The weekend on adventures in Blenheim

 Hi,

What a weekend. So many activities. I must have smashed my November activity stats in that one weekend. Woot!

I picked Mike and Maureen up from work at 5pm and we headed to the airport. Got there easily and had some tea. Ramen for me. Mike finished off my leftovers as Maureen and I headed to the gate for our SoundsAir 18:30 flight over to Blenheim.

Weekend starts

The plane took off early and our 19:00 arrival time was smashed. We were outside the terminal at 18:45, and managed to beat Iona there. Hahah.

Back to their house and chilled out. Caught up on recent news and watched some TV before bed. Up early Friday for a run up Taylor river with Maureen. I managed to get 5k done. Woot!

Then back to get ready for a big walk. We decided against SUP as it was windy. Instead - we decided on the lower Mt Robertson loop. Usually the top of this loop is laden with possums in the traps. Col was very keen on this part. Hahah.

Iced latte to kick start the day

Grabbed coffees at Grove Rd cafe (I do like that place) and out to Whites Bay beach where we parked the car. Then up to the top. Yeah, right. Not quite as easy as that. It is a steep slog up much of that side of the ridge. 2 hours of slog before we got to the intersection that marks the split to either continue up to the golf ball at the top, or loop back down the other ridge to Whites Bay beach. 

Just before the split, Col spotted something in a possum trap. The 3 of them headed off the track to check it out. I decided to amble on up. As they drifted out of sight behind the trees, I saw someone (turns out it was Maureen) waving a huge stick and giving the tree a few thumps.

What I did not know was the critter stuck in this trap was a rat. Iona poked it as she approached and declared it dead. But as she tried to open the level, it squeaked and poked its head out of the trap. So Maureen got a hefty stick to help pry the rat out. Then they discovered it was paralysed. Tried to crawl up the stick using only its front legs.

Terrible. Iona womaned up and used the stick to put the rat out of its misery. OMG. What a horror plot. Meanwhile I was waiting about 1 minute up the track, wondering what on earth was going on. Plenty, as it transpired.

First reprieve on the steep slog up

Rarangi behind

Lunch was had - thank you for the sandwiches. And then down, down, down to the beach. We decided to poke into the hole in the wall, for extra fun. So lovely. Not quite warm enough for a swim.

Whites Bay

Climbing over the rocks to the hole in the wall

Another dumb pose by me

Okay - this is stunning

Much better posing

Above the hole in the wall

What a view

On the walk just below Mt Robertson

Back to base. Another chill evening. Then up Saturday for trap line day! Woot. We took ice this time for the coffee cart at Pelorus and Jason there made me a lovely iced latte.

View from the dining table

BYO ice but it worked out great!

Stock up for the trap line

Met Alan and Jean as they headed off to do their trap lines. And then we were off. U line followed by K line. It took us 5 hours (but that included the 20 mins in the shed stocking up, and a lunch break). We got 15 critters. 1 mouse and 14 rats. But boy - were some of those rats the mankiest rats I have ever seen in traps. Yuck. Organs on display. Maggoty. You name it, there was a variety of horror. 

Maureen has a rat!

Trap line fun

Cool fungus

View from K trig

Lunch stop - hi Iona

Lunch - hi Maureen

Lunch - hi random person (hahah - no it is not a random person)

It was this big!

We finished at 1545 and tidied up then popped in to see Barb and Hamish at their place in Havelock. Had a cup of tea. So nice to chill with them.

Then home. Grabbed takeaways from Thai Nine and had that. Watched some TV (movies were a bit dire. The Dry Friday night and The Yellow Birds Saturday night. Well done movies, but the darker side of humanity). Then to bed. Up at 4am for the All Blacks v England in Twickenham. Wow. How the All Blacks snuck away with that one was great.

After oaty pancakes for brekkie we went to the market on bikes. Great fun. Lovely morning for it.

Sunday market

Iced latte was... there. At least I got one. It was a bit tasteless

Link walk

Then Iona, Maureen and I went to Shakespeare Bay for the Link walk. Col stayed to walk Twigg and mow the lawns.

Link walk

Loved the walk. This is the 3rd time I have been here. But this time we got all the way to Wedge point. Iona and Maureen have amazing walking speed.

Popped into Seabreeze cafe for a late lunch. BLTs all round - with variations. No bacon for me, with a fried egg. It was really good.

Back to chill. Have some tea. Jigsaw puzzle time. Country Calendar episode (iykyk). Soon it was off to the airport for our 1820 flight. We bumped into Billie from work waiting for her flight home. So nice to walk into a building when you are away from home and see someone's smile light up at seeing you. She had a great time in Kaikoura.

Airport

On the wee plane

Good views into Wellington

And home. Super smooth flight. Mike picked us up and we dropped Maureen home. Then we sped out to Aotea and picked up the RAV4 from Callan.

I got to drive it home! It is a nice wee car. Handled the motorway like a champ. Parked it up on Mairangi, away from the buses on our street.

And unpacked and went to bed. Phew! Great weekend. Thank you to everyone that helped towards such a great time. Our hosts, Iona and Col. Maureen for being game to head away for the weekend. Mike for cat sitting and letting me have fun without him.

Enjoy your week ahead.

Love,

Angela