The weekend with both of us down south

 Hi,

What a great weekend in Blenheim. I drove to the airport and into my prepaid covered carpark on level 3. Onto my plane nice and easy.

Picked up by Iona and taken to their place for a quick tea. Fritatta. And then whisked away to Sweet Creations to have dessert with Iona and Col, Sally and Andrew and Vicky and Alistair. Fun!

Up for 5am to watch the All Blacks play the Stormers on the first game of their huge SA tour. Not a convincing display but it was a second string side.

Ready for parkrun and Iona and I walked there. I got my fastest 5k of the year - and Iona was chasing me the entire way. She doesn't even run!

Post parkrun walk home

Walked home and bumped into Col and Twigg at Pollard Park. Walked home with them.

Went to Woollies and we were asked if we're collecting Ooshies. Iona said no and I said yes. I said I am looking for Baby Yoda (for Madeleine). The check out person gave us 2 unopened ones and then fished in a bag and pulled out a Baby Yoda and gave it to me. They had a swap day apparently. How cool is that?

Woollies check out person gave me Baby Yoda

Look at this lemon at Vicky and Alistair's place

Sally was gone when we got back from parkrun but we then took Andrew to Picton for his ferry home. We ate lunch at Toastie Lords - good but my "cheese" toastie had chunks of ham in it. Iona swapped her half for my half when I discovered it. Took Andrew to check in and as he approached the desk the woman said: And you must be Andrew.

We think he was late.

Hahahah.

Iced latte in Picton - Toastie Lords

Back home and packing for out 3.30pm pick up from Nicola. Yep - another adventure. She drove us down to Cheviot and we stayed in a nice motel unit. One double bed and 2 singles behind a curtain. Wee kitchen and a bathroom. 70s style but nice and clean and tidy.

Iona cooked up a delicious meal of pasta and salmon and pesto. And we were in bed very early. It rained through the night. And at 3am the volunteer fire brigade siren went off. Nic swears it was right by our unit. But Iona and I never even heard it. So odd.

Up at 6.30am to hear rain. But by the time we had brekkie, showered and packed it had stopped. 35 min drive to Stonyhurst Farm just south of Cheviot for the Wicked Rogaines winter series.

Sunday rogaine event - getting ready

Early first few minutes

Striding

Views from the top

Walking down

At the sea

Broken old wagon wheel

Slightly less broken one

Old bowsers

Home stretch

7 mins to go!

Flashback to coming down from the top

We had a great time. We were in the 4 hour event and did 960 points in 3 hours and 53 minutes. Pretty good. We wanted hills and navigation challenges. And we got them. We tried to get to the beach - but it eluded us. We thought we might be able to bush bash down a gully but we could not get down the steep bits.

Good fun. I could have drank more I think. I had about 500ml of Tailwind and some scroggin. But I felt fine. I can never go as fast as Iona and Nicola. 

Drove back to Blenheim - got in about 4.30pm. Showered and ate. And off to the airport for my 7.35pm flight. They left at 7.15pm - only 5 of us on the flight.

Got to the car at the airport (worried I would Uber home!) and fed the cats and had a good sleep.

Mike is back in Wellington too. He had a lot of Open Homes to view with Toby and Tessa.

I think I need more iced latte. My parents are in Lima today. How cool is that?

Have a good week ahead.

Love,

Angela

The weekend in Blenheim for some Spring Challenge training

 Hi,

What a huge weekend. I didn't go over to Blenheim until late on Friday because I was on Moxley duties as she came out of her post op daze from Thursday. She is doing really well, by the way. Says my completely uninformed vet brain.

Iona picked me up from the airport after a really bumpy flight. Well, the bumps on takeoff and crossing the Strait were fairly normal. But the sideways crab as we land and the one wheel bump and land was exciting. Well done, Sally (our pilot).

I was not long out of bed, to be fair. And up for Parkrun on Saturday morning. Iona kindly drove me to town and off I went. Not a bad time, I suppose. Iopna ran with me for the last 2km and I got a far better time with her than I would on my own.

Mitre10 cafe

A Mitre10 trip was squashed into our post parkrun gap. That was good. And then Col went to work and Iona and I went for a bike ride.

Cycle trail between Blenheim and Picton - a bit waterlogged

Up on the stop bank

Have a look at the bottom of the post for some pics from the ride we did. We rode up the cycle path towards Tuamarina. We negotiated a few puddles. But then the cycle trail went fully underwater and disappeared around the bend as far as we could see. We turned around and peeked a look behind Tuamarina where Maureen and I had got so muddy last time. It was fully underwater too.

So back to the stop bank on the Wairau - and Iona said we should try that. It was so good. Also full of long deep puddles. But Iona was in boss mode. And I finally figured it out too. Great fun.

Back to rest for a bit and then Malcolm joined us to do B line. We found a weasel! Worth getting back on our feet to do that.

B line traps

Classic Marlborough views

Weasel!

Bit maggoty

Joined by this one on B line

Sunday we were up at a more leisurely pace as we had an orienteering course to do at Bastion farm. Okay - that was hard work. We did the orange course. 5 km and 350m of elevation. But it took us 7km and 450m of elevation. Hahahah. We did it in 3 hours 33 mins. Phew. They only had a 4 hour window.

Orange rogaine

Great terrain up here - Bastion farm at the end of the Wither Hills

Walking, walking

And done

Down, down

Our map

Country Calendar

Back for some showers and a bit of TV and some delicious dinner and then off to the airport for my 20:15 flight.

