Hi,
Happy Australia Day to those on the other side of the Tasman. Hope it isn't too hot for you. Heheheheh. We were not bothered by a lot of heat for our long weekend celebrating Wellington Anniversary day. Rain on Saturday that was constant. Lovely on Sunday for the most part. And overcast yesterday - but no rain! Mixed bag.
Let's see how it went... Friday we thought we'd pack and leave. The rain had other ideas. So we put it off to Saturday morning. We woke and packed and remembered to ask Vivienne to sort out Merlot's food (Ta!!) having to buy the catfood on the way out of Wellington and drop it off at Vivienne's place. Oh dear. A disoriganised portion of our weekend.
We had a new tent to try out, you see. A Torpedo7.com special. And Saturday tested its seams very well. It rained nearly the whole day - apart from the 15 minutes where we pitched it at Kaitoke Regional Park. For anniversary weekend it was a very empty park. I can imagine it heaving on warm, sunny holiday weekends. So we pitched the tent, got in - and stayed in. I ... fell asleep. Heheheheh. Mike and Toby continued reading and playing games until hunger pains crept in. Then we went exploring and Mike drove back into Upper Hutt for some Indian yummy takeways. What a scrumptious camping dinner!
Next morning we slowly got ready and eventually some other punters arrived. Constanze, Christian and Gustav (2) arrived followed by Nick, Marg, Iona (4) and Charlie (also 2). So we pitched more tents, had lunch and then set off to see where Rivendell was filmed for Lord of the Rings. I must watch those scenes again. Kaitoke Regional Park
We went down to the river (where Pakuratahi River meets the Hutt River) junction and Toby saw a huge rock out in the middle of the river. He decided to swim over to it. So he stripped off, got upstream of the rock so he could use the fairly fast current to his advantage and leapt in. The current grabbed him pretty quick but he got a hold of the rock and hauled himself up onto it. He loudly proclaimed it Toby Island and sat in the sun on it for a while. I must try and get a photo for you to see for yourselves. We had to lure him off Toby Island with threats as he had virtually taken up residence. He jumped in and swam strongly for the shore. I was pretty proud of him. I think Mike was too.
Off over the swingbridge after that for the loop walk. We would have walked for 3 hours I guess, including breaks to watch Toby perform. Toby managed to convince Iona that she didn't need to use her scooter that her parents had carried the whole way and rode her scooter back along the road to the campground. Toby and Iona struck up a good friendship over the two days.
Monday was more overcast but still not too cold. We decided to do the 3 hour Ridge Track to Te Marua lakes (the water treatment area for most of Wellington). It took 4 hours (although I think Toby could have done it easily in 3.5 hours). Mike had left a car at that end so it was easy to get back to the campground to strike the tent and head back to Wellington.
We ate pizza at Sally and Andrew's place on the way home. It was nice to sleep in our bed. The tent performed well and we'll use it as the tent of choice from now on (for campng out of the car - it is too heavy for tramping). And Ramble can probably join us at Kaitoke Regional Park. There were loads of dogs there - and even out on the trails where 1080 has been dropped. So if we keep him close by in the campground, we should be right.
Time to get stuck in.
Have a great week.
Love,
Angela
No comments:
Post a Comment