The weekend that was Matariki and in Chc for me

 Hi,

What a huge weekend over Matariki. After work went late Thursday, Toby and Tessa picked me up after Tessa had changed our reservation to be a bit later. They did have to sit in the car park at work and keep warm for a bit.

But Lillies was really good. A big open space. Good pizzas from a big oven. Unusual combos. We had buttered cabbage and speck (bacon) and cheese. Gouda I think. Speck just on one side. And what was the other pizza? Can't remember.

Got some "non-pizza" food too. Bitter leaves salad was one. Nothing bitter I could taste. And two desserts.

Phew.

Thursday evening at Lillies

Friday morning we met at Table for Monks. Had a lovely brekkie there. Toby watched Obsession (creepy movie from Quentin's recommendations) the night before and told me about. Yuck.

Table at Monks for brekkie

Outside so needed puffer jackets

View from my room

Matariki iced latte at Table at Monks

Confused daffodils

Toby at Table at Monks

We walked back to Worcester St and then drove out to Kaiapoi for the market there. Oh - that was a cute wee market. Lovely stalls. Chai to dai for (or something like that - Tessa loved it). We also bumped into Steph! How funny.

Snow on the mountains

Kaiapoi  market - we bumped into Steph

Wee bush walk by the market

Sunny!

Did you get the pic?

Keep modelling, Toby!

I am done now

We went to Toy Story 5 at Slinky Otter in the afternoon. Good movie - I liked it. Then to the gastropub next door for some light food.

Movie time - Toy Story 5

Kaiapoi fireworks

Back to Kaiapoi for fireworks and a light show. Great fun! We walked a lot and the place was packed. Huge traffic jams when the fireworks finished. But we avoided all that - the light show took up some time and it took us a while to walk back to the car.

Light show

Awwwww

My feet

Me looking at the spacewoman

Some planets not to scale

Awwww

Selfie time

Toby and the trees

Toby and me

Is that a mushroom?

Tessa takes a closer pic

I got dropped off back at my accommodation. And I was asleep very quickly. Up early for parkrun. It was cold. I walked to Worcester and Tessa kindly got up and dropped me and Toby off at Riverlution for our run.

She went to Little Poms to secure a table for us. And timed our coffee order perfectly so it was waiting for us as we got to her.

Walking to Worcester for Parkrun

Start of parkrun

Crispy morning. Toby did just a few seconds over 30 mins. And I did better than last week. But still not good enough to make me happy. Just under 36 mins for me. I am still a bit chesty from my cold.

A volunteer had his electric guitar

Post parkrun

Someone took our pic for us

Beautiful light walking back to Little Poms

Iced latte at Little Poms

Back for brekkie with Tessa at Little Poms. Great, as ever. Got me a special badge from Garmin for running with temps below zero. Hahahah.

Frosty badge

Concrete breeze blocks does not a mansion make

How to get this old lock off?

We got Tessa's old bike from Steph and Sam's garage and bought stuff to get it back up and running. Gears are mostly ok. Back brake is a bit sticky. We got lights and a new helmet. New tubes. Changed out the old presta tube from the front as we had to pump for that.

Tessa rides her bike

We had a late brunch at C4. I like that place.

C4 for brekkie

At the ice hockey - women's match

We found out the women were playing ice hockey, so we went to that. Queenstown were up to play 2 games back to back over the weekend.

The other 2 teams in the league are Auckland based.

Inferno lost to Wakatipu Wild. 3 to 1.

But it was so good! I loved it. Bought a jersey to support them!

At the night market in Ferrymead

You have no idea how cold I am in this pic

We went to a night market at Ferrymead for dinner after the hockey. I was full on shivering and could barely work my phone. Luckily some dumplings warmed me up enough. The night market was so cute. Lots of stalls. An indoor bit with a huge bouncy castle for kids. Very nice.

C4 earlier

Sunday I was up early to go to CityFitness - about 100m from the Break Free hotel. Toby walked over and we did some running and weights. Bench 40kg. I did 3 reps and Toby did 6 reps.  3 sets of that. Tried out deadlift form. Toby's form was good. And did some woodchoppers.

Sunday morning gym

Woodchoppers with Toby

Back to the hotel to shower and check out. Then down to Black Betty for brekkie. A great brekkie place.

Black betty for brekkie

Over to The Tannery for a poke around.

The tannery

Tūranga  - Toby tries a Penny-farthing

Then back to Worcester where I fell asleep watching YouTube. Story of my life with YouTube. Up for a walk to the Antarctic exhibition in a refurbished brick building by the Avon in town. But they had packed up and the building was empty. So we checked out the library and walked to Poms for some dinner.

He's on it

Toby and Tessa dropped me at the airport and I figured out the ticket with staff at AirNZ (Mike booked it but wasn't travelling).

Got to Wellington at 21:00 and met Mike. Yay! He whisked me home and I was not long out of bed. 

Thank you to Sally for feeding the cats while we were gone. Mike was back Saturday after his work trip away. So the cats would have been very happy.

Up for work this morning. Me from home, Mike from town.

Hope your week is a good one.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with work and travel to Chc

 Hi,

What a funny day Wednesday was. Worked from home. Busy. But got away to get my Uber at 2.30pm. AirNZ had said there might be weather delays - but my regional flight to Chc was on time. Yay!

Smudge finds her early morning spot

Lewis Road for the win

Found Toby and Tessa in pickup and soon we were in town near Break Free - my accommodation. But we decided to get some dinner and Tessa wanted to try Banh mi. And it was delicious.

Found KaTLa at Chc airport

Toby and Tessa

Banh mi for dinner - yum

My room

I checked in easily (remembered to have a credit card this time - they could not handle my phone credit card last time) and waited for the concert to start.

The reason I was here in Chc was because Mike and Toby wanted to see Peter Hook and the Light playing. Peter Hook is the bassist from Joy Division and New Order. Not my cup of tea. But I was happy to come for Matariki.

But with Mike sent to Singapore for work, Toby had to find other friends for the concert. However, his main punter pulled out and his next buddy also piked an hour out. I looked at Tessa and she looked at me.

And I decided to go.

We walked there at 6.45pm to the Town Hall. We were there last year for Spacey Jane. I never knew there were different theatres inside the town hall. We were in a similar bit different venue from Spacey Jane.

Toby and I were very early for the 8pm start. We could have been right at the stage - but we hung back a bit to enjoy it all.

Early birds at the Peter Hook and the Light concert

Let's go!

Selfie

Peter Hook

Halftime water refreshment

Big song

Toby was having a great time. He knew a lot of the songs. I am glad we travelled together last year and I heard a podcast series on Joy Division. Gave me background context I guess.

It was good fun. The band are very good and they seem to be living a great life. I know 3 songs. And they came towards the end. In fact - might have been the last 3 songs. I assume their biggest hits.

I am happy I went with Toby. It was good. Didn't get back to my hotel until close to 11pm. Toby walked me back - thank you Toby.

I was asleep when I turned out my light in 5 seconds flat.

Strange bandit iced latte

Up to Uber to CityFitness for my PT session with Quentin. Ear buds in and him on my phone worked great. He could hear me easily. Did bench. 40kg 4 reps x 4 sets. Then some triceps/biceps.

Off to Strange Bandit for brekkie and now at work.

Hanging with Toby and Tessa for the weekend. Not much planned. Gym. Parkrun. Not much else. A pretty chill time. Mike is back Saturday morning. Yay! Cats will be happy.

Thank you Sally for looking after the cats.

Enjoy your weekend.

Love,

Angela