Evenings in Auckland

Has been a fun three nights in Auckland.

Caught up with Cr Bhatnagar and Coast to Coast Girl on Tuesday evening – tapas and wine at The Banque.   Highly recommended – lovely old fireplaces, superb food and great service.

During the day Wednesday it was obvious I had a cold, so the plan was to have an early night.  But I also had two invites that I couldn't say no to.

First I had the invite for the launch in NZ by Vodafone of the new Blackberry Curve.  This was at the Gus Fisher Gallery and was a very classy event.  Hollie Smith did a live performance, the multimedia art display was fascinating and yes as Russell noted, I did enjoy a Blackberry Cocktail. It helped the cold considerably 🙂

Vodafone put on a very good event.  One of the organisers used to work for Pead PR, so I delighted in telling her about the Eating Media Lunch episode last week which featured Deborah Pead.

Best of all was the “Goody Bag”.  And the No 1 goody was a Blackberry Curve.   I have been proudly showing mine off all day yesterday.  It's a lot lighter than the old Blackberries of the same size, and has camera, video player, GPS and mapping.  And best of all, I just take the sim card out of my old phone, stick it in and hey presto it works.

I have become even more of a menace to my friends with the camera function.  And it's all so easy to use.   The goody bag also had other cool like a small bottle of 42 below vodka, some Versace for men (I presume the girls got something different), Phoenix organic juice etc.

I Gus Fisher gallery a bit after 9 pm and rang Ben at the Agenda (TV One) Xmas Party. He had said it would probably be over by 8.30 pm but as it happened a few people were still there so I headed over to the Westhaven Marina.  As I was driving I mainly had non alcoholic, but still a very convivial evening and then at some stage after 10.30 pm someone suggested dinner.  A very good idea.

I gave Richard Long and Barry Soper a lift into Ponsonby as we were going to Prego. Barry thought I was a taxi and was trying to convince Trevor Mallard to come with us.  The thought of being Trevor's driver amused me greatly, but sadly Trevor had to head off with his partner.

At Prego, our host Mr Harman was also there, plus the effusive Chris Trotter – around a dozen all up.  Chris and I actually agreed on a couple of things, which is either very good or very bad – I can never recall.  Eventually headed home a bit after midnight.

Thursday also was a lot of fun.  Was meant to be a low key night – a quick meal with a friend, but we eventually ended up with five of us having initial in the hotel bar, and then going to Wildfire for dinner around 9 pm.  We chose Wildfire as Coast to Coast Girl has been a vegetarian for the last 15 years and has just given it up. For those who don't know – the restaurant specialises in a massive meat barbecue – they bring spits around to your table and carve off as much as you want.

The food was good but the service somewhat variable.  But was a good night out and again it was close to midnight when we finished.  Luckily this time I had the strength of will to say no to karaoke and got home while it was still Thursday.

End result has been a bloody good three days, but a cold that has (not surprisingly) got worse.  I think I may need some drugs when I get back to .