The weekend in Massey Hut at Turoa

Hi

We left work on Friday and got a bit distracted by beer and chips at Husk with Momo, Jo and Andrew.  But eventually Mike and I got home and got burgers for Toby.  The weather for Saturday was supposed to be awful at Turoa so we changed our 4am getaway to a 7am getaway.

Daffodils in the garden

Toby was critical-path boy and we were a bit late collecting Jo from her house.  We were more like 7.20 than 7am.  We got maccas from around the corner from her house and ate that int he car to varying success as we drove up SH1.

A leisurely drive up - we got to Massey Hut on Turoa around 11.30am.  Found ourselves a bed and emptied the car.  Janine and Bre were trying to turn on the generator which wasn't straight forward.  But that was nothing compared to turning on the water.  Mike and Andrew arrived in Jacqui's car and set to shoveling snow off where they think the water tanks were located.

After furious digging (there was a lot of snow and I think the designers had no brain) they found the tanks, opened the trapdoor and sent Andrew down 2m to turn on the water.

Meanwhile, Jo put her fire-making skills to good use and started the one inside the hut.  It burned coal - a bit different to the usual hut fires.  She got pretty dirty - so she was happy once they turned on the generator for the water pump and the water itself.  Hahah.  

Tip to anyone:  carry wet wipes when you are with Jo.

Anyway, the weather was awful - windy and snowing off and on.  But some decided to try the skiing.  Others (without seasons passes etc) decided that was dumb.  There were times when I think the ones that stayed in the hut called it right.

Long queues and a short run, in dodgy weather.

I think she's faking that smile - the queues were so long

My view for most of Saturday

We had 3 runs on Park Lane, the only lift running, in 2.5 hours.  The queue was so slow.  It was a triple, and non-detachable.  So it could not keep up.  The snow was good.  But the run took 15 minutes, if you really dawdled.  Lots.

However, at 3.30pm, we decided to re-locate to the cafe.  When we were scoffing a scrumptious hot chocolate in the cafe (thanks Jo!), Jo noticed that Movenpick had opened at about 3.50pm.  We threw our gear back on, skulled the hot chocolate, and leapt on.  Got two runs in before they closed the lift.

Yay!

Back to Massey Hut and cooked tea.  The dinner was a great chicken fajitas meal - brilliant.  I had a vege one - mushrooms, capsicum and onions.  Mmmm.  I think Toby ate 3 chicken ones.  I must do them!

I managed to squash a shower into the gap between dinner and dessert.  The womens shower was a trickle so I went into the mens.  That was a little better. 

After dessert and a lazy lounge in front of the fire I headed up to bed.  The hut was an old A frame style building.  With the sleeping above the main area, I thought it was be so warm up there.  Nope.  ice box conditions.  And Jo, Jase and Toby were in the top attic.  Above all the other sleeping bunks.  I think they were the coldest.

 Anyway, with Mike and I in our double sleeping bag, and his other one on top, we were toastie pie warm.

Up to eat and pack up.  Which didn't go so well and had me grumpy with it all.  But, anyway, we got away.  Mike took Jase and Toby initially to sort out lift passes, ski gear and anything else.

I went skiing with Jo, Momo, Janine, Ana and Jacqui.  Did Nga Wai Heke first up and the snow was gorgeous.  Not a cloud in the sky, either.  Bit windy, but the wind died down during the day.

Eventually I caught up with Mike and Toby.  After lunch we switched and I skied with Toby.  We had such fun.  Skied Park Lane - too easy.  Then Movenpick.  Too easy.  Giant kept us busy for a bit.

Toby chilling with me

Start of some selfies

Let me try and get the mountain in the frame, Toby

Pump drinking model

View!

Selfie time!

Andrew chilling in Massey hut

Helmet hair

Jase after his second lesson for the day!  With a massive grin!

Jase had two lessons - one at 10am and one at 2pm.  He loved his 2pm lesson!  Oosshh!  Took him up Park Lane and he did well.  Hopefully he can make the weekend for Jo's leaving party on Sept 28th weekend.

