What an amazing weekend we had to Matiu/Somes courtesy of the social club at work. Thank you for organising it all (Matt and Mike, especially).
Friday saw Brian, Suzie and Lucas come to visit. We decided on Burger Wisconsin and enjoyed eating that. Brian took us through a few photos and we chatted about life in Canada. It was a brilliant evening - makes me wish he still lived in Wellington. One day, Brian - we will come and visit you in Toronto!
We fell into bed after they left, promising ourselves to wake up super early and pack for our respective weekends. And we did.
But it was a little fraught. Note to self: try not to leave packing until the morning of your event.
Mike had to get away first, and he loaded his backpack onto his shoulders and kissed me goodbye and walked up to the Subaru on the street. I continued finalising my packing - just re-packing the tents after cleaning them both out thoroughly. Two minutes later Mike came back into the house, declaring the Subaru gone and wondering where it was. He may have wondered aloud at it being stolen. And also whether I had hidden it somewhere (what?).
We talked it through, and realised that Mike drove in on Thursday morning (unbeknownst to me) and forgot and left it there. In the car park in town. We hopped in the Focus and I drove him into town and he successfully collected the car, paid his $43 (ouch!) and continued on his way to collect his punters. With only the blogging universe now aware of his forgetfulness. Hahah.
I took the opportunity to buy some provisions for the weekend while I was in town, and collected our gear and Toby from home before dropping Toby off at his gym appointment and our gear at my work. Then I drove home, and caught the bus back into town. Met Toby at the gym just 10 mins before he finished. We had a nice brunch at Little Peckish. Mmmm.
We met Matt, Leanne, Steffen, Hayden, Chloe and David (from Meetup Last Minute) and caught the ferry over to Matiu/Somes at 11.45am. After a lengthy stay in the Whare kiore, we headed up to pitch our tents.
The ranger wasn't overly pleased to have 30 odd tourists on his island - he really should be looking after a more remote part of our country that gets fewer dumb tourists. Fortunately my gear was clean (we looks after our tents fairly well) and after an initial grumpy time, the ranger seemed to reign in his exasperation. Yes, it is perfectly understandable that these measures are needed for this beautiful location so close to Wellington. But part of the job is to educate the masses - and that means lessons that make sense to them and they see the relevance so next time they do more upfront when they visit. But first timers are always going to need an education process.
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| Toby on top of the gun emplacements |
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| And realising I am taking a photo |
Anyway, we got to the campground area and pitched our tents. Toby explored the animal quarantine station while I finished pitching the tents. When he got back, we went back to explore it even further. Toby was fascinated by the vet office with its filing cabinet still in place. He pulled out files and read through them. Over the weekend he explored this place 4 times. One document he found explained how the dead animals twitched while being incinerated, so they changed the procedure to decapitate before cremating them. To help the humans deal with the process.
Anyway, we took off for a walk to the top and the gun emplacements. Toby enjoyed exploring there too, and looked for hidden tunnels a lot.
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| Giant weta |
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| Toby's sunset panorama |
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| Me on the lookout south into the storm |
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| Toby's (red) and my tent (teal) |
After a decent walk, Toby slept in the tent while I went for a walk with Matt and Leanne. We saw loads of birds and the stormy sky to the south looked like a movie backdrop. We watched the cruise ship leave the harbour - it was the same one Matt and Leanne had voyaged on through the Pacific islands recently.
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| Jumping across the gap |
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| Me and some sheep |
Back to cook tea - and yummy pasta vegetarian meals were the order of the day. Yum! After that we went for a walk around the island to find the nocturnal creatures. And we found them all! Heard penguins before we finally saw two down at the wharf. Walked back up to do the western loop track and Toby saw 3 penguins high up on the roadside. On the loop track, we looked for a while under a big macrocarpa before we realised we were looking at a tuatara. It looked just like a log!
And as we approached our campsite, I was looking for giant wetas on the grassy side of the path. We got to the top of the Forest and Bird house and boom! I found a giant weta. As we peered closely at it, we realised there were three right there! Amazing.
Slept well - although 7am seemed to come around pretty fast. I got up and struck the tent and had some cornflakes. Toby got up and I struck his tent while he ate cornflakes.
Matt and I did the entire loop track ahead of the ferry trip back. Stunning day - if a bit more wind. Toby and I thanked Matt and Leanne for the company and the awesome weekend and we headed to Maccas and a bus home.
Laundry and tent drying were the order of the day. Mike got back and we got ready to meet Sally and Andrew at Portlander to celebrate her birthday (yes, we were late!).
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| Arrrr - farmer Friday iced latte at 2.30pm to say goodbye to Prasad |
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| Aarrr - farmer Friday iced latte with Andrew at 8am |
Back home and fell into bed. Phew! Got a lot to do this week ahead of Easter.
Enjoy your week.
Love,
Angela
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