The Tuesday with our new pole saw

 Hi,

Wellington turned it on for a day when it was forecast to be slightly shabby. So Erin took me out for a meeting - with ice cream. And I got a coffee flavoured one. So this is my only iced latte pic for today's blog. I reckon it counts.

This ice cream was delicious.

Great day for it! Ta Erin

Anyway, I was keen to get home and try out our new pole saw. Mike was off for a run then beersies. So I got the saw assembled, donned the safety gear, and away I went.

Home to try the new pole saw

All the safety gear

It chopped easily

Thinned out - need to do more

We have an electric Ryobi corded pole saw with a 200mm bar. And it cuts so well. But it is heavy. After about 20 mins I was done. And I needed a longer extension cord to get to other branches.

I hope we can use it together this weekend and get it all done.

12 days

I am also on a 12 day streak with my steps. I used to easily get 10k steps each day before covid. And now I have to really work at it some days. So this is my mission for 2024. As many days as possible this year with a high step count.

Woot!

Cloudy today. Rode in and now have gym. Mike has a migraine. Poor man!

Love,

Angela

The Monday back at work and with spin

 Hi,

Working from home on Monday. The cats always like it. I looked around after one of my meetings and found them both sleeping on the bed behind me. And when Moxley moved from the coveted squashed skull, Smudge moved in.

Cats sleeping by my desk

Mike wanted pics from a few years back for his inspirational goals. So I trawled through my photos and found several. Here is one for your viewing pleasure.

Jan 2021 Mike.

Spin

After work I drove down the hill to Thorndon and went to Spin with Juliet. First time in 2024. It was a little tough. Hahahah.

Mike came after his run to the gym and we drove back. But he dropped me at the bottom of the hill and I  walked up home from there. Steps! All about the steps.

Unusual view of our house

Spotted our house through some trees. Someone must have pruned so we get a good view. Funny. We now have a pole saw - so we will get some pruning done. Maybe tonight! Ooohhh. A reason to ride home fast after work.

This morning's ride in was lovely. It is already getting dark in the mornings at 6.20am. Awww. I do love the brighter mornings.

Squats this morning with Quentin. I wasn't feeling it. But did ok. 55kg. 4 x 4. Then leg press. 142.6kg 10 reps x 3 sets. Oosshh. Might try 180! Hahahah. Then we snuck off for an iced latte and Quentin had a sausage roll.

Iced latte with Quentin

142.6 kg leg press this morning

55kg squats 

Have a great day. Smash your Tuesday!

Love,

Angela

The weekend in Wellington

 Hi,

What a weekend. And I have cat content for you all, too. Well. Let's see what happened, eh? Trap line was Friday and Andrew and I had a plan. Okay - Andrew had a plan I was comfortable with executing.

Wonder if we're related?

He Was going to pick me up at 7.30am. But because he was coming in from the Hutt, he thought (rightly) it will be peak hour traffic. So he left home early. And was at our place by about 7.10am - but I wasn't quite ready. A few more things to fluff around getting sorted. So he and Mike got the maps and KAT trap lines onto our topo map app.

And a good thing they did that.

We were at the Caltex around 8.30am getting our 27 eggs and erayz and then at the bottom of our trap line hill at 9.30am striding off up the hill. Andrew was striding. I was meandering. And puffing.

Slog up the hill for our traplines

SG traps

This was our first trap line with two extra lines. We did Sunny Grove (SG) line on the way up the hill. They are just off the main track. We found 2 rats there. Andrew went ahead with his legs of steel and just as he finished each trap, I would arrive and do something frivolous, like take photos.

At the saddle - almost

Snacks

Up at the saddle probably 10 mins behind my fastest ever time. So, stopping at the traps didn't really delay us much. 

Lancewood poking up into the view

Then we split up. Andrew dived off to UTS1 just off the saddle. And I headed up the McKerrow track for 15 mins to find the top of KAT line and also headed off into the bush.

This was my first time off track and navigating and doing traps all on my own. And I loved it! The weather was superb. I had waypoints on my app. And with my 6 eggs and erayz, I was keen as mustard.

