The week with planning

 Hi,

Sorry, sorry. It is planning week at work and my routine is all over the place.

Tuesday night we met up with Sally and Andrew and went to Bellamy's for dinner. Through security at 18:00 and then into the restaurant. Good food. I had gnudi (which really seems to be gnocchi) and the four cheeses.  Mmmm. 

David Seymour also had dinner next to us. As did Nicky Hager at another table.

Bellamy's for tea Tues night

At 20:20 Sally and Andrew left but Mike and I decided to go into the gallery because the house was sitting. It was so cool. We listened to debates on the immigration bill (they want to tighten some of that up) and the forestry bill for stopping planting of pines on arable land. We stayed there for about an hour. Saw Damian O-Connor heckling on the forestry bill. Maureen Pugh as Speaker. A few others we recognised.

Pizza for lunch

Sourdough

Wednesday saw me in all day planning (and again today!). We had pizza for lunch. Good sessions. Home with Mike to get the Subaru and drive back to pick up the mini golf infrastructure. hahah. Shane will take it home at some point.

Tonight we will head home and pack. And off to bed. Up at midnight to catch the 2am ferry. Sleep in the cabin. Brekkie with Iona and Col. Then off to Nelson.

Hope your weekend is a good one.

Love,

Angela

The Monday working from home and then netball

 Hi,

I worked from home on Monday and it was a good thing. Got laundry done. Baked bread after work before I went to town. Changed kitty litter. 

Sourdough

Headed into town after I fed the cats and fed myself some pasta to meet Mike at work.  Bumped into Erin and Pippa as I went into work so they came in. Found Mike talking to Jill. So headed off to TSB to see Pulse play Steel.

TSB Arena - Pulse v Steel

Here I am

What a game. So close.  Pulse were ahead the entire game - except for the last 30 seconds where it all went wrong. Steel got a super shot. Then their centre pass gave them the chance to go ahead with the winner. And they made it easily.  56 to 57. Bad luck to Pulse. It was there for them.

Hey Jill

Erin and Pippa are in the background

Back to work

Said goodbye to Erin and Pippa and Jill (Pippa has changed so much since the last time I saw her - she is taller than me I think).

Headed back to work where Mike was helping Shane assemble the mini golf courses.  Hahahah.

Looks good, Shane

Home by 10pm and into bed.  Up to bus in because we have dinner at Bellamy's tonight.  PT session was tough. Finished push ups for the day (170) and did squats with wraps.  70kg  4 sets x 3 reps.

Tuesday morning iced latte with Lisa and Satish

Bumped into Lisa and Satish at French Kiss cart. And then off to work for the huge day.  Mini golf comp day.

Have a fantastic day.

Love,

Angela

The weekend with Mike off on Friday too

 Hi,

What a lot has happened since the last time I blogged. We had our Matariki celebration at work on Thursday evening and Polly came up mainly to visit this event. We had such a good time. The hangi was so good this year. Yum! Mine was roast kūmara, roast carrot (hmm), roast pumpkin, a lot of stuffing. 

Matariki at work - sharing kai with whānau

Wandering around the waterfront afterwards

From there, after tidying up, we walked around the waterfront, checking out the things on display. A lot of light shows depicting Matariki importance.

Mike and his mother check out the lights

Love it!

Ubered home and then Mike and I dropped his mum off at her unit in Epuni. Back to bed and Mike was up early to drive into the gym to meet Quentin for his PT session.

He ended up eating Maccas after that - and brought me home some. Hahah. First time I have had Maccas in years.

Readers - I quite liked it. I thought they had moved to unsweetened iced latte by default because Mike forgot to ask for no sweetener - but it wasn't sweet until I got to the last wee bit. So lucky it was not stirred up. Tasted good until the last few cms.

Friday morning Maccas!

I did not leave the house the entire day on Friday. There you go.

Saturday we were up early to get ready to meet everyone at Catchpool to go and do Callan's new trapline. We are all invested with him. 

We got a lot of punters.  We picked up Maureen and Andrew.  Ange and Danita came over. And Callan picked up Caitlin.

On our way to Catchpool to check the new trapline

Caitlin and Mike

Ange is there

Crossing Midway bridge

Fast walk into Turere Lodge. The new traps start at the stairs just after the bridge and the toilets.  Double ones.  DoC 200 and 250s.  The line is BB - for Big Bend. And there are 16 traps - with 2 in each. We get to about 500m beyond Haurangi Hut I reckon when we hit trap BB16.

