The Tuesday with the house on sale and Michelle flying home

 Hi,

Biggest news of yesterday is our house went on the market.  4 Norwich Street, Wadestown, Wellington, Wellington

The house looks amazing. Well done Mike for wrestling the house to the position where it looks so good.

5th place

Quizlera

I met Ange and Dee after work at The Green Man after Foxglove drinks to farewell Angie. It is all happening.

Jon and his mate Rain came - and John turned up after a few more drinks with Angie. And after a tough quiz, we managed 5th place. I was impressed. Our joker rounds were perfect. 9 and 10.

Ange took me home and Mike just got home after the last touch ups at home. And after a chat to Tom and Elly, we were off to bed.

Up for by biopsy morning. 3 things taken off. Stitches in my back. Looks tidy enough. Let's see what comes back.

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela

The weekend with spring challenge

 Hi,

Thursday saw Michelle and Tim hanging out with Toby and Tessa in Chc. They took them to Poms as you should. So nice to see pics from that.

Michelle and Toby

Mike dropped me at the airport and we had a quick tea before my flight on Sounds Air to Blenheim. Smoothest flight in ages - and no cloud.

Iona picked me up and we chilled at her place sorting out gear before bed. Up to get ready and Col took Twigg to the kennels. Then off on our roadie. Until the local bakery. Then I switched to Nic and Tony's car for the rest of the trip. They took the inland route from just south of Kaikōura - first time on that road for me.

Road trip

Iced latte in Kaikōura

Registration

Got to Hanmer Springs at about 2.30pm. Registered just before it officially opened. Met Iona and Col and went to our lovely accommodation. 7 Mt Charon Rd. Super nice place. Bathroom for everyone.

My room

Our route

We had tea while we planned our route. 6am start for the rafting. Nic was hopeful for a good time looking at the route. I just wanted to finish.

Col and Nathan

Brekkie of champions

Up at 4.15am. Dressed into wetsuit and bib. Brekkie. Then away at 5am. 3 of us in the backseat. Col and Tony in the front. Seamless transition to the start line. Short walk - but through a freezing stream immediately. Then transponder on and a wait to 6am. 

Lewis Road for the win

Team getting ready

Wetsuit and bib on

Woot!

And off. A 1.25km run to the rafts - all slightly downhill and not too rough. Into a raft with Mutton something team. And Zoe our raft guide steering the raft superbly.

An hour of paddling and we were coming into the beach to get out. Not too rough, not too bad a raft. I did jump into the front to try and get some timing. But goodness knows if that worked or not. Made me feel better.

Walk to TA1 and the support crew found us and helped us transition to bikes easily. Fueled up our bodies then off.

6 or 7km along a flat gravel road before some checkpoints and then into forestry. This was hard work for me. Any incline made it very hard work. And my bottom was not happy.

Rafting done and now on MTB part

Downhill was good fun

I did enjoy the route Nic and Iona planned. A lot of downhill to have fun on. I got quite mucky.

Not as dirty as last year

TA2

TA2 was after our compulsory gear check. Warm hat, jacket and first aid kit. Tick. Then into change to hiking mode. Lots of food taken onboard.

The weather was superb. Wind hadn't got too bad at all. A little rain on the MTB section but not much.

Hiking section

Walking, walking

Almost done

About 15km of route finding - another excellent navigation section from Iona and Nic.

Old trig checkpoint

And back down from Conical Hill into town and we got back before 3pm. We did it in 8 hours and 39 mins. So well done.

And finished

Off home after some cake and a welcome shower. Then an excellent tea - venison burgers. Yum. Ta Tony. 

I was asleep nice and early. But up at 3am (daylight savings kicked in so my alarm was set for 1:55am for the 3am start) to watch the Black Ferns v England in Twickenham. What a game. I am happy with the team even though they lost right at the end.

Brekkie, pack up and then prizegiving. In the pouring rain. The tent worked great. We were all glad it was not the weather the day before.

