The weekend before Waitangi and then our trip to Waitangi

 Hi,

I feel like I have been away for so long. I want to do a special post for my trip to Waitangi for the actual Waitangi Day event. But I will touch on it here.

No cat content below. You are warned.

We were lucky to tag along with people from work with koru membership. So we got to eat as we flew the length of the motu from Wellington to Auckland and then to Keri keri.

Koru lounge iced latte

Flight to Auckland

Dining hall

We were met at Keri keri airport by our bus driver and he expertly got us on the bus and whisked away to Lonsdale Park accommodation. Totally old school camp. But work supplied new sheets for the DoC style rubbery mattresses and it was luxury compared to tramping.

Lonsdale Park

We got bedding

And all the stuff to stay healthy

We got settled in and discussed the logistics of Waitangi Day. Really dived into the tikanga of it. What to expect so we were culturally safe. All the risk assessment dialogue and what to do should it need to be enacted. I will explain more in a later post.

Up at 3am after a 9pm bedtime. Bus left just after 4am and we parked at the petrol station in Paihia. Walked up to the Upper Treaty grounds through the dark. The service had started - but only just.

Dawn service

Sunrise

So many speakers. All with short kōrero. Then the piper and the flag raising just as the sun peeped over the far hill. Stunning. Cold! Standing in the dark we all got a wee bit chilled. Okay - Mike was shivering for ages.

Selfie

The rest of the day was in hot sunshine. And so much fun. A real family festival vibe. Stalls for kai. Clothes. Crafts. The sort of celebration of a bicultural country you would expect.

I teared up a few times at the emotional side of it. Seeing the unity of Aotearoa. Seeing the pride. The passion. I loved it all.

Hikoi flags

Selfie on upper treaty grounds

Hot now

Navy weighs in

Ladi6

After the dawn service and the hikoi kōrero, it was a real festival scene. Stages with kapa haka groups. Ladi6 at the end of our day. She had the audience up and dancing.

Back for fish n chips at the camp. And so tired. Off to bed. Up to clean and pack up. Then our flight home was delayed. But they held the plane in Auckland for us.

Mike explores

Ohh - the flagship shop is here

Auckland looks stunning

Hello beautiful maunga

Cats happy to see us. Good to be home.

Thank you for such an amazing opportunity.

Love,
Angela

The weekend in Christchurch to say goodbye to Toby

 Hi,

We were hosted in Christchurch by David, Steph and Sam and they really looked after us.  Drove us around and showed us some of the best cafes and swim spots in the city.  And we met loads of Steph and Sam's friends as well.

Toby has great support around him for the start of his uni adventures.  

Mike and I were up at 4.50am to get ready for our 5.20am Uber to the airport.  The cats were in good hands with Ange coming to visit a few times to ensure they were fed, watered and patted.  She doesn't give them food until she gets a pat.  Thanks Ange!

On board our ATR for the flight to Chc

Landed in Christchurch and got picked up by David and Toby and Tessa from the airport.  Didn't expect that.

Went to Little Poms for brekkie and I met Steph and Sam for the first time.  They are such a lovely couple.  Very chatty and smart.  Full of interesting facts and Sam loves iced lattes.  What more do I need to say?

Mike looks too caffeinated by far

Little Poms was great - I had the grilled haloumi and it was good.

Selfie

Steph and Sam's flat

Toby, Mike and I went to C1 as we explored parts of Christchurch.  We needed to get a few things.  And needed lunch too.  The iced latte here was so good.  And the cafe had just the right amount of quirk along with its good food and coffee.

C1 is amazing

Went out to the bigger Poms for dinner.  I have no idea what it is called.  Pomeroys?  Maybe? [ed - its full official name is Pomeroy's Old Brewery Inn.] Anyway - ate a huge meal of a salad with buffalo mozzarella.  Mmmmm.

Back to Ashford Motor Lodge for our accommodation.  Same place we stayed at in 1992 for our first date.  :-)  Nostalgia. Mike even spotted Unit 17 where we originally stayed.

Ashford Motor Lodge Unit 17

Slept well.  Up for brekkie at Riverside Market after Mike did a 7km run through Hagley park.  Riverside Markets is great!

We had sushi train and I then ate my way around a few other shops.  Mmmm.  Then Mike, Toby and I went down to Rebel to buy some clothes for Toby.  Then New World and finally walked back to Sam and Steph's house.

