Week 17

Week beginning 29th August
This week we have made our first financial comitment to our new business.....and so Wheelie Fantastic, cycle hire and tours is born. We have ordered our 'fleet' of bikes and are working on sourcing a trailer for bike transport, branding, web design etc etc etc. We are therefore busy and also have usual work to do as well. I have now got put onto my proper payscale so I am owed a lot of back pay.
We continue with our Maori language and culture class. In a couple of weeks we are going to the Marae (Maori community area with a sacred meeting house cook house etc, for want of a better description). It will ivolved being officially welcomed onto it and following a lot of protocol we will then introduce ourseleves in Maori. When you go through ceremony you can then come to the Marae any time you like.
You introduce yourself with describing your natural world that you came from (mountain, river, sea) and then your nationalityand finally your name. Mine starts with 'Ko Knocklayde te maunga, ko Bann te awa, ko North Atlantic te mauna'
Lisa and I both worked a lot at the Wharfside this week(especially the weekend). A Johnny Cash type band played on Friday so we worked quite late. Sunday was Fathers day so it was really busy all day (including lots of bookings for breakfasts). This weekend was our first saturday without a race, so 3 of us went out for a longish bike ride. We cycled on roads we hadn't been on before and the scenery was stunning. It was a saturday afternoon and we could count the number of cars we saw on one hand. Needless to say it was sunny (and also a bit windy).
The world cup excitment grows with the arrival of the teams. The Italian team is based here so the area has gone Italian in shop windows, menus etc. The All Blacks seem to be doing a lot of PR stuff, in my opinion a bit too much if you want to win a world cup !!! The Italian team went to Happy Valley adventure centre. I would have thought sitting with your feet up or a bit of training would be a better build up.....but I'm no rugby coach. Triathletes could show these rugby teams how to 'rest up' for a big event.
Sept 1st was officially the first day of spring ! At school this means summer uniform is worn. This seems to mean they look even more casual. The boys now wear shorts and no ties. Quite a few also dont wear any shoes. This is quite common in NZ and doesn't reflect economic hardship.