KAT1 had a rat in it. And I cleaned it all out and reset it and then continued on my way.

KAT1 and a rat!

Lovely bush to wander down. No issues with navigation. I got to the stream and by the time I checked where UTS6 was, I was on the other side and up a wee bank. So I didn't find out if Andrew had already passed by or not (he would have!).

KAT4 and 6 were missing. I hunted for them for ages. Finally gave up and got back to the Whakanui track at 12 to wait for Andrew. And he was so fast he arrived at 12.10. So we had plenty of time to duck back into the bush to try and find KAT6. I am pleased to say, he also couldn't find it. Phew.

Cuckoo?

Fungus pics

We wandered back to the car and were so early we decided to have lunch. Lovely day for lunch there. Good food. 

Iced latte at Seashore Cabaret

Also got some beer glasses at Briscoes then dropped Andrew home and headed back to Wadestown to get ready for the busy weekend.

The big news for Friday evening was finding out Toby and Tessa's flight to Hawaii from Auckland was cancelled. So we had many updates through the afternoon/evening. But eventually they got a flight to Sydney Saturday afternoon and a hotel in Chc for Friday.

Up early Saturday to pack and get ready to collect some friends of Elly's for Taskmaster in the DoC visitor centre at Catchpool. Terrible weather. Picked up Miles and Becci.

Got to Catchpool at 9.50am and we waited for others to arrive and then had a brilliant day. Elly and Tom had planned an amazing event for Elly's 40th birthday. 3 groups of about 6 of us. And 10 or so tasks. So well planned. I loved it.

Taskmaster scenes

Our team came 3rd after smashing the first few rounds. But they did have some complete newbs in the Taskmaster space (Mike and I have never watched it - ever!). Such fun. We easily won the best paper plane round. The two boys in our team, Elias and Cameron, knew their planes. Their dad Toro was also a great team mate. He built a website for Elly's gift round. https://www.happybirthdayelly.nz/  And Becci got a past Taskmaster contestant to send a video birthday wish. We so should have won that round. But Elly was very diplomatic. :-)  

Loved it. Set the bar for birthday events. Thank you for the wonderful day.

Elly is the taskmaster

Mike tries his paper plane

With a hat change, he goes from Peter Andre to David Hodo

We left there at 3.30pm and dropped Miles and Becci home. By now the weather was superb. So we headed to Avalon and Myra and Les's housewarming. They have a great house there. We met a lot of their whanau. Thank you for the invitation. Great food and chats with people. We dropped Adnan back into town and then headed home.

Toby enjoys his bacon brekkie in the hotel

We chill in the swing in the park

I needed my step count so we went for a walk. Lovely evening. Wandered through some of the local streets. Then we bushbashed up to Izard park and lay in the swing basket for a while, star gazing.

Beautiful night

Mike was up early Sunday to go for a huge run. And I stayed in bed with a home iced latte. Thank you, Mike.

He had a good run. And enjoyed brunch with Janine and Kara and Rasta. Then he bussed home and we went to get a pole saw. Woot. Bought a corded one because we have no idea what cordless tribe to join. Hahah.

Mike home made iced latte

Buried by cats

One cat on the top

And the other on the bottom

Alexa tells us Toby's weather

Pining when we see a van like our old one

 

Mike has organised our archaeological pen dig

Picked up Helen from her house at 5.35pm and got to 40WLW for a lovely dinner with Sally and Andrew and Anthony. Caught up on their news. Then dropped Helen home and Anthony home and fell into bed!

Woot! Good weekend. Full on. Toby and Tessa are in Honolulu and enjoyed the food options so far. I will update you as I hear things.

Monday saw Mike at the gym doing bench. And me WFH. The weather seems breezy but sunny. Yay! Spin for me tonight. First time for 2024.

Have a great week.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with dragon boat training

 Hi,

Dragon boat training was fun last night after work. Muscle memory is a good thing. Although as I type this. I can tell my bottom is not used to sitting on that wee plank of wood. Hahah.

