Tourney results etc.

We played in a golf tournament called the Harcourts on Jan. 28 and 29 and guess what, we both won prizes. The first day was very hot and humid - you were dripping wet after only one hole. The ladies played on the easier course and Olga shot a 77 with 40 stableford points. Bob played the harder championship course and shot 89 with 35 points. The second day was a little cooler and Bob shot 85 with 38 points and Olga came back to reality with an 85 also and 32 points. But we both won prizes. They gave 4 low gross, 4 low net and 4 stableford prizes in each division, along with some day prizes. So Bob got a bottle of wine and $85 gift certificates at a home improvement store - luckily, he was able to trade for pro shop credit instead. Olga also won a bottle of wine and $100 in gift certificates to a local chemist (kind of like a drug store), which she will have no problem spending. So our tourney was a success.

Monday we went to the golf course to watch the last round of the Buick Invitational and then played 9 holes. The next day, we played the Tahara course and Bob finally beat Olga - 80 to 81. He celebrated by going to the pub and ordering beer and natchos.

Feb. 1 we moved into the apartment we will have for the month of Feb. It's quite a nice change from the little cottage we were in. Our friends George and Lorraine Morley arrived in Auckland and we drove up to Hamilton to pick them up on Friday. They had spent a couple of days with a friend from Canada who has moved to Auckland. He was nice enough to drive them down to Hamilton and meet us there. They got settled in with us and then we were off the next day to Napier and the Hawke's Bay Wine Festival. We met our friends Ken and Linda Wolfe at the Mission Estate winery for lunch and then visited four other wineries for tastings.It's kind of neat - you taste all of these different wines and if you like a particular one, they are very happy to sell you a few bottles. Ken and Linda had been there many times before and knew their way around, so we just followed them. We then went back to Napier and had dinner, after which Olga drove back to Taupo since she was the designated driver.(she doesn't really like wine) It was a long day, but a good one.

Sunday, we played golf and had the Wolfe's over for a BBQ and played a little card game called Sequence - girls against the guys - and the girls kicked butt. I guess we're pretty good at games for ages 8 and up as it said on the box.

Today, we drove down to the south end of the lake and visisted Mt. Ruepehu, which is a large volcano that last erupted in 1995/96. The scenery was pretty amazing. They filmed part of the Lord of the Rings there, the part about Mordor. They have a ski hill there in the winter and have a chair lift with good views, but a large black cloud came along and stuck around, so we skipped the chair lift ride. We drove along a route called the volcanic loop. We saw forest, lake, scrub, volcanic rocks, farmland, and desert all in a couple of hours, and while there was somevery interesting scenery, but we are all getting tired of the windy roads. Back safely to Taupo and a steak BBQ and wine for the boys.