Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

A quick update today as we have just arrived back from Auckland - it was a busy weekend but a thoroughly enjoyable one!

On the personal front I travelled up to Orewa on Saturday morning to meet up with my eldest daughter Joanna and inspect the venue she has decided to have her wedding at - her wedding will most likely be in January next year so not long at all (in between yearling inspections!!).  I then went and saw the house that her fiance Leon is building and we all enjoyed lunch together.

On route to Orewa I had dropped Lydia off at the airport as she has flown to the South Island to spend four days with her grandmother, Karyn's mother Sylvia.  Then Mitch her partner is driving up from Central Otago on Thursday to take her back for his brother's wedding on the weekend.

Driving back to Auckland, Karyn drove north to Auckland after her tv programme and we met for an early dinner.  We then watched the All Blacks and held our breath again like the entire nation I am sure!

On Sunday I first caught up with my daughter Sarah before we went around to Colin and Alison Jillings', had a drink with them and then took them to Peter Williams' 60th birthday party which we were delighted to have been included in.  It was a fun afternoon with lots of humour and great company - all in celebration of one of the racing industry's good guys!  Peter and Dawn moved up from the South Island about three years ago and are really enjoying the North.

Then on Sunday night we caught up with another daughter Julia-Rose and her partner Hamish who had dinner with us at the hotel.  A lovely family weekend!

Although we didn't win a race, we had plenty of horses go very close with a number of runner up placings in both New Zealand and Singapore!