We did 4km of paddling. So yay for some different exercise. I was up front with Angie and we set a reasonable pace and not bad timing. I also jumped in the sea afterwards - outside Fergs. The water was warm. I swear!

Iced latte

Trying out the new sneakers

At lunch time I went out with Mike and he dropped his main backpack off at Macpac to see if it can get fixed. Bit of wear and tear due to slightly compromised bits. Then he bought new running shoes. And after work he was doing a great pace until he got a call from Sally saying she was in town for beersies with Andrew. Turned into quite the gathering with Janine and Kara too.

But I got home after training (wet hair on my bike - hahahah) and got the groceries in. The frozen stuff had started to defrost. Oops. We're eating lots int he next few days.

Into bed just after 9pm and up at 5.30am. Groan. Rode in. Lovely morning. Gym. Deads 65kg 4 sets x 4 reps.

Gym Thurs morning

Iced latte Thurs morning

Caught up with Andrew to discuss trap line tomorrow. 3 trap lines now. So we're figuring out the best, most efficient route given the different parameters. Me being twice as slow, mainly.

Big weekend. Elly has her birthday party on Saturday. All day. And I think our Sunday might be busy too.

Woot! Weather is supposed to pack in though.

Have a fantastic weekend. Hunker down in Queensland!

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday back at work

 Hi,

After an early start yesterday in Dunedin, Mike and I worked from home on Tuesday. And boy, was that a good idea.

Also got washing done. Yippee!

The cats were happy we were home. Tidied up their kitty litter and they were very grateful. Sally had looked after them while we were away and they do like it when she visits and gives them an ENTIRE can of food each, every time. Hahahah. Thank you, Sally.

They look at my teaspoon of food like I was starving them.

But my readers today will be happy with the cat content in the blog post. #winning 

Smudge lying with her paws crossed

I just can't!

Drowsy Moxley is so cute

We went for a run in Izard Park after work. 5km around and around the wee park. Totally boring. And it was so hot.

I have put my hand up to help in the dragon boat tonight. Let's see if they need me. And Maureen wants another ride after work tomorrow. Sweet!

Gym this morning. Puny. That's me. Did bench. 35kg. 6 reps x 4 sets. Then just the bar for as many reps as I could manage. Got to 35 reps. I got to 40 before Christmas. Puny.

Have a fantastic day!

Love,

Angela

The weekend in Dunedin for Wellington anniversary weekend

 Hi,

What a fabulous weekend we had down to Dunedin for Wellington anniversary long weekend. Mike took Friday off in the end, so we didn't have to find him a spot in Polly's house for him to work. 

Great view of the Otago peninsula as we flew in Friday morning

We were on a civilised flight time of 8.50am and got into Dunedin just after 10:15am or so for our shuttle into Dunedin. Maybe $22 each, I think. We only had carry on luggage. We got a nice touristy ride, dropping people off in south Dunedin.

Got to Highgate around 11.30am, I suppose. We had lunch with Mike's mother (butter chicken for Mike and Polly - vege spring rolls for me) before we met up with Ange and headed up to Flagstaff for a good walk.

Walk up Flagstaff with Ange

Selfie

Feet and plaque

Mike and Ange

Caught up with a lot of Ange's news. She is moving back to Wellington next week! Woot! Enjoyed our walk up from the Bullpen to the top of Flagstaff. Great weather. t shirt conditions. No wind to speak of. 

Ange and... Angela

Pretty

Next morning saw us all up for Park Run in the botanic gardens. My first attempt at a park run in about 18 months. Gorgeous location. But... they have hills! OMG. And it was already getting warm.

Park Run hills!

Two laps on the flat (by the duck pond and back through the rose garden). Then over the bridge and right and along the bottom of the hill until the "stairs of despair" where you turn left and go up. Two loops of that. With an extra loop up to a turnaround point, for good measure.

It took me 42 minutes. So I guess it could have been worse. Tough gig.

Mike was running extra. Because he has legs of steel. We looked at the Peter Pan statue we both recall from our childhoods. Mike has old film footage of him playing with the wee mouse at Peter's feet. So we recreated that.

