The Monday with dinner out with Christine

Hi,

Well, after a busy day at work and a gym session thrown in, I made to head home.  Mike and I exchanged texts and he asked if I was still meeting Christine for dinner.  What?  Oh - I had forgotten my dinner out with her.  I got a hold of her, and arranged to meet her at the Backbencher for dinner.  Got changed out of my bike clothes and back into work clothes and headed off.

We had a lovely dinner, catching up on each other's news.  I told her about Japan and bike riding.  She told me about her visit to Sydney.  We caught up with Toby and Tom news.

Mike then said he'd come and collect us from town and drop Christine home.  Toby texted me with a grocery list (Yakult and Lewis Road chocolate milk).  Hahah.  Given my addiction to Lewis Road iced coffee, I agreed to that grocery expedition at once.  So Christine and I wandered around New World in Thorndon and Mike collected us from there.

We dropped Christine home and we got home and went to bed almost immediately.  I was asleep in seconds.  Toby came into our room quite late and he was a bit sick.  So he has the day off school today.  Hope he's ok soon.

Right.  Time to start the day in earnest.

Have a wonderful day.

Love,
Angela

The weekend in Auckland with family for Aunty Claire's birthday

Hi,

What a great weekend!  We had a fabulous time in Auckland visiting family.  I started it off well with an iced coffee with Rex at work to catch up on news.  Mmmmm.

Mixed Business iced coffee

Then Toby came into work and I was a little delayed by my company meeting that went way longer than usual, before jumping in the car and finding Sally and Andrew in there with Mike.  Oops.  We hurtled off to the airport and ate our way through a mountain of food using Sally's koru club membership.  The food was pretty good.  Toby enjoyed the on tap lemonade.

Eventually we boarded our flight.  We were in the last occupied row in the plane.  But it was a fast trip and soon we met Sally and Andrew at the Budget rental office (they were seated in row 2 so got off way earlier than us).

We headed to our accommodation on the North Shore.  Some holiday park on Northcote Road.  It was clean.  Our car was a hybrid Camry.  Very nice.  It started with just the push of a button.  No key needed (so long as the key was close by).  Andrew and I enjoyed driving it over the weekend.

Iced coffee at Honey Cafe in Huron St, Takapuna

After a late night, it was a hard morning to get up and shower.  Even harder for my boys, because I am pretty sure they never saw the inside of the shower.  They chose a further sleep in over personal hygiene.  But we drove to Honey Cafe in Takapuna and had breakfast.  I haven't been there at the weekend before.  The iced coffee was not as good as I have had there before (despite an extensive iced coffee menu now) and the service was quite slow.  But I enjoyed my eggs benedict when it arrived.

Rangitoto looks great from Takapuna Beach.  As do my feet.

We popped over to Takapuna Beach as we were quite early for lunch at Aubergine.  Checked out some shops and enjoyed a wee walk on the beach.  It certainly has a stunning view.

Social interaction on the beach

Sally and Andrew enjoy a wee walk

Toby graffitis the beach

Aubergine was very pleasant.  The food was quick and cheerful.  It was great to catch up on Mike's cousin's recent events as we don't see them all that often.  Bev is in a new house in West Moreland so we have to go see that.  Her view is stunning of the Southern Alps.

Aubergine for lunch

Aunty Claire's lounge for a cup of tea

From there we headed to Aunty Claire's place to enjoy a cup of tea and Vivienne's fruit cake.  As a celebration of her 90 years, we went around the circle relating our fondest memories.  It made for a bit of entertainment.

We then dropped Toby off at the Sampson house and had a cup of tea there.  A place to relax after the social pace of the day.  The Sampson family are in fine form - as always.  Toby slotted straight in and we left him there for a sleepover.

We had to buy a toothbrush from the local dairy for him to use.  A Colgate rip off called "Calgote" and the description on the packet was hilarious.

From here we ate at Hallertau Brewery and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Hallertau Brewery - Mike contemplates his flight of beer

Back late to our accommodation and after a little breather in our room, Mike decided against further social activities that evening and we were soon fast asleep.

Mike got up pretty early because Sally was frantic for coffee.  I stayed and packed up and showered.  Relaxed reading before meeting everyone to check out.

Sally, Andrew and I then went to find breakfast ingredients to meet Andrew's cousin Dot at her place for brekkie.  She made this scrumptious breakfast with beans and eggs and rice.  Wow - I need to learn to make that.  It was great to see her house.  It was in a coffee table book on small eco friendly houses.  It felt really lovely.

Eventually I got too antsy about Toby being at the Sampsons house too long and Mike and I decided to leave Sally and Andrew there and go collect Toby and come back.