Prizegiving

Off at 11am and I was in the back of the ute. We got snow flurries on our way home. Phew! Lunch at Kaikōura. Then home.

Monday I went for a bike ride with Iona up Taylor River. 14km. And a wee walk to the gardens to see the flowers.

Monday ride

Nice 14km

Lunch at Revival

Pollard Park blossom

Tulips

Selfie

Home on the 18:25 flight. Mike met me and we went to Norwich St to get a few things done.

House

Garage is tidy

Looking good

Laundry

Top bedroom

Lounge

Kitchen

Office

Our bedroom

New blinds

Reminder

Then home for bed at Elly and Tom's place.

The house looks amazing thanks to Mike's huge efforts. Good on him. And everyone else for helping us.

Michelle and Tim fly home today. They even got snow in Queenstown. Wow.

What a huge weekend. Thank you to my team. They were amazing. What a fine way to finish our 3 spring challenges together.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with neighbours goodbye drinks

 Hi,

Again with no pics. Oh well. I worked from home yesterday. Ubered in and out for an appointment at Pacific Radiology on Lambton Quay. Easy as.

Mike worked in town. And headed home after work to try and sort out more garage stuff. I finished work and drove to our house. Ordered some food. We ate in the garage. Hahah.

Mike started fixing the drawers that need some attention. And then we wandered over to Amy and Simon's place for 7pm. Drinks to say goodbye to us and Fi and Brendan. It was so good to chat away to everyone. Flora. Rachel and Yazu. Juliette. Joan. All hosted by Amy and Simon. Amelia (Fi and Brendan's eldest child) is finishing high school and headed to Canterbury next year to study... Criminal Justice! We told her she will love it - like Toby.

By the time we left at 8:50pm Michelle and Tim had eaten at their hotel and were in bed. So we did not get to say goodbye.

They have an early flight this morning to Chc where they will see Toby and Tessa tonight for dinner at Poms.

We have photographers at the house today taking pics for the online launch next week. And luckily it is stunning here today. Drone shots should look good. That house is superb in the sunshine.

Have a great day. I am away tomorrow and Monday. Spring challenge race weekend is upon us. Let's go!

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with quiz night

 Hi,

After a wet grey morning the sun came out and we had quite a nice day. If still a little chilly. Michelle and Tim went for a run along the waterfront and visited Te Papa. They had a great time.

Afternoon was sunny after the rain

Winners

After work Mike and I got picked up by Ange and headed to the Green Man for quiz night. Quite a few of us were there. 9 maybe. Angie and Rob, Michelle and Tim, Mike, me, Ange, Jon and Jesper. Yep. And what a team! Despite Music round being a joker round where we only got 5/10, we won by 1 point. Ended with two perfect rounds of 10/10. One of them being our other joker round of Geography.

Said goodnight to Michelle and Tim and Ange took us back home. In bed and asleep very quickly. Up for gym for Mike. And there is only a high of 10C forecast today. Right now it is 7C and the wind chill is making it feel like -2C.

Yes. -2C. Michelle and Tim might never come back here. :-D

Hope your day is a good one.

Love,

Angela

The Monday with staging and dinner out

 Hi,

Oh - I took no pics. What? Sigh. Busy at work. 

Luckily Toby is supplying us great cat content from Christchurch

Mike left his hoodie behind,
and both cats are sleeping on it because it smells of him 🥹 

Mike headed to the house to work in the garage while the stagers brought in the furniture and artwork.

After work he gave me and Elly a virtual tour of the house. It looks quite different with someone else's take on how the spaces would be used. 

He got home to Elly and Tom's place and whisked me off to 1154 to meet Michelle and Tim. They had a great day in the sunshine (with a bit of wind) walking around. Cable car and botanic gardens. Waterfront. Town.