Ana had a huge fall while out with Jo, Bre and Mike, Andrew and Momo.  They ended up on an icy slope that they couldn't traverse out of on their board (Jo and Bre - Mike was delayed entering this part of the field by a call of nature and the snow patrol told him not to go down, so he walked out), so they both went down on their bottoms, and took a bit of a hammering.  But Ana started down the same way despite Jo shouting to avoid it, and she slipped and fell over 100m down the slope, lost her skis and ended up cartwheeling.

However, she ended up with massive bruises - the doctor cleared her for the drive back.  Momo drove - Ana was still very shaken.  She will be very sore for a while.  Lucky she got away with the little damage she got.  What a nightmare.

Anyway, we got away ok at 5pm.  Got to Jo's house at 9pm.  So not too bad at all.  Ate maccas on the way at Levin.  Jo has had more maccas in this weekend than in her previous life.  She doesn't like that.

Unpacked a bit at home.  Mike and Andrew got dropped off by Jacqui (she has a new Forester, so they took that in preference over the Corolla) not long after us. 

Fell into a deep sleep.  Need more tonight.  Hahah.

Thank you to Janine for organising it.  And the company.  Thank you Toby for skiing with me.  I enjoyed it.

Love,
Angela

The Thursday before Friday

Hi,

The blog post title is a reference to a line in the podcast Mike and I are currently listening to.  He should get it.  Unless he was laughing so hard he missed that comment.

Looking cold in the morning 

Looking almost the same in the afternoon

Selfie with Rex

I got home after work - and discovered Mike in bed with another migraine.  He and Toby caught separate number 14 buses home at the same time, and played leap grog with each other.  Not sure who actually won.

Beef stew in the slow cooker was the hearty fare for a cold winter's evening.  With mash.  Because the boys keep requesting it.  Although I now suspect it is Mike that keeps asking for it.  Toby asked why I didn't cook it with rice.  Indeed.  Next time, Toby!

Slow cooker stew - it's the weather for it

 And wee Moxley likes to start the night under my duvet.  Smudge used to do that but grew out of it.  I hope Moxley continues to do it.

Moxley under my duvet again

We're up early tomorrow (away at 4am) to go skiing for the weekend.  All of us - even Jase.  He has Saturday off to join us.  Yay!

We're staying at Massey Hut on Turoa.  Never done that before.  It's a bit more rustic than the WTMC lodge on Whakapapa.  I will report back on Monday.

Enjoy your weekend.

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with not a lot

Hi,

Happy birthday to wee Abby for yesterday!

Highlight of the day might have been an iced latte with Andrew at 8.15 or so.  We chatted about the weekend plans and I showed Andrew the Facebook messages he was missing.  Hahahah.  When I got back to work, I sent him and Mike an email to try and nut out any potential gaps for the weekend.

Well, that snowballed out of control.

I went home with Mike after work in the car and cooked tea for us all.  Stir fry.  It was so good.

Haloumi stir fry - yum!

Chicken stir fry - I was informed it was yum!

Iced latte and weekend planning

What are you doing?  Andrew is surprised by the test photo.

Also chatted to Jo a bit - trying to sort out some finer points for the transport at the weekend.  And then hit the bed and fell asleep in some sort of exhausted feeling.  But my brain was working, as I woke at 4am for some reason.

Might have been the weather.  It is still cold and wet.  And the duvet ended up scrunched in a bundle that had both of us in a fetal position to try and stay under its warmth.  Hahahah.

Have an awesome day.

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with dinner

Hi,

Mike and Toby made me analyse my Spotify playlist.  Hahahah.  I am totally like a sixteen year old girl in my music taste.

They got that right

Pop?  Ok.  Yes.  

Energetic?  No chill music, apparently.  Like, none!

And... I listen in the mornings mainly

But, it was pretty accurate.  Go figure!

