Teeth, teeth, teeth and less teeth.

WARNING: contains self indulgent me stuff, & dentistry

So a few weeks ago I lost a filling and thought i'd better mosey along to the dentist and get it fixed/replaced it had been awhile...- that was my first mistake.

Dentist looked at my mouth and said 'get thee to an xray machine and have your head xrayed (examined)'

So I did - second mistake.

After Easter it was back to dentist for news. (third mistake)

"Your wisdom teeth have decided to become a problem and need to come out - oh and there's a couple more teeth that need to come out also."

"Oh and you need a couple of fillings"

Aaaaaaaaaarghhhhhhhhhhh

"Get thee to the oral & maxofacial surgeon and arrange surgery cos you're such a dental scaredy cat that you're going need sedation at the very least."

In which we attempt a family Christmas

So we had a Xmas day plan. Arrive @ Elsternwick brother's at 12.30 for canapes, presents, entrees, presents, main course, presents, dessert, presents. (I should point out that the many rounds of presents would be for the kids - the adults were having their first ever Kris Kringle and/or Secret Santa)

9 am - Xmas morning. Discover Elsternwick 4 yr old had been up all night with gastro & was now sleeping it off. Elsternwick 2 yr old was the energiser bunny & Elsternwick bro& s.i.l were exhausted from being up all night with mr 4.

We offered to postpone/move lunch. No say bro he's been marinating lamb & creating canapes etc.

We warn Viewbank bro & family that there has been illness in Elsternwick.

11am. Viewbank s.i.l. persuades Elsternwick bro to have xmas lunch at Viewbank. By now Elsternwick s.i.l is feeling sick.

11.45 am. Elsternwick s.i.l. is throwing up and fainting (together & separately) so new plan is hatched.

Tapping Betty will drive me to Elst. where she & mum will pick up food etc., and I will pick up car (with car seats) and messrs 2 & 4 to take to Viewbank.

Despite the hasty rearrangement (& the missing ham glaze) we had a great day.

Master 4 was a little bit sad that mummy & daddy weren't there; we don't think Master 2 even noticed - there was a trampoline to jump on, a puppy to play with, birds to annoy and big cousins to hang around with (and chocolate)

All the sickies are feeling better today and (touch wood) looks like everyone else has avoided catching whatever it was.

Day 5 Wellington

TappingBetty was due in this afternoon so in the morning I headed into Wellington. I wanted to get a closer look at the Central Baptist church on Boulcott Street (I'd only glimpsed it from the airport bus).

After checking out the church I was heading for the General practitioner (gastro pub) when I spied a chocolate cafe.

Now Ali hadn't been able to recommend any choc cafes in Wellington to me so i headed for this one (Butlers). Had a white hot chocolate - uber yum - probably the best white hot chocolate I'v ever had. (See here for a more detailed review)

I then headed toward the manners mall where I stumbled across Arty Bee Books. What a fantastic 2nd hand book shop. Came away with a Lillian O'Donnell, a Jonnie jacobs & 2 Medora Sale's. They also had 3 first edition Drina's (severely tempted though I managed to restrain myself)

Lunch at Mr. Buns as I did a quick fly through of Te Papa beforeheading back to Thornden to meet TappingBetty.

Day 4. Auckland to Wellington

This morning portion of this post could be titled - reasons not to watch breakfast tv.

So I'm faffing around the hotel room watching tv (to get a weather forecast) when I saee on the news that a massive power blackout has blacked out much of Auckland City & surrounds.

Now I'm on the 10th floor (and we appear to have power) but I don't know about the airport. I decide to revise my morning plans & head for the airport a bit earlier.

No sign of power problems at the airport tho' my (north of) Auckland tweeps were tweeting about not going to work.

Arrived at Wellington airport & caught the shuttlebus into the city.

They have free wifi on the shuttle bus. So out comes the ipod & I happily fb'd & email'd my way to the hotel. Wellington has an iphone app (which I'd downloaded before I left home) so I checked that for tourism ideas.

Discovered that the international cast of Mamma Mia is playing at the TSB Arena so head for the arena to see if I can get tix (as a surprise for TappingBetty).

Auckland Day 3

Had the crappiest night's sleep ever ( was still awake at 4 am) so was less than amused to be woken by housekeeping at 9.30 am. Eventually got myself going and headed for Queen Street & a bus to Auckland museum.