We had lunch there.

Resetting traps

Note taker

Crossing a stream to keep dry

Callan resets more traps

Then Andrew and Maureen decided to head up the Whakanui track. It was only about 200m further ahead. A heard grunt up to the ridge - and then a good walk along the top to the junction at the top of Sunny Grove.  They got there just as we all got to Midway bridge.  

On our way back to the car

Punga 

In the punga

At the bridge

Back to 40WLW with Maureen and Andrew - and Mike's mother walked over from her place. And Sally cooked up a storm. Delicious roast veg with haloumi. Mmmmm. And the guacamole was so good as the starter.

Dropped off Maureen and then home. Up Sunday to a fairly lazy day for me. Mike collected Christine from the airport and came home with her. We had a good long chat about her holiday and the next plans with the flat. Mike had to work so once Christine headed home, he got stuck in. We did get some house work done. And the cats got to play outside.

Dropped the volcano papier mache effort off at work for this week's fun and games!  

Up this morning to kick into the push ups.  220 for today. Yikes.  Done about a quarter so far.

Busy week. Planning week. And we're off to Nelson this weekend coming. My parents are between Mauritius and the African continent according to the cruise line stalker. Woot!

Have a good week!

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with a run to pick up Christine's car

 Hi,

So - Wednesday eh?  Mike and Callan went for a run after work. And I rode home, fed the cats. And then ran to the mechanic's place in Northland. Hahah. Bit slow - first run in a wee while.

Had fun with finding the car. Raj pointed to it on the main road - up a bit. So off I went. And got close only to find it was not Christine's car. If it was not there, and not in the actual mechanic's car park, it must be down the other road. I know they use that for overflow. So walked down there, trying to find a car that looked remotely likely. No.

Back to Raj. Who was perplexed at this point - then looked behind another car into a far corner. There it was!  So I got in as Raj move the blocking car. Only to discover the ignition was weird. Had to jiggle the key for a bit. Hunt for a button some cars have. No. This one you just push really hard and it finally turns. Great. Then found the foot handbrake ok. Drove home, waving merrily at Raj as I left.

Mike ubered home soon enough. We watched some You Tube (Words Unravelled) before bed. And when I was reading and noticed my book (Kindle) had closed down and I hadn't actually noticed, I realised I was basically asleep.

Up for a bus in for my PT session with Quentin. Deads.  90kg 2 reps x 3 sets. Still got a lot of push ups to get through today.

Work brekkie with iced latte

Work brekkie straight after that. And Matariki for work today. Polly is coming in for it. Sweet. It will be a lot of fun.

Have a great weekend. Long one here in Aotearoa. Time to reflect upon the year just gone, remember those who have passed away, and enjoy time with whānau.

Sounds perfect to me. We also have trap line on Saturday with Callan. His new one in the Orongorongo valley. Choice!

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with dinner

 Hi,

Did get to grab a short walk with Mike after lunch yesterday. Good to get some fresh air.

Quick lunch walk with Mike

We went home by bus after work and fed the cats and jumped int he car and made it to Soprano in Petone with 2 mins to spare. Perfect timing.

Had a lovely dinner with sally, Andrew and Polly.  I had cannelloni with ricotta and spinach - tasty. Sally had the same. Tried some of Andrew's pasta too. Starters were good. Desserts looked good.

Dropped Polly home to Epuni and we got home after a weird diversion at our usual off-ramp. The off-ramp was closed. But signage did not suggest that - and I followed a wee truck up the ramp. Only to find it was stopping there. All very odd. Anyway - merged back to the motorway and off at The Terrace.

Good sleep. Then up for Mike to gym with Quentin and me to bus in.

Sunrise Wednesday

Bus this morning

Coffee for me and for Mike

French Kiss cart iced latte - with Mike working in the background

Run after work today. Then burgers and I will ride home.

Busy times.

Hope your day is a good one.

Love,

Angela

The Monday with Mike's birthday

 Hi,

Working from home is so useful for finding things. I went up to the garage to get a few things and searched for Mike's red puffer jacket. I found it. And my missing sleeping mat. So yay. Now we have two good lightweight sleeping mats. Because of course I bought one to replace the "lost" one.

Patched up the greenhouse

At lunch time I patched up the greenhouse. It is pretty much usable again. Maybe another bungee cord or two to connect it to the deck poles.

Sleeping mat - check!

Puffer jacket - check!

