New Kiwis: A Basketball Full of Roses

We were once again blessed with a warm and sunny weekend.

The sun is bright, the sky is blue. This is just outside our main door.

Basketball and Fishing On a Saturday

Last Saturday my wife and I helped our landlord set up a booth at an all Filipino basketball tournament at the YMCA in Northshore. I'm not a basketball kind of person so I didn't enjoy it that much. What caught our attention though was the food. There was a stall that offers home cooked Filipino food. The sisig was very good and the laing was a piece of Bicol heaven in Auckland. Abby had beef steak and it was cooked to perfection. Apologies, I don't have a photo of the food...aesthetically, its not pleasing (a pile of meat on rice, in a styro plate) so I didn't bother.

At around 3pm we decided to pack everything then we went to Tai Ping and Countdown (supermarkets here in Auckland - someday I will write about it) at the downtown area to do our grocery. Several grocery bags heavier and a $100 poorer, we went to the wharf for a bit of fishing. It wasn't as successful as the labour day weekend fishing we did but it was enough for a decent meal of fried fish. We just caught bait fish which is ulam already for most pinoys. For most kiwis, if not all, what we caught is just fish food.

Bait fish makes a pinoy happy and full

Mass and Roses on a Sunday Afternoon

The following day, after hearing mass at Balmoral, Abby and I went to Parnell Rose Gardens to attend the Festival of Roses.

Marimba players provided the background music for an already perfect afternoon

We were greeted by music from a group marimba players which added to the relaxed ambiance of the afternoon. Aucklanders and tourists alike roam the food and souvenir stalls that dotted the whole ground.