After visiting all five venues on yesterday's practice day, I spent most of day one at Waikanae with a short visit to Plimmerton in the early afternoon.
Waikanae is the furthest venue at about one hours drive outside Wellington and has a pretty five lawn club. The front four lawns are soft, green and over-watered, running at 10.8 seconds whilst lawn 5 is an excellent lawn with different grass and firmer subsoil, running at 12.2 seconds.
Read MoreMorning Coffee: Bryant Repeats at NZ Open
Are you ready for a little trip to New Zealand? Most of the croquet news this week centers around the New Zealand Open, so grab your passport and enjoy the rundown ...
NZ OPEN REPEAT: Greg Bryant defeated Toby Garrison 3-1 (-26tp, +26tp, 26tp, +9tp) to retain the New Zealand Open Association title. Full match commentary here--
http://www.croquet.org.nz/associations/nz/nzopen2012/commentary.html