We got a tea with Wally and Lesley and Toby even got lunch.  But we left and collected Sally and Andrew from Dot's on the way to the airport.

A little diversion to Icebreaker (for me) and Carls Jr (for Mike and Toby) but we got checked in ok.  Our late flight was delayed so they fitted us on an earlier flight.  Sally and Andrew got the 5pm one and we got the 5.30pm one.  Yay!  So much better to be home early to get ready for the week ahead.

My boys are cheeky and using the wheelchairs for seats while waiting for our flight

Smudge was happy to see us.  And Toby fed her and she was even happier then.  I ironed for the week. Mike tidied up.  And I fell into a coma in bed.  What a busy weekend.

This morning is stunning here.  My morning run was really pleasant.  And my ride in was ok (only ok, because I still have knobblies on from the previous weekend).

Wellington turns it on

The week looms large.  But this weekend Toby and I have a house booked in the Wairarapa.  Woot!  Can't wait for that.  I'll do a long bike ride by myself Saturday morning and Toby and I will go an off road ride Saturday afternoon.  Then the rest of the weekend will be enjoying ourselves.

Have a brilliant week!

Love,
Angela

The Thursday with packing

Hi,

I got home and started tea.  It was a bit tricky - the patties were hard to keep together in the pan.  But they were tasty.  I guess I was over it all by the time I ate. And Toby didn't like it - even though it had bacon in it.  And the salad was definitely healthy.  Great big gobs of broccoli.

Bacon and kumara patties with broccoli salad

Anyway, I got Toby some toast eventually.  Also did the laundry because we're away this weekend.  At least that will be done when we get home on Sunday evening.  Packed for the weekend - for me anyway.  The boys still have to pack.

After wanting an early night, it didn't happen.  It's a shame for me.  Maybe tonight I can get a good sleep.

We're off to Auckland to celebrate Mike's Aunty Claire's 90th birthday.  Woot!  The Gilbert side of the family is descending en masse.  Should be a good weekend.

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with WoW

Hi,

What a great way to finish the day.  It was Ange's birthday and she has a tradition in the past few years (like six if them) of going to see WoW.  We were lucky enough to grab some tickets with her this year.  When Roanne had work commitments get in the way, we got her two tickets too, so I invited Mike and Toby along.

Toby came to my work around 5pm and entertained himself for a while until I was ready.  Mike got a wee bit delayed at his work, but we were soon meeting Ange and her family and friends for dinner before WoW.

The service was really rather slow, and the food was nothing to write home about (so you're not hearing anything - hahahah).  But it met the need.  It was all about WoW (and Ange) anyway.

We entered the TSB Arena and found our excellent seats.  I think the jazz band warming the audience up was making Toby slightly nervous about sitting through whatever WoW was going to present to him.  But, once the show kicked in, he was obviously quite taken with it.  Lots of dancing, fantastic light shows and of course, the costumes themselves.

I needn't have worried about Mike and Toby.  They seemed to enjoy it immensely.  I may have drifted off to a light doze during portions of it.  Apparently the sci fi section was really good.  I seem to remember hearing David Bowie's "Major Tom" but I can't recall any of it.  Pretty sure that might be when my head fell and woke me up.  Oops.  I also got a little horizontal in my seat at one point.

Well, it was past my bedtime.  And warm.  And dark.  And noise hardly ever keeps me awake. And we were up last night until 1am collecting Toby from the airport.  All conditions that are perfect for sleeping.

The boys were very pleased that we went.  We got back to the car and headed home and all collapsed into bed.

Time to kick start the day.  Thursday.  Woot!  Have a good one.

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with Toby coming home

Hi,

I caught up with Ange and Celia for a lovely lunch yesterday.  It was good to have a decent chat to them both.  And the cafe at David Jones was ok.  However, their "frosted latte" sounded too good to miss.  They came and said they had no ice and would it be ok to make it with ice cream.  Totally would!  And it was very good.

Iced coffee goodness at David Jones cafe

Went home with Mike after work and Mike cooked tea for us.  Some yummy bean wrap thing.  More tricky to make than the usual meal but it was very tasty.  I especially liked the avocado and corn salsa.

Yummy bean wrap dinner

After tea I went to bed.  Mike had homework to do but eventually came to bed.  Then we were up at 11.30pm to get ready to collect Toby.  His flight was due to arrive at 12.25am but when I checked the airport, it was 30 mins early!  So we hurtled to the car and to the airport.  We only waited about 10 minutes before Toby came bounding out the door from immigration.