Iconic Christchurch photo

Sunday evening saw us head to John and Nic's place for a BBQ.  In a surprise, John's parents were visiting.  So we saw Mike's Uncle Robert and Aunt Judith as an extra bonus.  Had a lovely time catching up with them.  Flynn and Reuben are now really tall (16 and 12) and play a lot of football.  John is their coach.  Nic barely batted an eye when 7 of us turned up.  We had great food and dessert too.  So good to see them all - they all looked well.

Back home to bed when I found myself getting sleepy around their dining table.  :-)  And I took no pics of our evening.  Grumpy when I realised that.  Sorry everyone.

Up Monday morning and ended up getting picnic/BBQ things and going to Waipara River for a wonderful swim.  Ate food the entire day.  And watched families all enjoying the respite from the 29C day.

Waipara river

The swimming hole is there because the Waipara Adventure Centre next door has carved out a channel from the river into this section of the river and added weirs on both sides so they can manage the water.  But with low levels due to the summer dry, they may have to drain it as it is not getting the flow through they need to keep it good quality.  But for now - it was superb.  Refreshing.

Stunning feet

James cooks the BBQ to perfection

Lovely spot

Picnic in full swing

Tessa's amazing lemon meringue pie

View back to our spot

I drove back and hit Christchurch long weekend traffic.  Oops.  But got to Steph and Sam's place, relaxed for a bit before going with Steph and David to wander around the campus and see where Toby is staying.  The Ritz blocks at University Hall.  Couldn't get in but had a look in the windows.  Nice dining room area for all the halls of residence.  Huge laundry area.

Met everyone back to Rollicking Ice Cream and shared a dessert with Mike.  Mmmmm.  Yum!  Then Mike and I said goodbye to everyone - especially Toby.  And we walked to our motel.

Had a good sleep despite the really warm room.  Up for online PT session with Quentin.  Arms.  I feel like a gorilla now.  Then Uber to work.  And turns out CityFitness is 1 min walk away.

Take care.  Hope your day is a good one.

The weekend with Waitangi Day and dragon boating

Hi,

Well, it has been ages since I posted.  Hahah.  Thursday was Waitangi Day (public holiday here in NZ) and I had Friday off work.  Hence the lack of a post.

Waitangi Day Mike and Toby (and Tessa) were up at midnight to make their ferry.  Trurns out they were an hour early for it.  Hahah.

I was up early (but civilised) at 5.30am to get to my PT session at 6.30am.  Went from there to work to shower, then collected Andrew from home before heading through Haywards to Paekakariki.  We ate brekkie at The Perching Parrot (ok - despite the continued lack of iced lattes, I like that place!) and then drove a short distance to Campbell Park.

Hongi part of the powhiri

After checking out the stalls and finding a coffee van that sold iced lattes, we got told it was too close to the powhiri and they were now waiting until the end of the ceremony before selling drinks.  Oh!  Good on them!

The powhiri was good fun.  Andrew and I milled around with the visitors before tagging onto the back and going into the reception area.

Great speeches (showing my complete inability to follow te reo with any competency - shameful) and waitata.

Stalls around the outside of the park

Finished and drove back to Sally and Andrew's place well ahead of his lunch with his friends.  Home to chill for me (via the supermarket).

Her fave spot on a sunny day

She sleeps next to me on the couch

Friday was lazy (apart from a flurry of work excitement late in the working day that I had to ring in about).  Read lots. 

Saturday saw me up early to check in with work stuff and then off on the bus to town for Fun Day for dragon boating.

Ready to take it on!

We had such a good day.  Joycie sorted out all our needs in the tent.  Matt and Leanne brought in baking.  Yum!

Our timing was awful for most of the races - but we improved through the day.  Last race we won!  Wow!

For me, it was very interesting.  My upper body strength has improved so much that I find our pace really slow and I could actually either go faster or go further.  In previous years by the end of the race I am sucking in lungfuls of air like a starving fish.  No, wait.  That analogy doesn't work.  Fish don't have lungs!

But this year, at the end of every race I was just breathing heavily with the tank still available for a tiny bit of extra mileage.

I don't think that analogy stands up well either.  But thank you Quentin.  Obvs you are doing the biz.

Relaxing 

Sunday was relaxing.  And Google informed me of my January stats in its stalker mode.  2020 starts off with a bang!  16% around the world!  Oosshh!

Google stalking me

Have a great week ahead.

Love,
Angela