Volleyball Weekend

Well you remember Pip came over to play Volleyball. anyway after the tour of the provinces at last it was time for the competition to reach the ASB tennis centre in Stanley St Auckland. They trucked oodles of sand in for the event and everyone got cracking on Friday last. Pip got us some free tickets so off we went. They played a UK team, (hopefully not the only one) who were training up for the Olympics. Pip and her teammate Taina beat them easily. Unfortunately no pics on that day, forgot the camera.... Pip finished playing reasonably early on Friday so off we went in the heat to Maraetai beach for a swim. At this time of year of course the water here is like a tepid bath so we stayed in for about 20 mins then drove home We came back later to see her in later rounds which overran gloriously finishing in floodlights. Here. Here Pip and Taina play the NZ no. 1 team of Scarlett and Blundell. They lost against these professionals in a good game.

Saturday we turned up to see them lose narrowly to the Brazilian team which was a bit of a disappointment to them. Lastly we watched them have a go at the German team who were immensely strong from the Olympics and world no.8 I think. After this we zoomed off again to the beach for another in and out dip.

The Germans were in red and blue, Pip serves in the last pic.

Well they didn't get into the semis and finals which were held on Sunday but we all went to watch. The German girls won the womens final. The French Ces brothers are here arguing with the ref on an earlier day

won the men's from the New Zealanders Pitman & Lochead. The heat was terrific for us (not Sydney of course!) so we were forced to detour once again on the way home to leap into the water!

Later on in the small hours we retrieved Pip from the Volleyballer's afterparty at the viaduct basin and in only a few hours she was on the first plane on Monday back to Sydney. Phew!