The weekend in Blenheim and with lots of SUP

 Hi,

What an awesome weekend.  Oh - I say that most Mondays, don't I?  Anyway, a bunch of us got the idea to have a SUP lunch break and on Friday it finally came together.  We hired one down at Fergs Kayaks and decided on the Giant SUP.

We head out into the harbour on a giant SUP

5 of us signed up and the weather was perfect for it.  Nice and calm - and even warm enough to swim. Ellie was the first one in to "try" the water.  I think she overbalanced on purpose.  Chris, Angie and Kirsty were all a lot more cautious - like me!

We got all the way over to the marina before the pool before we headed back and then skylarked around in front of Fergs.  Angie decided at one point she'd had enough and dived off the board.  But she didn't say that was what she was doing and the push back from her lovely dive gave the board a good shove.  And we toppled like dominoes into the water.  Must have looked pretty funny.

Kirsty managed to stay on the board.  Woot!

After that, Ellie, Chris and I jumped off the wharf into the water.  Great fun.

 

Off we go!

 After work, Ellie transformed into Aunty El and was the DJ at Cuckoo.  So Chris, Selena and Kirsty convinced me to go with them for a drink.  Mike headed home to collect my weekend stuff and came back at 6pm to collect me.

Aunty El is the DJ at Cuckoo!

Mike and I had Wishbone for dinner at the airport.  But Mike's two sandwiches were 2000 calories each.  He was not a happy punter.  He got me settled into the departure seats and headed home.  My flight was super easy (masks on for all travel in NZ).

Take off!

Stunning views

Hello Wairau bar

I saw dolphins in the Strait because it was so calm there were no whitecaps at all.  Any disturbance was something of interest to look at.  Saw two groups of dolphins.  One big group - and one smaller group further out.

Chuffed!

Iona collected me from the airport in Blenheim.  The flight had left Wellington super early, so my projected 8.30pm landing time was actually 8.10pm.  My take off time was supposed to be 8pm.  Hahah.  I love Soundsair.

Off to bed and up early for some SUP ahead of predicted 29C temperatures.  We pumped up the inflatable SUP and put them both in the ute.

Saturday morning SUP

Ngakuta bay was perfect.  Flat calm.  Clear water.  Saw a lot of jellyfish, lots of stingrays and a fishing gannet.

Back to get ready for the great Ulamaluta Jazz festival.  Only to discover it was scheduled for Sunday.  Lucky we didn't just turn up!

In the orchard park

Sunday saw rain!  But it started off fairly dry looking so we wandered up Mt Vernon.  I tried this a few years back but rain sent us scurrying back to the car back then.  this time - we were doing it.

But it spit rain the entire way.  Just not enough to care about really.  

Finally got to the top of Mt Vernon

Despite the cloud, the view is superb

By the time we got back to the car, my right hand side of my body was actually fairly damp.  But what a lovely walk.

We got back home and got ready for the jazz festival.  And the heavens opened up.  Bucketed down.  And eventually Alistair called off the festival.  Boo!

Then - NZ weather being what it is - it cleared up and was hot again.  Col and Iona did stuff around the house and then Iona and I biked to the chocolate shop (or close to it) to get some figs from a road side stall.  Then headed home via SH1 and the bike path there.

Bike ride included a great press conference venue

Dinner was gourmet level!

Dinner was made by Iona and looked gourmet.  The figs had honey and feta on them.  Yum!!

Off to bed after some Mandalorian episodes and up for work this morning.  Woot.

Take care - have a great week.

Love,

Angela