The pasta was delicious as always. I got to try a new dish. Carbonara. With mushrooms. :-P Mike had found an old drawing that Michelle did when she must have been about 5 or 6. So cute. So he brought that in and we showed her.

Awwwww.

Dropped them off at their hotel and got home and fell into bed. Up for PT session this morning. Back still a bit sore and tight. So a lot of work there.

Back to work from home. Rainy day today.

Pub quiz tonight at Green Man. Michelle and Tim joining us.

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela

The weekend with cleaning and moving out and Michelle and Tim arriving

 Hi,

So much has happened since my last post. Raf the builder came on Friday along with Sally and Andrew. Raf fixed a lot of the wee jobs around the house while Sally and Andrew packed up the rest of the house.

Sally did all the extraneous things still in the house. Andrew got the big pieces ready for moving. Raf did his thing.

Raf got the trim on the bathroom and now it looks nice and finished.

New trim on

Looks nice

He went out and got a new door and fashioned it into the wardrobe door for Mike's wardrobe. How cool is that?

Wardrobe door on

Kitchen cleared out

My last night alone

Tom came to help and Andrew and Sally got a trailer and they all got the last big things out. The bed went to Tom and Elly's place with the couches. And after Tom left, we got the bookcase onto the trailer for Sally and Andrew to take to their place.

That left me in the empty house. I decided to stay the night on the outdoor furniture squabs as my mattress. Worked great. Got Uber Eats. Went to sleep.

All gone

Bedroom upstairs

My sleeping bag in the lounge

Next morning

Chillax iced latte

Went to Chillax for brekkie. Read my book. Back to meet James the house washer. What a charming man. He even gave me a Mars bar. 

Reading with my iced latte

James the house cleaner was amazing

Looks so good

Front door

Never seen this part so clean

Steps

When James finished the front door area, the cleaning team arrived. I said hello to them and pointed out some possible issues. The new shower install. The new trim. The recent plastering. They were all good. Assessed it at maybe 5 hours of work. Wow. They were not wrong.

Top bedroom after the cleaners inside

Penny, Gloria and Tatiana were amazing cleaners. 4.5 hours - and they called in a 4th person 2 hours in. Good on them.

The place looked incredible after they left. The drawer on the downstairs bathroom was broken as was a drawer int he kitchen. But I supposed vigorous cleaning might do that to old drawers. We can sort those out.

Walls are so clean

Floor is so clean

Kitchen is so clean

Clean

Splashback looks like new

I went out to Juliet's birthday at Ortega Fish Shack for 6pm. What a lovely evening. So many people into the upstairs to celebrate her milestone. Juliet is a wonderful person to know. A lot of work people turned up and I sat opposite Barb. Michael was next to me and a very talkative dinner party guest. I learned lots about wine and food.

The food served was superb. Yum! Best gnocchi ever. Mike arrived and managed to get two courses of the food. Yay!

Then at 23:00 I took Barb and him home. We could not get Tom on our messages so we stayed the night in our house. Sleeping bags on the squabs. One last night together in the house. 

Shelley Bay Baker for brekkie

New fence at 40

Picked up Michelle and Tim from the airport at 3pm

Dinner at Seashore Cabaret

Mt Vic view

Mike worked in the garage all day and James came back to finish the outside. Less wind meant he could do the chemical part.

I went to see Sally and Andrew and got a wash on. Helped with their fence a bit. And then headed back to collect Mike and go to the airport to see Michelle and Tim arrive.

We ate a bagel and went to international arrivals and only just sat down when they came through. Whisked them to Sofitel in Bolton St and they stayed to shower. We went home to sort out our move to Elly and Tom's house. Elly made us feel very welcome.

Then off to pick up Michelle and Tim for tea. Seashore Cabaret for a decent meal with a lovely view. And a quick drive to Mt Vic to see Wellington at night. The brisk wind meant we did not stay too long up there.

So nice to see them both. I hope they have fun during the day this week. We will see them in the evenings.

Have a great week.

Love,
Angela