The weekend in Chc and a new car

 Hi,

What a huge weekend. Thank you, Ange, for the pics of Moxley and Smudge (okay - mainly Moxley) and for looking after them.

Thursday riding home I got stung by a wasp. It crawled into my helmet up by my left hairline. I felt it start to sting me as I rode up the steep part of Pitt St. Stopped and pulled my helmet off and tried to get rid of it. I never saw it. But wow - did it hurt a lot. It is now just a red spot and a little itchy. Mike got me antihistamine so that was good.

We headed away Friday morning to catch a flight to Chc. Dramfest weekend. That meant Sunday was busy for Mike. :-p

Friday morning flight down

I have my iced latte and Mike does not

This was the first time Toby has picked us up in the car at the airport. I was so proud. He was in the pick up zone with Tessa and we walked out and jumped in. He took us to work and we order brekkie at Strange Bandit and caught up with Martyn.

Hey Martyn

But Toby had a lecture at 10am. So he and I left before brekkie arrived and Ubered to uni. Toby bought us a notebook and pen each and we walked into the lecture hall separate.

Off to uni with Toby

I took notes in the lecture

Turns out that despite 200 odd people in the theatre, a student deduced Toby and I were related.  I was in the second row and I didn't even know where Toby was.  So I was not looking around.

Yet, during the lecture, Toby was snapchatted by someone saying they could tell his mother was in the lecture too. Apparently our hair looks the same from the back.

2 hours of forensic psychology. It was good fun. I loved it.

We picked Mike up after work and went into town. Riverside area. And had some dinner at an upstairs place before going to Rollickin.

Back to the motel and Toby dropped us off and they went home. Good sleep for us. Then up for a bus ride in. $4 each for a 2 hour ticket. The #5 bus left from our motel and we got off at the hospital and walked through the gardens.

Hagley Parkrun was fast and hot - and so many people! 787 finishers with a chaotic 'yeah just go everyone!' start. They ran their alternate route, out and back around the perimeter of Hagley Park. I did it in 33 mins thanks to Mike. And I sat for a bit while he did another 5k. But by then Toby and Tessa had picked a cafe for brekkie. So I walked over to The Quad Eatery. Such a lovely old building. Mike got there soon enough and we had a great brekkie.

Peace bell on the way to park Run

Flowers in the botanic gardens

Dahlia

Stairs

Post park run

Triple spotto

Fountain

Quad eatery

Handsome

Gorgeous

Pre parkrun

On the Parkrun

Post parkrun

Post postparkrunrun

Found an old Routemaster bus as we walked around. It had a few signs up - and one was the 159 route.  We used to use this one a lot - and the 59.  So I took a pic or two.

The 159 - I used to carry Toby onto this bus

Like old times

Our new car

 Back to shower and then out to test drives some cars. Except we picked our first one - a MG ZS EV. And took it on the motorway and up to Sign of the Kiwi. And decided there was no other better option.

And bought the car!  OMG!

Went out for some lunch after that at the gardens. A lovely wee cafe.  

Curator at the gardens

Scoundrel - Moko and Maru

Then in the evening, met Ana and Daniel and the dogs at Scoundrel. So good to catch up on their news. And play with their gorgeous dogs.

Sunday saw me and Mike up and heading to Poms for a run in the Red Zone area along the Avon river.  I did 3k and Mike did 5k. They've done a lot of work to landscape the area since we were here last. They've done a great job and all this parkland along the river is a great asset to the city.

Run in the red zone area

Hot work

Tessa got to Little Poms and we had brekkie. Then back for a shower. And off to Riccarton market at the old racecourse there. So lovely.

Iced latte at Little Poms

Riccarton market

Dropped Mike at his Dramfest, Then Toby got home and we headed to Lyttleton and the ferry over to Diamond Harbour after grabbing some drinks and fruit from the greengrocer and Toby's work.

Lyttleton harbour

Diamond Harbour

Waiting for our ferry

Views from Diamond Harbour

Picnic

We scoffed the fruit in the shade (such a hot day - 29C).  And decided to go for a walk. Then saw that Mike was now at Poms. So we rushed to the ferry and managed to jump on at the last min. Headed back and found Mike at the pub. Had some drinks and nibbles before going home.

Good sleep. Up to work from the office here. Flight home tonight.  

Have a great day!

Love,
Angela