The weekend in Wellington with parkrun and rugby and trapline

 Hi,

I had such a social weekend in Mike's absence. He was off down south visiting his mother with Toby and Tessa. Sounds like they had a great time. 

Mike down south, ready for Parkrun.
He says it is chillier than Singapore and they added more hills to Dunedin Parkrun

Saturday saw me up for Waitangi parkrun. I met Lisa and some of her friends. I did my fastest 5k this year - which was weird because I am still not fully over my cold and did blow my nose a few times. But yay!

We drove up to Chillax near our house for brekkie. Then back to our place to get ready to pick up Maureen and head to the rugby.

Iced latte at Chillax after parkrun

Chillax with Lisa

Parkrun

Parkrun with Lisa's friends

Parked on the street near Maidstone Park in Upper Hutt and we went into the Mitre10 for a coffee. Well, I had a hot chocolate because I was a bit cold. Thanks Maureen!

Elly joined us there and then we wandered over to the game. Which had started! Wellington Poua versus Waikato Manawa. Elly has a pass because she is a member of Poua. But she stood with us on the touchline near the 22 anyway.

At halftime Elly took Maureen to the grandstand to find a toilet. Elly was trying to convince the staff to let Maureen up to the fancy toilets (instead of the portaloos for anyone attending for free like us) and they were umming and ahhing about it. When a former Black Ferns and 7s player walked past, heard all this, and gave Maureen her pass.

And who was this player?

Ruby Tui. 

Yes, Maureen got a pass from Ruby and went and checked the facilities. And tried to hand the pass back to Ruby, and she was like: nah, you keep it.

Wow!

Anyway - this was an awesome game. Poua smashed it in the end. 47 to 33 I think. Great skills all round.

Walking to the rugby

Good day for it

Happy selfie

Sunday saw me up for trapline with Maureen. Mike was away and our other weekends are already full. So it was this weekend or never. Mind you, Andrew said he could sneak up and do it all if needs be. Maureen and I have kindly left him some work to do.  :-P

The day was stunning. Maureen picked me up at 9am and we were off up Sunny Grove nice and early. Maybe close to 10am by then?

We only got 1 rat the entire trapline. We did all of SG, half of KAT and the top of UTS. It wasn't cold or wet or windy. Super nice in the bush.

Sunday trapline

In the creek

Lunch spot

What a poser

Maureen dropped me home and I did some housework before going to Kara's place for dinner. She is back from her trip away and put on a lovely meal for me. Nut roast. Roast vegetables. Pilau rice. And some cabbage, leek mix.

Dinner with Kara

So nice to catch up with her adventures and plans. Good to hear about her mother and brother and how they are keeping. We planned a few things.

Then off to pick up Mike. I was there a while because he thought he was getting in at 9pm. But when I arrived there was no flight from Chc at that time. 9:30pm. So I tracked that flight and figured out it was the one he was on. Sat down and waited.

Mike was a little bit surprised to be so late as well when he turned up. He'd written "9pm" on his weekend plan and like me was a bit puzzled why it got in so late. No, Mike was wrong and Air NZ was right. Lucky it wasn't the departure time he got wrong!

He was tired after his weekend too. Tucked him into the car and then into bed. Hahah.

Up Monday for Mike to gym with Quentin. We have a few meetings about the house today. Let's see what they say.

Have a fabulous week.

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 Monday as the tag end of a long weekend

 Hi,

What a huge weekend. I met Maureen for brekkie Friday after her gym session. Then returned my pants to Mountain Warehouse and got dropped off home.

Tidied a bit.

Thunderbird cafe iced latte

Zucchini from Celia

Saturday saw us up early - 5am - to drive to Palmerston North to do park run there. Why?! Well, why not?! 

We collected Janine who parked at Pauatahanui, which is right by an offramp and onramp. We collected her with a quick off transmission gully and back on routine.

Park run was by the river and it was a very brisk cool southerly. I did ok for my first run in ages. Achillies was good. 38 mins. Bit slow.

Approaching the finish line in my green jacket

Next task was to bag some non-DOC huts for Janine. She is collecting hut visits and is onto these less official ones after visiting all 50-odd huts in the Tararuas.

First on the list was a hut in someone's backyard, close to Parkrun and 300m from the river for the Te Araroa walkers. The couple who live there were very interesting. Fiona had worked with Iona at the hospital and did pilates for ages with her. There was also someone staying in the hut.

Hut after park run

Then brekkie at Moxies, the famous Palmerston North cafe, while the car recharged. 

Off to Moxies

Moxies iced latte

Then off to Te Whare Moturimu, a hut recently opened and specifically for Te Araroa walkers. It was about 30 min drive down a rough gravel road - the MG handled it superbly - and another 15 min walk down a forestry road. 

Te whare moturimu.

We headed home after that. I made a sourdough and got ready for Sunday trapline.

Smudge

Sourdough

Picked Maureen up at 8.30am and Andrew at 9am. Got the gear on the way and we were walking at 9.35am. 

Bit drizzly - but it cleared up by the time we got halfway up the hill. We got a stoat on SG line. Right near the top. Well worth getting out of bed for that. Callan did his trapline with Luke from work and got two stoats - and a cat! Wow. 

Stoat in SG2

Happy trapper

Keeping boots dry

Took me and Maureen about 5 hours. That included a lunch stop and faffing about with eggs puncturing and lure spraying. We did not catch Andrew. He said he saw our cross on top of UTS6 so we were ahead at that stage. He must have hurtled up KAT and back along the track while we blundered around in the creek for a few hours.

Smudge in the sun

Monday Mike got up for gym with Quentin. Then home and we bundled into the car for a ride and run along the Kāpiti coast cycle path. Stiff southerly - I had to pedal downhill!

Over the Expressway

Mike running

Angela biking

Ice creams

Ice creams in Waikanae afterwards - I got an affogato flavour. So nice. Then off to Epuni to check the unit and add some numbers to the freshly painted front door. Called in on Sally and Andrew on our way home.

Numbers all lined up

What a great long weekend. Busy. Outdoors.

This morning I bussed in and did squats and bench with Quentin. I will walk home with Barb. Woot!

Hope your day is a good one.

Love,

Angela