Rose of Tralee - Friday

I'll try to keep this short (hehe thats funny coz i am short haha) so I will be leaving out the details, so I have some stories leftover to tell :)

Friday, the real fun began. We woke up at 7.30am to get ready and met the Judges at breakfast by 9am. Breaky was lovely and so was the company, it was crazy to think that we were officially in a competition.

Just after 10am, we arrived at the 'Seriously good chocolate company' where we donned hairnets and aprons, and created masterpieces!!

After learning how to make chocolates from molds, we mucked in and got to work. I managed to 'accidentally' get a bunch of chocolate on my gloves, which promptly got licked off(when we were finished of course). Once we were done and they were dried, we packed up our little goodie bags and headed out for a brisk walk to lunch at the Kiln (I am so proud of myself, that paragraph could have been 5 times as long, but now I have some stories left to tell).

During lunch, we met our MC who introduced himself, then went down the line and said who each of us were, and what region we were representing. Pretty impressive I think!!

After lunch at the kiln, we did a little bit of window shopping and stopped in to a few shops/sponsors to have a look, and have our photos taken.

"The New Zealand Rose of Tralee finalists (from left) Ashley Mackenzie-White, Karen Lynch, Kimberley Farthing, Nicole Gourley, 2009 New Zealand Rose of Tralee Lisa Monaghan, Elizabeth Sara, Anna Mills and Laura Young merrily stride down Don St in Invercargill yesterday"

On our way to our mayoral reception with the one and only Tim Shadbolt, we were met by the Southland Times who took our photo which made it to the front page of Saturdays issue(photo above).

Meeting Mayor Tim was flippin awesome!! We didn't get to talk to him much because he's a busy man, but he welcomed us graciously, we had a couple photographs, then we mingled with everyone who was there. There were people from the various Irish societies, Tim Shadbolts people, family of Lisa, and other really awesome people.

The shortest and the Tallest, Me and Ashley

Next on the Agenda was a walk down to H&J Smith Department Store (think Farmers) where we got our makeup done at various makeup counters. I went to Revlon and the lovely beautician beautified me for the Social evening.

After changing into Cocktail dresses for dinner and the social evening, we departed for the Kelvin Hotel. Dinner was delicious!! even though we were so full from Breakfast + Chocolate + lunch + mayoral reception + Dinner + Desert. Soo much food!! They even had nibbles at the social night, also held at the Kelvin.

Mum, Dad and Tania had arrived in Southland after flying in that day, so I finally got to see them and hang out with them a bit. It was a bit scary having all three judges sitting at the table with them during the night, but I got to sit with Tim Shadbolt so it was aall Good!!

The night was awesome, The Roses mingled with everyone and met each others supporters. Some of our Escorts had come to support us which was lovely. During the night we had our first on-stage interviews. Mine was OK, then it was onto the talents. The talents were not judged, they were just a bit of fun. I did a Solo Jive, and after I finished and walked off the floor, Michelle, Rachel and Lynne(our chaperones), started calling for Tim to get up and dance with me. Much to my surprise, my dream came true and I got to bust a move with Tim Shadbolt!!

Me and Tim were best buddies by then, so we had a good time.

The rest of the night was generally meeting more people, singing classic Irish songs (I'm so glad I learnt 'I'll Tell Me Ma' at Camp last year) and convincing Tim Shadbolt to be my dance partner on Dancing with the Stars.

In conclusion, Friday was awesome!!!!

The Awesome Weekend

This last friday night, the TV YSA put on a 'Yellow' themed Dance at the Dinsdale chapel. It was pretty fun and had an awesome music selection. I thought I owned yellow things..turns out I have 2 yellow tops and a necklace and thats it, so my outfit was a bit lame-oo.

Here's me and Matty blending in before the dance, and Rochelle and her awesome Post-it outfit.

Saturday morning I woke up early and drove out to the Hamilton Gardens. I had 3 1/2 hrs of Engagement portraits set up and I was excited to meet the couples and see what we could do. When I arrived, I met Brooke and she gave me the run down of how it works (Brooke is the awesome photographer I work for, check her website here www.wheretheheartis.co.nz).

My first 15 min session was at 9.45am, and went really well, after that, I had 2 couples not show up, and one cancel, then I had another one for a couple I know from my Ballroom/Latin classes. It was awesome to see them, I didnt know they were getting married, and they didnt know I was a photographer so it was pretty funny. All the other sessions went really well, and only had one more couple not turn up. The weather was a bit teko, but we still managed to get some amazing photos and have a good time. I will possibly post some of the photos later on/make a photography blog when I am less busy.

Saturday afternoon was busy with setting up for my Dads 50th Bday Partay. Me and Tania went into town and picked up a couple extra things for the decorations/treats and our costumes. Then it was home to get things ready to take to the Institute Building

Saturday Night We all helped set up the food/tables etc and got ready in our costumes. All of Dads Rellies were invited and it was a really cool night. There are photos of the food and some of the costumes on Crystal & Sams blog, so I will put on different ones.

The Nerds: Ryan, Elle and Tania

It was a pretty chill night, and but we had to have a couple of games. If you've seen my dad, you may have noticed his lack of eyebrows. So instead of pin the tail on the Donkey, we played, 'Pin the eyebrow on Nigel'.

It was my cousins birthday on Sunday and My uncles birthday on Thursday, so we got them a cake and sang to them as well.

After desert we ended up playing games till midnight!

Sunday I was so nervous. I had an interview on Community Radio at 1.20pm because I won Waikato Rose of Tralee 2010. I was sooo flippin scared, but the guys were pretty cool, and made it less scary.

Here is a photo of me and the radio hosts after my 30min segment. They asked me questions about everything!! And we had a chat afterwards. Looking back, it was fun, but at the time, it was not!! but its over and I can move on with my life now :)

Sunday Night we had some of the family over to eat the rest of the food from Dads party. There was HEAPS!!! and it was delicious, so thank you to the awesome cooks!!