The weekend with some fun despite poor weather

 Hi,

Made some bread on Thursday night - yay! The weather was really bad heading into the weekend. No tramping for us.

Sourdough Thursday night

Friday I got up and did some housework. Got so much done. Shower is now spotless. Luxed. Washing done. 2 loads!

Then headed to La Cloche with some cardboard and newspapers to get some lunch for me and Andrew. Yeah - that sentence made more sense in my head. 

Andrew had an op at the start of the week to fix his hand. And I needed to make a volcano. Andrew has been so bored that the prospect of watching me make a volcano in papier mache was better than TV or a book.

We ate some yummy food and then made flour paste and I created a volcano. Mostly. This is for Shane at work to make a mini golf course for our planning week. Hahahah.

Friday iced latte from La Cloche with Andrew

Volcano takes shape

We stayed for tea - Mike came out on the 6pm train and ordered burgers for us all. Picked them up and enjoyed some YouTube with Sally and Andrew before heading home.

Smudge owning the cat tree

Refinement of the volcano

Refined the volcano on Saturday a bit. Went foraging for paua shells at Makara beach in the freezing cold to adorn the inside of the kete Iona made for me. We were on the beach for 10 minutes and my face was numb with the cold. Hahah.

Drove home via the back road and Mike was not pleased with the narrow roads there. Hahah.

Putting jackets and hats on to forage on the beach

Kete with kai moana shells

Up Sunday early to drive out to collect Andrew and head to Ohakune for the day! Yes. I know. Mike was keen to know how the EV handles long road trips. We started with a full charge. Grabbed Andrew. Went over Haywards. Stopped at Waikanae bakery. 

Sunday morning - we are off!

Negotiating the streets

Waikanae bakery

Tararua range has a decent dusting of snow

Andrew played with the car's infotainment screen and found a navigation mode that showed our expected range on the navigation map along with some (not all) of the public chargers. We stopped at Bulls with 60km remaining and charged at the community hall for about an hour 20. Grabbed some food at a cafe. Explored the lovely hall a lot. We chatted to some lovely women working in there. A beautiful building designed by Chris Kelly from Aus.  Apparently he did the Wellington library too.

Bulls community centre - Mike takes the stage

"This is how you do it"

Looking back at the hall

Peach teats!

Then off to Ohakune where we charged up behind New World. Mike had some issues with the elderly, clunky charger there. We had to park sideways across two parks to make the really short cable reach, and the charging session kept stopping and needing a restart. With just two public chargers in Ohakune, Friday night snow trips are going to be tricky.

Anyway we explored TCB ski shop and had some lunch while the car charged up.

The Ohakune charger refused to give us more than 80% charge so we left to go to Z Waiouru to charge for a bit. We probably had enough to get back to Bulls, but wanted to see how this charger went. The charger worked well but the conditions were bleak, with icy rain and about 3 degrees. We stayed in the car there.

From there we got to Levin on just under 50km range - the car's rangefinder map went red as we entered the outskirts of Levin! - and used the Z charger there. Went to Kiwi Grill, just up the road, for some really delicious old school fish & chips / burgers / toasties and ate in the shop while we waited for the car to charge up. Got to 70% and headed home.

Levin charging

8 hours' driving - 590km - 120kWh of power used

By the numbers:

Where	Start	End	Duration	Rate (c/kWh)	Cost	kWh
Bulls Chargenet	10:55	12:08	1:13	90c	$30.63	34.0
Ohakune Chargenet	13:46	14:32	0:46	85c	$21.03	24.7
Waiouru Z	15:07	15:36	0:30	79c	$8.27	10.4
Levin Z	17:43	18:22	0:40	79c	$18.29	32.2
TOTAL			3:08		$78.22	101.3

590 km

8h driving time

4 charges

3h 8m charging

101.3 kWh charged (120kWh total used)

$78.22 charging fees

Plus RUC ($76.00 per 1000km) $60.80 = total cost $139.02

Versus the Forester, at $2.57/L for 95 petrol, would have cost $205.60.

Dropped Andrew home and then got to our place where I made another sourdough.

Sourdough Sunday night

Moxley was suddenly alert when
a Cuscus turned up on the screen

Then she curled up and relaxed

And laid on top of me after
I'd got up to sort the sourdough

Big weekend. Off to bed. Slept so well - had no idea it was waking up time until Mike got up. He rushed off to the bus and I did a few things. Push ups for one. Day 6 of the push up challenge.  128 needed today.

Have a wonderful week ahead. My parents will be coming into Perth soon on their cruise. Woot!

Love,

Angela

The weekend up at Ohakune

 Hi,

What a lovely weekend. Before we left on Friday afternoon, I spotted a kotare on the wires outside our house. My fave bird.

Kotare on the wires above our house

And I did ask Shoshana about the starter and it seems to have finally kicked off. Yay! Hopefully it is happy until Sunday when we get back.

Starter going great

We left home at 4pm and picked up Nico from work and then headed to Paramata to pick up Alexis. Turns out they both knew each other from NZQA. 

A very pleasant drive up to Ohakune with a stop for tea in Bulls at the Tahi place. Much nicer pad thai than in Dunedin recently.

In Grads

Up at 6.30am to delicious scrambled eggs courtesy of Mike. Away from Grads at 7.30am and up at the top car park at 8am.

Umm. There was no snow.

Where is the snow?

Stunning day

Hello other maunga

So I decided not to ski. I am anxious about other people around me - and with no off trail and Saturday bluebird weather, it was going to be crowded.