Jo picked me up after work and drove me home.  She wasn't super well and crashed out on the couch while I made tea.  Sausage casserole and mash.  Everyone liked it - it has been a while since I made that.

After that we adjourned to the garage to try and fix a few things.  Jo's driver window is stuck in the down position.  Not good in the driving rain we've got at present.  Her struts for her tailgate need replacing - and we ran into issues there.  A captive bolt rusted out and now we can't attach the new struts.

And we tried to start the DR.  Nah.  Not happening.  Battery all good.  But it didn't want to kick over at all.

We all went to bed in defeat.

But, hey.  Today is another day. 

It is so cold and wet.  Brrrrr.  Hope your day is a good one.

Love,
Angela

The Monday back at work

Hi

Back at work after such an awesome weekend.  It's a hard transition.  But the day came, and went.  I did leave early to meet Mike at 3.15pm to head to Toby's school for a career option thing.  Toby had already sussed it all out.  Someone mistook Mike for a presenter and started to usher him to a table to talk about a career in IT.  He decided to opt out of that.

It was cold, so Moxley got under the duvet with me

Mike bought milk.  Jase bought milk.  We have a lot of milk.  Should last...  about 3 days?

I blame Moxley

We all went home on the bus - jumping to a 22 from Lambton Quay up to The Terrace.  It was pelting with rain.

Cold, too.

I went grocery shopping and then everyone ate whatever.  But Tuesday night is sausage casserole night.  Oooohhhh.

Jase made himself loads of chili mince to eat through the week.  He's sick of the food from his work, or heating up something from the freezer.  Good on him!

And... the day begins.  Cold still.  brrrrr.

Have a great day!

Love,
Angela

The weekend with a road trip to see Pink in Dunedin

Hi,

What a great weekend - but first up, on Friday I said goodbye to Bunto @ Machete.  She's off to work in government.  Andrew took a pic to commemorate our last iced latte served by her.

Goodbye Bunto

After work, Jo came over and stayed the night.  Burger Wisconsin was the call.  We watched a movie (can't name it as it might be a fairly new release - but Chris Pratt is rather handsome) and then crashed into bed.  Up early to get away by 7am and get to our flight on time.

Wonder what this is like?

There was a kerfuffle on the flight with my seats.  Someone else had been allocated the same seat as me.  I thought I was going to get bumped off as the flight was full.  But it turns out my seat had been re-allocated at some point.  The hosty that sorted me out was lovely.  Morgan makes me want to fly Air New Zealand.

It was delayed about 20 mins, but when we got to Chch we got the car from Apex fairly easily and then set out to find Vanessa at the Coffee Club just by the airport.  Mike was navigating.  We ended up at my work's office.  Hahahah.  Turned around and found the cafe.

I have no photo of our perfectly nice Toyota Corolla.  Automatic - but the dashboard made up for a lot.  I loved how they laid out the electronics. And it certainly went fast enough when you put your foot down to overtake anything.

Iced coffee with Vanessa @ Coffee Club near Chch airport

A big hello to Vanessa.  It was so good to see her.  And I appreciate that she hauled herself out of bed to  say hi.  I had an iced coffee and an eggs benedict.  Yum.

We finally left the cafe and tried to buy pink hair dye but the chemist had been cleaned out by other Pink concert goers with the same idea.  I think I dodged a bullet.

Said goodbye to Vanessa - but so happy that we've convinced her to come up skiing for Jo's last weekend at the end of September.

Moeraki Boulders

Popped into see the Moeraki Boulders - such a lovely day.  I was only in a t-shirt.  Then on to Dunedin.  Dropped in to see Mike's mother and she had us all sorted out.  Bus routes planned and sandwiches if we wanted them.  After a quick stop, we walked into town.

Where are we?  Hi Robbie!

The Octagon was absolutely buzzing.  Everything was packed.  We eventually found a Mexican restaurant down an alleyway and they had space.  Well, temporary tables on the dance floor.