After work, Mike got home and I cooked him a nice tea. One I knew he would like. Kinda my version of karaage chicken. Hahahah.

Then off to Raj's place to drop off Christine's car for a service. Then onto to airport to meet Polly. She had a long layover in Chc on her way here - and Toby surprised her by meeting her and taking her for a coffee. Awwwww. She was very happy to see us at the gate  too. Meanwhile - Sally and Andrew had snuck out to the wee unit and turned on the heaters. Good work! We dropped her home to her toastie warm unit and headed back to our place to go to bed.

Up for a ride in. eBike time though as we have a dinner out at Petone with everyone at 6pm tonight. Got to ride home like the wind!

Have a great day!

Love,

Angela

The weekend with Fielday recovery and a drive up Te Ahu a Turanga

Hi It's Mike here. Angela has written about her Fielday adventures so I'm going to talk about the weekend.

On Saturday we both did very little, Angela was running on four hours sleep after she drove non stop from near Hamilton to Wellington and then ... read for three hours before she dozed off. Too much V on the way? I dropped Christine at the airport for her overseas adventure. Angela retrieved the remains of her greenhouse and reassembled it - it is more intact than we thought! 

Greenhouse reassembled, ready for duct tape

That was enough for one day, Angela did not a lot of anything else and I supported her by doing next to nothing as well.

Smudge watches the birds

On Sunday however we made up for lost time. Up early and hurtling over the Remutaka Hill for breakfast at the Greytown French Bakery (since the famous Clareville Bakery doesn't open on Sundays). Hmm, I think they may be coasting on their reputation there, the food didn't seem to be up to the usual standard I associate with them. Or perhaps the likes of La Cloche and our other local options have caught up with them.  

Then we visited our workmate Shane to see his partner Holly, their new puppy Tifa (named after the Final Fantasy VII character!) and their wonderful 1899 villa. Wonderful apart from the heating bills. We admired the work they'd done so far, and the huge amount of work to tame the overgrown back yard and form a a 'blank canvas' lawn, plus olive and plum trees and a boxed in vege patch. But heating? The extra high ceilings and plasterboard over scrim makes batting and gibbing a real mission, you'd want to be in the place a long time to get ROI on that. The underfloor is inaccessible making a membrane and insulation impossible. Looks like throwing some batts in the roof space and maybe fitting a second heat pump is the best way to go.

They'd caught a mouse!
I cleared it and put re-baited the trap with peanut butter.

Beautiful coal range in the kitchen

Now we wanted to go explore the brand new Te Ahu a Turanga road - freshly opened about a week ago. This is the replacement road to get from State Highway 2 on the east side of the island, through to Palmerston North and State Highway 1 on the west side of the island. The old Manawatu Gorge road had slipped away a few years ago and the powers that be decided a brand new 4 lane road was the better alternative to trying to restore a narrow windy road that just keeps slipping away every few years.

We figured we needed a buffer of electrons in the tank so we plugged the car in at Z Masterton and went for a wander. First stop was Reduced To Clear to shop for bargains. That's where I got my cheap Allbirds from, a few years ago! They have cheap things, and weird things, and weird cheap things. Anything they can buy in bulk for cheap. We found cheap eggs and cheap Havana coffee and coffee flavoured Snickers bars and masala flavoured potato chips.  Then to Briscoes - we timed it well because they were having a sale just this weekend and we got a replacement electric blanket for lots off. Angela's side had stopped working so it was time for a new one.  That was enough time to get our range up a bit so off we set.

The new road is very impressive. Nice smooth surface and it cut right through a wind farm which means you're seeing the massive wind turbines up close. We went to get out at the viewing spot but many, many people had the same idea as us and there was no parking at all so off we set again. 

This new roundabout is the gateway to Te Ahu a Turanga

Acres of tarmac and mighty wind turbines

The Manawatu and Kapiti Island stretches out before us

Back down via State Highway 57 and out at Levin with to charge again with 99km of range left - enough to get home, according to the guessometer, but with little to no buffer. We did some admin on our phones and before long it was time to set off again.

Picked up Angela's mountain e-bike from Maureen's place on the way, the first time we've used our shiny (well, matte black) new towbar. It fitted okay but Maureen put a third bungee on it to be sure to be sure and off we set again. 

Home with 39km of range, pretty well empty with a safe enough buffer. On to charge, scheduled for our nightly free hours, it'll be back to 100% for no cost before we know it.  