I read lots. Caught up with people as they came to the base cafe. Sat in the car and relaxed. And when Mike told me about the conditions, I actually think I made the right choice. But I am sad to have missed a day skiing.

Lunch break with Alexis

Got my pass

Mike boarded with his friend Amy and got into tiger territory. I picked up my new pass with a day on it to use Saturday or Sunday this season.

Caught up with Mike

And got him a leash

Finished at 3.30 and back to Grads to shower.. Except they ran out of gas and I did not get a shower. So off at 6pm to Kings for tea at 7pm. Service was slow - but they told us that well in advance. And they were lovely. The food was excellent. Luke and Anna joined us - then Amy dropped in too.

Mike got his jacket from Park Run that he left behind 6 weeks ago. And dropped his board off for a tune up. And found out they do Old Coach Road bike hire and transfers for $60. So I decided to do that on Sunday.

And Alexis and Mike came too. Mike dropped Nico off at the mountain in the morning. And we went to TCB to get the bikes. We had a great ride. 10am pick up from TCB. Dropped at Horopito at 10:20am. The police followed us to do a check on the passenger vehicle. We saw them doing it later with another bus too.

We were off. Chill in the air - and crunchy ground in the shade. But such a great time.

Sunday fun - my bike is called Tina

So ready for it

Negotiating the stock gate

Old viaduct

Alexis only does urban riding, so this was a bit of a different prospect for her. But she was amazing at it. Never gave up. And that was with a battered body from her snowboarding the day before.

Almost at the restored viaduct

My bike rests

New viaduct for the trains today

Walked over the restored viaduct and had some lunch on the other side. Watched several groups of cyclists get a bit lost and circle around the road from below. Funny.

Mike on the restored viaduct

Back to TCB about 1:30pm. Lovely ride. Lovely customer service. Nipped up the maunga to pick up Nico. And then we were off (after a drop back to TCB to get Alexis' bag from her bike).

Easy drive home - ta Mike. After dropping off Alexis and Nico, we were home to see the cats at 6:45pm. Got them fed and the car unpacked and had some tea. Cheese toasties. Mmmm.

I got my sourdough ready for Monday baking. And then we were in bed. I slept so well. Mmm. Up to sort out the washing and the sourdough.

Rose overnight

Is this a tight ball?

Scored and ready to bake

Let's see what happens to the bread. If it works.

Hope your week is a good one.

Love,

Angela

The weekend with possum run

 Hi,

Big weekend - and it included Mike's birthday. I got in a gym session on Friday and cranked out my push ups. Phew!

Friday gym

We were packed and ready to go by 4pm. Bharat drove over to leave his car here - so we waited for him for a bit. Then headed into the traffic to collect Janine from her work. That was easy enough. She works our side of the town. But negotiating to pick up Paul was a bit harder - through town into the other side. And then up to his place to get some things he had left at home.

But not long before we were away - and the traffic out of town up SH1 was really good. So much better with these new bypass roads. The weather was pretty bad on the way up, and the wipers were smeary, but we made good time nonetheless.

Cats happy

Friday tea in Taihape

We stopped in Taihape at 7.20 or so for tea. Roast Cottage on the main road (left side heading north). My sister Karen would have loved it. I got roast veges with gravy. Others got roast meats. It was really rather delicious. Good call, Paul!

Some weird British sewing reality TV show

Into Ohakune with Mike safely driving us there about 9pm. Matt was there at Grads to settle us in. And Mike and I found a warm room and we were not too long out of bed.

Up early for Park Run in Ohakune. This was the first official park run. Mike had run it before - before it got official status. They did a wee dog leg to add the 200m needed to get to 5k.

I did the 5k in 36 mins or something. It was my first 5k run post covid so I was a little out of practise. Mike came in at 30 min and five seconds. Paul came something like 5th or 6th. And everyone else did well. The first 2.5k is slightly uphill - more than you think so it seems harder than you expect.

Post park run iced latte at Utopia Cafe in Ohakune

Loved our brekkie at Utopia cafe. And then we were off to Taupo. Found our accommodation - Camellia Court. Cheap and cheerful. $40 each for our 5 bed unit. 

Turangi

The team went to register and came back to get ready. Mike was so ready for it. And it was reasonably dry - no rain for a bit despite the outlook.

He's ready

They're ready

They are all ready

All eight of them at the start

The race started at 1700. I stayed in the unit and I noticed the rain start at about 1915. Some of them copped that. They got back at 2230 and I was fast asleep. But it seemed like it was a tough race. Hilly. Slippery. Rough. Long. Did I mention long? Way longer than 21k. Mike did 23.3k, in 3½ hours. Whew!

Mike said that the medical staff had a great night, with a heap of blown ankles to keep them occupied along with sending people to hospital with all sorts of interesting and novel injuries.

The start

During - it's dark!

The end - Janine gets her medal

Into bed quickly and up for Mike's birthday. He got a t shirt from Janine (he wore it for the race. "If I collapse, stop my watch". Hahah) and a Bluetooth meat thermometer from me.

Birthday morning

Replete birthday coffee

Driving home past Peach Teats!

A quick brekkie at Replete (that is my routine) and off home. Easy drive back to town. Rain off and on. And Bharat nicely took Paul home as it was (kinda) on his way.

We unpacked and started washing and had tea. And now the week starts!

Hope your week is a good one.

Happy unbirthday Mike.

Love,
Angela