Well that was the plan.

As I walked down Queen Street (having already stopped at Mrs Higgins for the worlds best chewy caramel cookies – just in case) I glanced into the MidCity Arcade where my eyes spied 'The sweetest little chocolate shop'.

So in I went and tasted the kiwi chocolate. And had what the owner called 'Aucklands best hot chocolate'. (we'll see)

On the way to the museum (sort of ) the Link bus went through Ponsonby & I spotted a sign for Murder Burger I was intrigued (their logo has a kitten on it) so I de-bussed and decided to partake of luncheon there.

For some reason I was expecting it to be vegetarian? but it isn't - they do beef burgers, chicken fillet burgers, roo, ostrich & I forget what else. (I had the gourmet beef mushroom burger cos I like mushrooms)

Despite being distracted by kittens & burgers I made it to the museum in time for the Maori cultural performance - absolutely excellent. The performance highlighted aspects of Maori culture and dance - it was brilliant, I could have easily sat through it again (and probably again). They finished with a haka & then mingled with the audience for a chat and/or photo opportunity.

The performers were all from the Ngati Whatua O Orakei, the home tribe (Mana Whenua) of Auckland — (Tamaki Harenga Waka).

The performer I was talking to mentioned that she was about to lead a tour of the Maori Gallery so I joined that which made me realise how little I knew about Maori (& NZ) history which led to a lightening of the wallet in the bookshop...

In the evening I toddled up the road to Sky City and watched the opening preview performance of Auckland Theatre Company's production of Oliver. Also excellent.

Off to Wellington tomorrow - suppose I should pack...

Auckland Day 2.

It looked like being a glorious day so when I eventually dragged myself out of bed I decided to catch the ferry to Devonport.

Devonport is lovely (I decided I wanted to live there) – there is Devonport Chocolate shoppe – very delicious but very expensive. A couple of excellent 2ndhand bookshops.

I also checked out the library (small but quite innovative in its way) – I got 'outed' as a visiting librarian -they had this really interesting display & I asked if I could take a photo of it – busted!

Ate lunch on the beach (a trifle windy) before catching the ferry back to Auckland. Caught the Link bus to Parnell (was going to go to the museum but decided to save it for tomorrow when it's supposed to be raining). Instead had afternoon tea at Chocolate Boutique Parnell. Delish Cookies n cream smoothie. Parnelll Village has free wireless so sat in the Domain and took advantage of the wifi on the ipod.

After that it was back to Auckland wih a stop at Borders (a very creative Borders may I say) and a visit to Auckland Central Library to check out the free wifi there - & the library itself).

Tried a nearby Greek restaurant for tea (yum).

Note to self (write a bog post abt Auckland City wifi, parnell wifi for tech blog)

Auckland day 1.

TappingBetty picked me up at 5.15 (in the am) and after some interesting route choices had me at the airport shortly after 6.

After I walked thru x ray I got checked for explosives & patted down. (It appears they they thought I was TappingBetty)

Dallied in duty free - resisted the siren call of an iphone (did succumb to the call of the new Michael Connelly tho)

The flight was uneventful and got me to Auckland about 10 minutes late and I was lucky enough to jump straight on an airport bus and was at the hotel by 3.

It may well have been earlier but the hotel is up the steepest street in Auckland – or that's how it seemed as I lugged my case up Wyndham St.

My room is on the 10^th floor with a view between buildings through to Auckland Harbour. It was a lovely sunny afternoon so I headed off to do some exploring.

After checking out Whitcoulls (I'd finished the Connelly & wanted some NZ crimefic to tide me over)

An aside - I feel booksellers have mised an golden opportunity here. It's NZ book month (October) yet I could buy the new Patricia Cornwell, the new Michael Connelly, Robert Jordan, Stieg Larssen on special but would have had to pay full price for the NZ books. Why not a NZ book month special – buy one get the 2^nd 20% off, or 10% off all NZ authors (they'd have had me for sure.)

I wandered towards the harbour (taking photos of Hannah's & Munn's) - getting my bearings & basically checking bus stops & ferry timetables.

Afternoon coffee from 1 Queen Street - reputed to have the best coffee in Auckland (will need to do more tests to see if this is true or not) - gotta say it was pretty good.

Dinner at hotel.