We chatted away on the way home but all went to bed very fast.  I was asleep pretty fast, listening to Mike's "Space Time" podcast episode.

We have WoW on tonight.  Should be amazing!

Have a great day.

Love,
Angela

The Monday before Toby comes home

Hi,

After a hectic day at work, I managed to catch Sally briefly to get the WoW programme off her.  I'll read that so I know what to expect on Wednesday night.  I caught the bus home with Mike and we separated into our tasks for the evening.  Mike had to cook tea, while I had to clean the bikes after their epic weekend adventures.

I ended up having to get the hose onto them because the gritty mud had caked itself on.  Threw degreaser on, hot soapy water and a scrubbing brush.  Managed to get both bikes clean.  Then, I dried the bits that needed drying and went inside.

Mike had just finished tea - teriyaki beef with rice and salad.  It was quite good - but not one of their best.

Teriyaki beef!

After dinner, Mike headed out to his tramping meeting and I lubed the chains on the bikes and put them away.  I then tidied up the kitchen after the bombshell that is Mike cooking.  Got it fairly tidy before heading to bed.

I was fast asleep when Mike got back and could barely hold a conversation.  I hope he wasn't keen to talk about his meeting because I would have made for a poor sounding board.

We walked in again this morning.  Last day like that for a while because Toby comes back late tonight.  Yay!

Wee Smudge will be so happy to see him.

Have a lovely day.

Love,
Angela

The weekend with one of the best presents ever

Hi,

Wow - just - wow!  Sally and Andrew certainly looked after me with my birthday present weekend.  Three days of mountain biking fun in the central North Island with the Timber Trail as the highlight.

Iced coffee at Sugar Plum Cafe north of Bulls

I stayed the night on Thursday at Sally and Andrew's place so we could get up super early and get away.  I think we left their place at about 5.30am on Friday.  We figured we'd eat breakfast somewhere around Foxton and planned on checking out the cafe there where Andrew knows the owner.  But Andrew's friend's cafe was closed (in fact, for sale) and the cafe options in Bulls were closed completely and we didn't fancy a kebab for breakfast.

We kept driving and finally stopped at the Sugar Plum Cafe north of Bulls.  But it was shut as we pulled into their car park.  We were looking at Taihape for brekkie when the cafe opened up.  So we got a nice iced coffee and a good breakfast.

It took us a while to get to the Timber Trail, not too far from Taumarunui.  We got to the car park and got kitted up.  It was almost bang on 1pm when Andrew and I left Sally.

We were immediately into lovely bush and I was slightly anxious as I am not very experienced at trail riding.  A few muddy puddles had me stepping off as I lost a bit of traction.  But with some guidance from Andrew, I was starting to get a feel for the difference.

We popped out of the bush onto more open terrain and climbed up steadily to the top of the hill.  No real views as it was a bit cloudy.  I swear I saw the outline of Lake Taupo through the misty rain at one lookout.

First suspension bridge

Once at the top of the hill, it was a much easier ride for the rest of the day.  We also encountered some suspension bridges that were superbly engineered.  Like a cobweb of bridge.

I'm the wee fluoro dot in the middle

Happy cyclist

Had a lunch at this wee shelter.  We saved the sardines for the next day and scoffed jet planes and bumper slice.  Mmmmm.

Not far from Piro Piro campsite we headed off the trail towards our accommodation.  Blackfern Lodge.  Which was surprising as it was 7 kms away and had a hill in-between to negotiate.  We entered a private property for the lodge and rode up a steep hill covered with pine.  It meant the ground was soft with pine needles and the odd pine cone.  Andrew called the pine cones "hand grenades" because they made your tyres do unexpected things if you rode over them.

But we got to the lodge at 6pm. 5 hours wasn't too bad for a newbie like me.  Andrew cleaned the bikes and my bike has never been so well looked after.  We walked to a gorgeous wee waterfall and then had dinner.

Dirty cyclist 

The lodge provided food and we just had to warm it all up.  Beef hot pot.  No cell phone reception so we were hoping Mike could find the place in the dark.  He left work at 4pm to head up in the wee green car.

I was asleep in seconds after turning out my light.  At 3am Andrew knocked on my door and Mike was in the car park!  Woot!  However, Mike was slightly grumpy having had an epic search for the place and ended up sleeping on the porch of the office of the lodge - which was about 1km back down the road.  His snoring woke the husband of the owner up and Mike was directed to our rooms.  Yay!

Mike slept in a little - he might have got around 5 hours sleep in the bed!  We had brekkie and then loaded up and headed for the place Andrew and I left the trail yesterday.  We were away riding by 11am.