Mexican cantina

My burrito was good - so no complaints from me.  The lighting was odd as the floor was lit from below.  Kinda weird - but also - kinda good!  I'd go back.

I look so posey

With all the crowds, it was easier to walk to the venue.  And that meant we got to wander around the campus.  It was lovely.  The Father's Day hamper turned up so Dad tried to text me and accidentally called me.  So I called him back and we chatted as we walked around.  We checked out the Forth St flat - which looks the same.  I reckon we could have used a credit card and pushed the front door open as we used to do.

Happy Father's Day for yesterday to the dads I know.

Wandering through the campus

Mike and Jo and clocktower and blossom.  All the icons.

Entering the Forsyth Barr stadium was painless.  Even getting a free drink of water and a toilet stop was easy.  They were very slick with their bag searching, wand waving (we all got wand searched) and finding where our seats were.  We got our seats and had a great view, despite being as far from the stage as it was possible.

Pink!  The stadium was amazing!  Pink made it even better!

The DJ on was called KidCutUp and he was so good.  The audience was bopping along to his tunes.  The Rubens was the support act and played from about 7.50pm to 8.30pm.  Then KidCutUp came back on while the stage was swapped out for Pink.

9.15, the lights went down, and the party started.  And what a party it was.  Pink was so good - the whole 2 hours was such fun.  A good mix of songs from Beautiful Trauma and her previous hits.  Mike and Jo were blown away by her performance.  I was already completely sold!

I don't know how she does it - day after day.  But, it was superb.

The concert finished at 11pm and we walked back to Mike's mother's house.  I think we got home around 11.45.  Not too bad considering the crowds leaving the venue and the steep hill to negotiate.

Up early-ish the next morning and had brekkie with Mike's mother.  Mmmm.  Toast.  And Mike and Jo had Weetbix.  Perfect start to the day.  It did make us realise how short our stay was.  But it was so nice to see Mike's mother, the house, and Dunedin.  We need more weekends like this.  Without Pink.  Well, Pink isn't necessary.  We don't need an excuse to visit.

Old house

The only thing we decided we could squeeze into the weekend was a visit to Tunnel Beach.  It's not far from the house I grew up in, so we also popped in to see that.

Tunnel Beach was the best place to visit.  Wow!  Just, wow!  The path down is very steep, so you need to be prepared for a heart pumping walk back to the car.  But the scenery is stunning.  And we had a lovely morning for it.  The gorse gave the foreground the colour of gold, and the sea a steely blue.  Yep - it made me feel like I was home.

I composed the frame and captured Mike and the beach

Mike did the same photo.  Took ages fiddling.  And then chopped my feet off!

Jo on a rock

Windy - and Mike is taking our photo behind us.

I'm in the sea cave, checking the incoming waves

In the tunnel - and I think I look possessed.  But Mike said I looked like a saint.  Hmmmm.

It was windy at the top of the hill overlooking Tunnel Beach

That wee dot in the sea is White Island.  That wee dot on the hill is Jo.

Jo looking into the churning sea

The colours of Otago

I may have gone a little overboard with the photos of Tunnel Beach.  Sorry about that.  I will come back here anytime I am back in Dunedin.  I'd love to see it in all conditions.

We drove back via the back road to Green Island and hopped on the motorway.  Back through Dunedin and through to Oamaru.  We stopped here for a roast lunch.  And some bread.

Jo and her building (see the name above her?)

Mmmm - bread!

My mushroom stack

Jo tries a genuine cheese roll

Back in Chch around 6.30pm.  Dropped the car off and into the airport at 7pm.  Our flight was delayed again - but only by 10 mins.  Same hosty on the flight as the way down - she chatted to us.  Picked up the car from the airport, and back home by 10.30pm.

Jase was funny - he was so keen to talk to us and vent about his work.  We hardly see him during the week, so I think he missed the chance to talk lots to us, which is where the weekend comes in handy.  But hopefully we have a chance to make up for it tonight over dinner.

Slept like a log, believe me.

Hope your week ahead is a good one.

Love,
Angela