The weekend with great weather and even better activities

Hi,

What a wonderful weekend.  Not sure I can do justice to the great fun!  Friday night, Benjamin came to look after Toby while Mike and I went to see Marcus Chown talk for Christine's birthday.  Marcus Chown is an astrophysicist and renowned for making things easy for noobs to understand.  It was very enjoyable but far too short.  One hour and it was all over.

We nipped into a chinese takeway on Courtney Place for a quick meal.  Kara was there and a friend of Christine's (Rachel).  Christine was off to another session at 8pm so it was gobble and go.  Mike and I got home with my bike (puncture still) and collapsed into bed.

Saturday I was up early and getting ready for my birthday present bike ride with Aidan.  I fixed the puncture, pulling out a huge shard of green glass from the tyre (lucky Andrew taught me how to perform the glass patrol).  Eventually I got all the stuff in the car and said goodbye to the boys and went to collect Aidan.  She was ready too and just as excited as me.  Well, not sure it  is possible to be as excited as me.  But she was pretty close.

We popped into Thorndon New World to buy picnic stuff and we certainly had a lot of food.  Then I had to drive so slowly over the Rimutaka Hill because Aidan gets car sick.  In fact, she went very quiet.  And muttered "granny" every now and then when my speed crept up.  Even once we got down to the flat part on the way to Lake Ferry we had to pull over and allow her to settle her stomach.  But there was no puking!  Yay!  It might have been just her iron will stopping that though.

We continued down to the coast and came across a car perpendicular to the road.  The driver got out and chatted to the car in front of us and then she got back in.  I think she was lost and turning around.  She dithered about a kilometre down the road again.  She was a little scary to think about on the roads.

Once we got to the coast we parked up and got on our bikes.  I had my skinny road tyres and two panniers (the picnic!).  Aidan had a baguette bungeed to her cross bar on her bike.  It looked perfect - the only better thing would have been her basket on the front with it poking out. The gravel was sometimes a bit deep and soft for my bike but Aidan skimmed along nicely.

Warm weather and spectacular views

We saw a load of people doing stuff.  Fishing, surfing, cycling.  We crossed a few fords and the second one had a soft gravel bottom and my bike stopped in the middle.  I was still clipped into my pedals when I realised I was going nowhere.  I unclipped pretty quick and got a wet foot. We rode for about 5 km along the coastal road until we were truly off-road and sinking in soft gravel.  That made a good spot for a picnic.

Plenty of picnic stuff in those panniers

Is that a baguette on your bike, Aidan?

 The people belonging to the cars behind us were surfing just below our picnic spot.  Aidan was hoping they would lure in whales to investigate.  But no whales were seen.  Plenty of birds.  And kelp!  The sea was a stunning colour!

The best picnic spot!

Nice feet!  And Aidan's kinda look okay, I guess.

First feijoa of the season

We contemplated the scenery for a while before deciding we really should get back to the car so we could do all the other things on our list too.  On the way back, Aidan negotiated a huge muddy puddle only to stop right at the end and put both feet down in it!  Eeeeewwww.  I looked back and saw her face!  But she immediately cracked up.  In fact, there was a fair bit of giggling from the two of us as we rode back.  It was such fun!

Once back at the car, we changed into jeans and we went around to the Pinnacles and went fossicking for a bit.  I finally got to use my geologist hammer!  It was a lot of fun too!

Fossil hunting!

Some kids excitedly asked us if we were archaeologists

We also went into Lake Ferry itself.  Our intention was for a cup of tea at the pub.  But it was closed for a private function.  Steph was getting hitched, according to a sign on a house.  And most of the town were in attendance.  So we drove back to Martinborough, following a German registered campervan for a good portion.

Iced coffee in Martinborough afterwards

We eventually dragged ourselves away from a cafe (Aidan liked their hand cut chips and the iced coffee was a good 7.5).  The decor was decidedly odd with naked women painted into normal landscapes in paintings on the walls.  Aidan even found a painting that was weird in her toilet.  But, the food was good!

Aidan and I chatted about Bruce Springsteen and religion and all the things that we never have time to discuss during our busy weeks.  It was a fantastic day!  And Mike had organised a BBQ at our place so it was great to see Josh and the boys when we got back.  Aidan certainly chose the best birthday present!  What a wonderful memory!

Next day was Toby's social day.  Tris, Sam, Emerson, Duncan and Will came over.  They all had lunch and then watched Jurassic Park.  They flew upstairs like locusts from time to time to empty the pantry.  The went down to the park to play as well.  They seemed to have a good time!.

Toby's friends came over for lunch and a movie and a play in the park

Then it was into the boring ironing part of every weekend!  Got that out of the way while watching Season three of Sherlock Holmes.  Toby likes it now (Tabor influence).

Today is stunning here in Wellington.  And seems to be like that for the rest of the week!  Cool!  More of this weather please.  Mike however did get a migraine last night during the night.  He is at work though and feeling okay.

Have a fantastic week!
Love,
Angela