Mike collected me and I was on bed pretty fast.

Thank you. What a great weekend.

Pushing through forst deep puddle. Iona did not come off her bike.

Getting back on

Here we go

Good fun

Have a great week.

Love,

Angela

The weekend with spring challenge training in Blenheim

 Hi,

What a mighty weekend down in Blenheim for our first team training of 2026 for the Spring Challenge. The weather was amazing - 28 and 29C while I was there. Super nice. Mike was also down in Marlborough with his friends doing a 4wD trip down the Molesworth and up the Rainbow. I hope he tells you about that too.

I flew really early Thursday morning to Blenheim - Mike kindly dropped me at the airport at 6am for my early flight. Iona picked me up at the other end and after a quick supermarket stop, I was set up in their back room for my working day. I met Suzie from California who was visiting with some friends of Iona and Col's from Ireland - Lou and Sarah. They were packing up to leave after staying a day or two. And I was taking over their space.

Yes, busy times in Blenheim.

I did get out for a run at lunch time with Nicola. She came and got me and took me to the mountain bike track at the foot of the Wither Hills. We did 3km and it was mostly in shade, so a good option from Nic. 

Lunch run with Nic

Got back to work and finished my long day with meetings. Then got ready for the real event - our Friday spring challenge training day.

Packed and ready Iona and I went out to quiz night. We picked up Victoria on the way. They have a new quiz now - out in Renwick. We came square in the middle (we briefly peaked at #1 during the rounds).

Back for a good sleep. Then up for the training day. Iona and I took her bike with us in the ute to Onamalutu and waited all of 2 minutes for Nicola to arrive. In a brainwave from her, we had her pedal bike and her eBike. 

We left the cars at about 8.50am and headed up the gravel road to the top of a saddle. It was still a little cool especially in the shade. But after the first gate, it got warmer. We lifted the pedal bikes over the gates, but the eBike had to go through the middle. Worked ok.

Friday training day

There was a fair bit of height gained in this part of our day. The road only went up. We surprised a herd of about 15 - 20 goats at one point. Iona and I were shepherding them up the road until they decided to veer off to avoid us. The billy was stinky!

A lot of up

A few gates to negotiate

Last gate before the top

At the top we went up a last wee steep bit to the start of the walk. We tackled the Wakamarina track and it was a beautiful walk. The bush was lovely and the elevation was a gentle sloping ridge for about 6 or 7 km. So nice. Well graded path too. I did lose my sunglasses off my cap at one point, and couldn't see them on the ground behind me. Asked Iona to check behind my on my backpack. Nothing. Then she said we did pass an overhanging branch. So I looked up - and my sunglasses were hanging on this really slender branch over the track at head height. Funny.

Top of our bike ride

Locked the bikes up for the walking part

Discussion at the start of the walk

I also got a  face full of bush lawyer on the way up. Iona took it off carefully and I only bled a little from the bridge of my nose. I also collected some on my arm near the top and got a more spectacular looking blood display there.

Drink pause

Bush was stunning

At Fosters Clearing

Decent climb

We stopped at Fosters Clearing at the top saddle and had some food. Then headed back down to our bikes. The ride down to the cars was amazing. 1 hour 48 to get up. 32 mins to get back. Wheeeeee.

Saturday saw Iona up with me to do Park Run. #31 in the bag. I did a combo of run/walk. Bit slow.

Park run

I look silly when I run

Col's peach tree

Big crop this season

We wandered over to Pollard Park to enjoy the Marlborough multicultural festival. Lots of good food and music. I got a boba tea and veg Indian food. Panipuri. Mmmm. Well - Iona and Col had to pay. it was all cash only.

Multi cultural event in Pollard Park

Boba tea for me

At Barb's quince tree

Then it was time to head to the Bat BBQ in Rai Valley. We picked up Malcolm and Marion too. And stopped at Barb's place to see if there was any fruit or veg to harvest (she had told us to do so).

At the Bat BBQ

The Bat BBQ was great. This is the trapline that Iona and Col do at Pelorus. Lucie from F&B runs the programme. So it was a chance to meet others and chat about the future work.

Back home and a big tea for Col and her sister Jack and her partner Kim that were visiting in their campervan. So nice to meet them. Iona cooked a great dinner after her huge day. Thank you.

Up for brekkie Sunday - oaty pancakes. And watched the Rugby Sevens in Vancouver. Jack and Kim arrived too.

At lunch time they headed off to a winery to meet a friend for lunch and Iona and I went to Whites Bay to meet Claire, John, Jacob and Ashley (and their friend George and wee Jean) and have a go in the kayak and SUP. Good to see Claire again. They had been camping for a few days.

Carrying the yellow kayak to the beach from the ute was hard work. My arms are now 2cm longer than they were.

Had fun lounging around in the water on the SUP and kayak. I managed to stand up and tootle around a bit.

Going home after SUP fun

Then back home to shower and order food. And then off to the airport. Nicola met us there and gave me some venison from Tony's successful hunt over the weekend. Thank you.  Nice flight home - we left early. It was full. 13 of us all up.

Got an uber from the airport for $45 and threw myself into bed. I was fast asleep when Mike got home at 11.45pm. I barely woke up.

And this morning he was off to town for gym and work. So I need to hear all about his adventures tonight.

Have a great week. I will not. It is Shane's last week and I am sad.

Love,

Angela