The weekend in Wellington

 Hi,

On Thursday I WFH - and got away for lunch to visit Iona and Helen at Otari Wilton bush.  Yummy cheese sandwiches and the first time I have seen Helen in ages and ages. She was up for a wee walk and we poked around admiring some of the trees and shrubs. 

Hello Helen

Hokey pokey biscuits

Smudge!

Okay - you want some food then, Moxley?

Friday saw Mike in town for work and me at home. Mike dropped the Subaru off for a WoF - without the trailer as we have not finished the tail lights yet.  And I promptly forgot to collect it from the garage at the other end of the day.

Oops.

Saturday saw Mike up for Park Run in Lower Hutt and me on the treadmill at the City Fitness over the road. 

Then a quick brekkie with coffee with Sally before off to Epuni to get the first top coat onto the outside of the windows and the back door. 

Back to WLW for lunch. Yummy food from Sally. I was so full.  Zucchini and tomatoes and risotto.  Mmmm.

Mike headed off to Brewers Fest with Janine and I headed home to feed the cats. Mike got home later and we slept well.  

Run, Mike!

Striding to the finish

First top coat

Lovely colours for lunch

Reading spot

Up early Sunday morning to meet Maureen at the car park at the end of Woodmancote Rd in Khandallah for a walk up Mt Kau kau.  Great idea, courtesy of Maureen.

Sunday walk up Mt Kau kau

I see the harbour

Almost there

Views!

Then back down to Dunshea's deli at the bottom of the hill (next to Automat - which was not yet open). I had a delicious tofu scramble with bombay potatoes. Very nice - would recommend.

Dunshea's deli had great coffee and brekkie options

Back home to start more trailer work. But got distracted by a hunt for the hot glue gun. Then I headed to Bluebridge to meet Iona for a quick catch up as she waited in her ferry queue.

10 mins with Iona in her ferry queue

From there, I grabbed some groceries on my way home. And then chilled with Mike for a lot of the day. And the cats.

So close!

Monday morning is a little cold and wet. My hands are a bit frozen as I type here at my desk at home. Want to get to Spin after work today.

Mike collected the Subaru from the garage. All good. Need to re-fit the trim - especially on the seat belt post. Also - cam belt needs doing. Ouch. 

Have a wonderful week.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with more trailer work

 Hi,

Busy day at work. Headed home after work while Mike met Bharat for Nepal ops. We had tea when Mike got home and then headed up to the garage to work on the tail lights for the trailer.

After we hit a snag (need a tool so off to the hardware store next) we retired for the evening. Had a good sleep. The cat does come and wake me up so she can crawl under the duvet with us. After we got up and saw the cold temps today, we know why she did that last night.

Sunrise

Nailed the coffee for Mike

Frost scraping

Scraping and scraping

Cold morning!

Off to the gym - and 1C.  The windscreen was frosty. The car is out on the street because... trailer!

Anyway. Going to see Iona and Helen for lunch in the Otari Wilton bush today. Yay!  So WFH to facilitate that.

And a weekend at home. First one for a while.

Novelty.

Have a good one,

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with trailer fixing after work

 Hi,

Mike and I headed home after work on the #13 and were surprised to see a lot of masked people still. Yay.

Cooked tea - Mike had bought fresh new season asparagus. Made me so happy. Yum.  Added them to a Buddha bowl for our dinner.

Bus to town

Bus home

New season asparagus

Then into the garage to sort out the trailer tail lights.  It needs a WoF on Friday so we need to get this working before then.

Fun working with Mike on it.

Having fun

Attached the new tail lights

Off to bed.  Good sleep. Up for brekkie with Zaheer. It has been ages since I saw him. Good to hear his news. He's off to visit family this Christmas after a long time here in NZ.

Me saying I have left the flash on

Hi Zaheer

Now at work. More trailer fixing after work, I hope. Don't want to leave it too late. I am enjoying it.

I did want to mention when we went to bed one night last week, Mike had his bed light on but I thought it was the main bedroom light. I rolled over after reading to go to sleep and mumbled to Alexa to turn off the light.  Alexa, turn off the bedroom light.  Mike reached out and clicked off his light at the same time Alexa said:  okay

I was so confused for a few seconds.  And then I dissolved into giggles. Mike had just turned off his light and I really thought it was Alexa. 

Hope your day is a good one.

Love,

Angela

The Monday back at work

 Hi,

After an awesome weekend, it was hard work to knuckle down and power through my working day. But I got there in the end.

Cats close to each other

I did duck out in the mid morning to the doctors to get my ears syringed. First time ever. Made no difference - so I do not believe my doctor when he said wax build up probably caused my left ear to be blocked after my ski accident. Especially not when he looked and said that ear was clear and it was the right with wax present. Whatever. I now have squeaky clean ears. 

Met Mike for lunch on my way back home - sushi. Then worked late to make up for my doctor's trip. 

Mike and Janine came home to go for a run and then make home made margaritas. We had tea as well. Then I got ready for my day at the gym and work on Tuesday.

When Janine headed home on her bike, Mike and I started the work on the taillights for the trailer. Dismantled the existing set and tested the new set would work. Tonight we should get it almost reassembled - all going well.

The NZ govt removed most of the mandates for covid at midnight last night. Basically declared it over. But mask wearing was still okay on my bus this morning. Gym was full. No masks there. And not a lot on the streets. Big changes for us all. I wore my mask in the bus and lifts. Nothing has changed with the virus from yesterday to today. Let's hope we still avoid it.

Right.  Hope your Tuesday is a good one.