Suspension bridge on the second day

Before we got really dirty

At the shelter we compared legs and how much dirt we had on them.  And also scoffed those sardines.  Mmmmm.  The day was a bit more drizzly than yesterday.  But the trail seemed to absorb the water quite well.

Lovely scenery

Negotiating the trail

Once we got up the main hill, the downhill on the other side was amazing.  It was the timber trail proper for a good portion of it, and we could get a smooth rhythm up on the continuous downhill.  You'd just keep an eye ahead and let the bike run (the boys were far better at that than me - I kept the brakes close) and avoid tree roots and branches and pick your line.

Dynamic effort from Mike

Lovely bluffs

The wet weather did mean we were really dirty by the time we got to the end of it.  We past a Russian family (mum, dad, two children around 10 years old) not too much before the spiral.  They were going well,, despite the conditions.  

The last wee bit was great.  We went downhill for kilometres - the best parts for me were the bits through wee cuttings.  We also went across open areas used to turn the tram locomotives.  We saw old camps for the loggers.  There were old bits of trams scattered around from time to time.  I did so much downhill that by the end of it I could keep up with Mike.  keeping up with Andrew is another matter entirely.

The spiral was superb - it's a way for a train to get down a steep bit by coming down around itself - usually with a bridge/tunnel option.  Andrew stayed high on the bridge and took photos of me and Mike coming out of the tunnel as we rode over the bridge over the creek.  Once off the hill, we were skirting farmland until we got into Ongarue and met Sally.  Andrew took the back road to Taumarunui (28km) but I chose to get warm in the car.

Really dirty cyclist

Sally, Mike and I drove back to collect the wee green car and we drove back to collect Andrew in convoy.  Then off to Ohakune to find our accommodation there.  A chalet at Ossies.  It was small but not too bad.  I jumped in the shower because I was cold and dirty.  We headed into town to get dinner.  We ate at an Italian place.  Osteria I think it was called.  Quite good thanks!  Just what we wanted.

Crashed into bed and read for a bit before a great sleep.  Up late-ish and had breakfast at Mountain Rocks in town.  Then Sally dropped us off at the Old Coach Road and we started our ride back to Ohakune from there.

I was expecting a rail trail - but it was actually a lot more varied than that.  It had a lot of cobblestones still in place, which made for bumpy riding.  It was also muddy and had loads of tree roots.  We met a family out biking at the old viaduct.  The girls (aged maybe 8 - 12) were fascinated when Andrew climbed past the No Entry sign onto the old viaduct.  The mother made sure to point out this was not ideal behaviour.

After passing them a few minutes later, we climbed up out of a valley and along the top for a while, before a lovely downhill.  It was only about 9 kms all up, but it took a wee while as the going was quite slow.

Old viaduct

Another old viaduct

 Towards the end, after a big downhill, I followed Mike's line through a boggy puddle.  He almost came off so I slowed.  Bad mistake.  I bogged and actually fell off.  Fortunately I landed on soft grass and did no damage.  Except to my pride as Mike looked back and laughed at me.  Cheeky thing.

We enjoyed the other old viaduct and walked up and down it.  Andrew rode his bike back over the old sleepers on our return.  We explored the old tunnel that the new line had sliced through.  Back to the car park and around the roads back to Ohakune.  We found Sally easily and stripped off and loaded up the bikes and headed home.

Iced coffee at Brown Sugar Cafe

Tom foolery

We stopped for a late lunch at the Brown Sugar Cafe and enjoyed the sunshine.  Mike and I drove the whole way home with the roof down.  I sang nearly the whole way.

Selfie on Paekakariki Road

When we got home, wee Smudge was so happy to see us.  Purring like a wee engine.  I cooked tea and we ate that and fell into bed.

Dinner was chicken with ratatouille

What an amazing weekend.  Such a wonderful present.  The memories will last a lifetime.  Thank you, Sally and Andrew.  Sally was happy to drive around for us and pick up dirty wet bike gear whenever we left a wee trail of it behind us anywhere.  Lucky she likes driving and reading!  Andrew was his usual cheerful self, riding behind me and giving me lots of good advice on how to switch to riding on the trail.  So patient.  And Mike was easily able to outpace me on most of the trail and absolutely loved it too.  So it was a good team!  Such a well organised trip.  Sally should arrange holidays in her spare time!  Went like clockwork.

Toby is due back tomorrow night.  Yay.  They celebrated Dad's birthday on Saturday together.  Happy birthday Dad!  Smudge will be happy to see him.  And I can't wait either.

Have a fantastic week.

Love,
Angela