Christmas / New Year break

It's back to work now - but Mel had a fantastic 2 weeks off, starting 22nd Dec till 7th Jan. Richard had to work through (minus the public holidays), but we both made the most of out of the time we had off!

We had a round of golf with our friends, Vicky and Huy (it was their first 9-hole game). Despite lost balls and air swings, it was great!


We also had picnic with them, along with the annual Petanque Championship with the Tongs, but this year it was at Shakespeare Park, rather than Wenderholm. Singles was won this time around by Huy (well done Mr Tong!), but the Browns came up tops again for the doubles division, two years in a row. Can they perform a three peat?? - only time will tell!

The early part of New Year's Eve was spent at Susan's house. We had a gourmet BBQ of succulent steak, red wine marinated lamb, bacon wrapped chicken, home made tzaztiki yoghurt (Susan's secret recipe!), fantastic potato salad and greek salad, sausages... it was quite a feast.

As with previous years, the Annual New Hope's New Year's was at Glenbrook where we saw a new Petanque champion in Prof. Larry Murphy! (yes more petanque....seems the game of summer enjoyed with wine!). There was also some swimming, kayaking and beach cricket to round the day off.
Fun was had by all.

The weather was amazingly sunny over Glenbrook, as we heard from those who stayed in the city - it poured! There was even that off bit of hail in Auckland, but Glenbrook was spared.