By the numbers:

Where	Start	End	Duration	Rate (c/kWh)	Cost	kWh
Masterton Z	13:18	14:01	0:46	79c	$14.70	18.6
Levin Z	15:19	15:35	0:16	79c	$7.98	10.1
TOTAL			1:02		$22.68	28.7

350 km

5h driving time

2 charges

1h 2m charging

28.7 kWh charged (64.4 kWh total)

$22.68 charging fees

Plus RUC ($76.00 per 1000km) $26.60 = total cost $49.28

Versus the Forester, at $2.57/L for 95 petrol, would have cost $89.95.

The Friday with a Fielday spontaneous excursion

 Hi,

Mike has already sorted out the weekend blog. And it is his birthday today. Monday is stunning here in Wellington. Serving up the best wintery weather for Mike.

Monday birthday weather

Sourdough

I did make bread when we got home Sunday evening. Yay!

Right.  How was our trip up to Mystery Creek? 

I left our house just after 4.30pm on Thursday in the Subaru. The traffic out to Lower Hutt was terrible. Crawling along the motorway. Probably got to Sally and Andrew's place just before 5.30!  Wow. Said goodbye to Sally and drove over Haywards to Transmission Gully. Filled up at Levin and continued north.

We'd decided to aim for Mangakino and Andrew booked ahead for that as we drove up. The weather was a bit pants. Drizzly rain. Fog - especially up the west side of Taupō. Got into Mangakino at 10:30pm. The accommodation was superb. Lake Maraetai lodge  We parked close to the front door and found our room 21 just opposite. Washed up in the shared bathrooms and fell asleep pretty fast. Andrew had read the weather forecast and like clockwork I woke around 3am with thunderstorms outside.

The lodge

Sunrise is coming

Up at 6am to shower. Nice big shower stall - but my drain was blocked so my Crocs were splashing around a fair bit. Everything packed and back in the car and away just before 7am. Another rainy drive through some windy roads towards Mystery Creek. Maybe 1.5 hours to our destination via some Waikato back roads.

Joined a fast moving line of traffic and into a paddock before 9am. Blue car park. Right next to a huge sign saying just that. We got into our Field day gear (decided to wear my hiking boots) and headed to the gate.

Just inside the gate

Huge

We got through easily and I was gobsmacked by the size immediately. So many vendors selling things. From gumboots to combine harvesters and everything in between. Hoping to get brekkie, we went to The Pantry building. But it was all gourmet style food and drink. We did get a lot of samples though. And a coffee from Rude Coffee.

Rude coffee

We bought some salami there - delicious. And continued outside to find food stalls. Andrew tried on gumboots - but they were too sloppy for his feet. We did get free beanies for his trouble.

I ate a delicious scrambled egg breakfast wrap for brekkie and watched a robot dog on a remote control entertain the crowd while I waited for Andrew to find his brekkie.

Then the day started in earnest. A lot of shops and stalls. I can't even tell you what it was like. All my fave shops in one space. Outdoor gear. Power tools. All sorts of gadgets to automate your farm. Tiny houses. 

The ground was not boggy. Tarseal mainly. Some woodchips in some places - but it was never muddy. We saw a fencing competition - the judge was using a level to check the gate that was hung. And then we watched tractor pulling for quite a while. Crazy.

We found Peter's work stall and Andrew chatted to someone from there. We got lunch from a Lebanese stall - Za'atar wrap. Very nice.

Andrew bought a lot of stuff for his track clearing work. Sturdy gear. Boots. Jackets. A saw. Good fun.

We walked 10km as we meandered around. And by 4pm we were one of the few left - a definite thinning out of the crowd by this stage. Picked up the boots the stall had saved for Andrew, a last taste in The Pantry and then out to the car. By 5pm we were leaving the paddock.

Easy road management meant we were off on our way so fast. Back to the 4 square in Mangakino and then home via Tūrangi Z to fill up. More rain. Probably had rain from Tūrangi to Taihape. But easy driving. Dropped Andrew home at 11.30pm and I was home just after midnight.

Read for a bit and then off to sleep around 3am.  

Such a good time. I would do this again, for sure. Fun!

Thank you for the spontaneous trip, Andrew. It was even more fun than I imagined. Actually, I had imagined an A&P show on steroids. But it was not like that. No livestock to be seen. It was all around vendors selling to farmers. But such effort went into every display. Well done to everyone.

Awesome.

Love,

Angela