The weekend in Wellington

 Hi,

What a weekend. And I have cat content for you all, too. Well. Let's see what happened, eh? Trapline 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 traplines 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 trapline 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 trapline 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