil's Cathedral (Red Square, Moscow).
Left - Xmas day on the ice (a good way to recover from all the vodka the night before!), below - the Church of the Saviour of the Spilled Blood (St Petersburg).

Below left - Cath and I in front of a Russian doll stall (yes - he is the real Santa (sorry Stevo!). Below right - Glen and I in Vladimir.

2004-10-12T11:46:00.000-07:00

Our 2 week trip around Croatia, Slovenia and Italy. This is in Vrbnik, on the island of Krk (Croatia). Locals claim this to be the narrowest street in the world (I think they could be right!)...

Here, we are rowing on Lake Bled (in Slovenia) out to a cute little church in the middle of the lake.

These photos are in Plitvice National Park, Croatia. Croatia had the most beautiful coloured water we had ever seen.

2004-09-25T20:18:00.000-07:00

Octoberfest 2004
Below: Ayme and I in our 'traditional Bavarian costume' - check out the size of the beers - they were so heavy! Of course, the real Bavarian women could hold 3 of these in each hand!!

Looking slightly drunk by now...not sure who the guy is clinging onto Rebecca!

2004-08-30T11:11:00.000-07:00

The Olympics - Athens - 2004.Go Twaddle!!!!! Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater came 3rd in this photo (in their heat) - and went on to only just miss out on a medal in the final! We were so hoarse after their races - but so proud!!!
Go the Tall Blacks!!!

The Parthenon and views from the top.

2004-06-12T13:42:00.000-07:00

Weekend in Bruges, Belgium

I am surprised there are any photos at all - I am sure all we did was eat waffles, ice cream and fries and try all the different kinds of beer!

2003-09-20T11:38:00.000-07:00

Glen, Cath and I on a romantic getaway in Venice!

Below, Cath was intent on having the same photo that her parents had many years ago - with the pigeons in St Mark's Square. The only problem was that it was a bit freaky having the pigeons land all over you eh Cath!!

2003-08-01T13:17:00.000-07:00

Trip to Galway, Ireland with the Jacksons and Fowkie:

Above - Tipsy McStaggers Off Licence and below the Cliffs of Moher

Above - the megalithic tombs in the Burren - and the Galway Races - plenty of Vitamin G drunk by all!

Above - Rapunzel's Tower and Dunguaire Castle, Kinvara