You Wanga!!

After taking in the 2nd game of the Lions tour (vs Taranaki)in New Plymouth we headed down the West Coast to Wanganui for Dan´s 25th birthday. Situated on the Whanganui river, the town shuts at about 3 o´clock in the afternoon on a Saturday. Seriously. We walked in there the day after Dans birthday to clear our heads and get some exercise only to find most of the shops shut or shutting. A lot of places you can wander around town looking at old buildings and seeing what you can see. NZ towns aren´t like that in the main. The roads are all on grid structures, the buidings are mostly turn of the century (19th/20th) and are pretty uninteresting. Obviously the architects realised they couldn´t compete with the natural beauty of the country so gave up trying quicker than Paula Radcliffe at the Olympics.

Birthday Boy

For Dans birthday we went kayaking down the Whanganui in the morning and drowned in beer in the afternoon/evening. The kayaking was good fun; we got driven to a point about 6kms out of town and paddled down to our campsite. Needless to say there was a bit of childish behaviour like splashing each other and ramming each other (with our canoes!!) though the water was pretty cold so Dan, Rich and I were coxless.

Redgrave- More Vanessa than Steve

The Beer Game (see Christchurch) got another airing and again it resulted in clothes being swapped, spinning round, falling and Dan being invited to kiss a certain part of my anatomy that for some strange reason he declined.

Richie Relaxo

Rolling down the river

Who´s that oar?