History recreated

Post park run iced latte

Whanau and Peter Pan

We popped out to get some stuff from Bunnings to fix the Weetbix lid of the letterbox. That was good fun.

Mike found an old rimu table that cut down easily to the right size. Screwed it on and sealed it.

Fixing the weetbix letterbox top

New top getting sealed in place

Saturday evening we went to visit Richard and Theresa. Got Indian takeaways and their new local one is really delicious. Ellen was the only one of their kids at home. Aidan was working and Alex has gone to Queenstown to study hospo there.

We got a look at their new campervan. A big Mercedes sprinter 6 berth one. Really good nick. Ex Maui van. They have it on some bookable site too. So they were going to spend Sunday getting it ready for its first hire. They only got it just before Christmas. I can see a lot of good holidays in their future.

Mike's old primary school

Next morning we walked to Roslyn for a coffee. That was the start of another lovely day in Dunedin. Gorgeous weather once more. But then Mike got a migraine Sunday morning after our coffee walk. So he slept a lot of the morning.

When we got the Park Run results on Saturday morning, I saw some names I recognised. So I scrolled down the list further and saw one name from my primary school. Same age range as me. Mike suggested I check Facebook to find her. So I did. Pinged the most likely match in messenger. Turn out it was her. So we scheduled a coffee at the Esplanade at 4pm Sunday. 

Met up with Ange at No 7 Balmac for brunch at 11am before that. Lovely food. Mike felt a bit better and walked up to join us. But he was still a bit quiet, and went back to bed afterwards.

So I ubered to the beach in the afternoon and caught up with Cheryl.

Had a great time reminiscing about primary school. I supposed I hadn't seen her since about 1979. So good to catch up and hear about mutual friends that I have lost touch with over the intervening years.

Looking towards St Kilda

St Clair

Cheryl took me to St Kilda via Cargills Castle to meet up with everyone for fish n chips on the beach after we finished catching up.

Chips on the beach

Mike, Polly and Ange then took us to Marlow's takeaways for the fried goodness. And we sat on John Wilson Drive, in the wind, and ate it.

Popped in to see where Ange has work on her new degree on our way home. Gorgeous old building. 

Ange's work - Zoology dept.

Terminal in Dunedin 

Monday saw us head to the terminal to meet up with Shoshana and get a tour of the site. So good! Loved it. They looked after us so well. We went out to Gilberts bakery behind Bunnings to pick up some baked goods to take. I didn't try them though - so I dunno how good they were.

Esplanade iced latte

Great colour in that

We grabbed lunch at the Esplanade with Polly. Drove there and found a park in the baking sun. Wandered around a bit. Grabbed a table inside and ate some very nice food. All Italian based in the Esplanade cafe on the corner. So many cafe options there too. I reckon any would be good.

Mike and I walked to Second Beach. It is just behind the hot salt water pool. Polly had a coffee at a cafe called Fugue under a hotel not far from there, that's owned by the same person as her local Maori Hill cafe, Copper. She met a woman called Mary who was born in 1930 and was bright as a button.

Selfie time

This sea lion is called Mum.

Hi Ken!

Second Beach walk

Second Beach was a revelation. So gorgeous. And the track ends in some basalt columns. Although it looks like you can climb over them and the path continues a bit longer. Next time we will do that!

The path did keep going - next time I will try that

Second Beach

I saw a huge sea lion in the crystal clear water as Mike climbed up the basalt at the end of the track. Huge as me.

Polly met Mary at the Fugue cafe

Good iced latte

Walk in Woodhaugh Gardens

When we got home, we went for a walk down the Bullock Track to Woodhaugh Gardens. Lovely. So many people picnicking.

Flying fox

Dunedin airport iced latte

Waving at Blenheim - only sunny spot the entire flight

Then home to relax and pack up. A light tea before bed. So hot when trying to get to sleep. But slept well once I was asleep. Up early (4.30am) to get a 5am Uber to the airport.

Easy flight home. And working now.

Hope your weekend was a good one. We loved seeing Polly, and Dunedin friends and family.

Love,

Angela