Take care.

Love,

Angela

The weekend with adventures in the south with Celia and Ange

 Hi,

What an amazing weekend. It was a long time coming as this was a part of a present for Celia's birthday in January 2021! Finally got it together and covid co-operated and we made it to launch day!

Friday morning saw Mike drop me at the airport. Thank you, Mike. Caught my 8.30am flight to Chc - delayed by only 10 mins or do despite the late running arrival of our plane. Fog covered the ground in Chc when we took off from Wellington, but luckily it had cleared by the time we landed. Dropping through fog until we saw the runway and landed just fine. 

Goodbye Wellington

Ubered to the Coffee Co-op in Addington to meet Toby and Tessa. Tessa is on the job hunt and had an interview close by. Had a lovely brekkie and then Tessa drove us to their flat via a supermarket.

Hello Chc

That's my boy - with giant hands

Another iced latte

We had time for a quick coffee at Coffee Culture with them before I drove the van to Chc airport and awaited Celia's arrival on her 1.30pm flight. Picked her up without a hitch - her flight was so on time! Good work Air NZ. Headed out on the inland route to Methven. Lots of music (sorry, Celia) and great fun! Stopped at the cafe we like in Methven for some sustenance. Had a big gravel road detour just south of there for some work in some gorge or other.

Got to Tekapo around 1730. Ange had driven up from Dunedin and had got there a bit before us. We went for a walk in town ahead of our meal. The moon was almost full. File that tidbit away for what we were there to do the following night. Yes. Poor planning. Sigh.

Lake Tekapo at night

Our accommodation (33Star) was so lovely. New wee 2 bedroom place (connected to a bigger place with a family in it - but totally separate). Lovely big bathroom for me and Celia to share. Ange had an ensuite. Good place - 5 stars, would recommend.

Selfie on walk bridge

Yep - hey there weekend crew!

That is moonlight shining brightly on the Church of the Good Shepherd

After dinner at a pub with not a lot of veg options, we were back at the house and I slept like a log. Up for run - but the big frost sent me scurrying back to bed. Up eventually to find brekkie at Greedy Cow. Everyone should go there if they need brekkie in Tekapo. Yum! Also bought lunch for our spontaneous trip to Aoraki Mt Cook.

Greedy Cow rates high in my book!

Lake Pukaki looking like the slice of heaven it is!

We drove through fog for some of our journey from Lake Tekapo to Lake Pukaki. As we got to Lake Pukaki the fog was starting to lift.

Stunning views.

I love NZ.

Headed up the valley to the Mt Cook village. Got a pic in front of Ed's statue. Looking staunch - like him.

Me and Ed

Kea stained glass. And my hair is on-point!

Okay - I want these windows in my house

Then we did the Kea Point walk (an hour return) and got gorgeous views onto Mt Sefton and Aoraki. Simply stunning. Ange also pointed out the track (can you call it that??) up a ravine to Mueller's Hut. She had done that when she was 18. And I so want to do it. In Summer. Looks like a tough scramble straight up for many hours for me. DoC says 4 - 6 hours up. And a similar amount (3 - 4) down. I will need poles. But I reckon it is now on my bucket list.

Mt Sefton looking magnificent

Aoraki right there - by my finger!

Looking stunning!  Mountains look awesome too.

We got back in the car after the Kea Point walk and drove up the Hooker valley to the Tasman glacier walk. I think it was a 40 min return walk.

The views there were amazing. Aoraki behind us - the glacier at the head of the glacial lake. Wee icebergs in the lake. I was so taken with this place.

We also crossed the start of the Alps to Ocean 300km bike trail. So doing that one day soon too.

Tasman glacier behind us

Back for tea at our wee house in Lake Tekapo. Ange had brought wee quiches - including one just for me. We ate those before the exciting 6.55pm meeting for the Dark Sky Project night.

Telescope!

Me and my pass for the Dark Sky night

The lanyard had a red light torch on it - you pressed a button and it lit up. But the full moon meant we could see everything - I reckon with my glasses on, I could have read a book easily. We saw our shadows cast by moonlight without any bother.

The Summit Experience wasn't running, so we did the Crater Experience instead (they had mentioned this to us via email and we decided to go anyway). I do not think there is a lot of difference - except we would be on Mt John with the full experience. Telescope and guides are the same. Instead we went to a person-made crater on the other side of Lake Tekapo where they set up 4 telescopes and had a wee observatory with a 12 inch scope looking at Saturn.

No pics as no white lights were allowed. Two wee mini buses from the Dark Sky office in the village took us there. A family with a wee girl in a wheelchair also came along and I think they had a good time. The guides all handled their needs without any fuss. I think there were just over 20 of us.

The main guide was hilarious. She was a Malaysian woman and took us through the basics of the southern sky. Crux and how to find south. Then we looked through a few scopes.

First one was Ragoon Nebula. And this scope was actually a super expensive camera. It was taking (at the time I looked) a 25 min exposure and stacking the pics. You peered through the eyepiece at a photo, in essence. Looked amazing!

Second one was Jewel box. Stunning again. Third one was Saturn in the 12 inch scope. Also great viewing. As always. And the last one was on the full moon. Beautiful.

The moon meant our view of the night sky was diminished. Hardly see any of the milky way due to the brightness. But we had no clouds and no wind. And as the guide talked, Jupiter rose (quickly) above the closest hill. I will not forget that in a hurry.

Back to our wee house (after a refund sorted due to the change in experience) and off to bed. Up for check out. Greedy Cow was full. We found another place to try. It was still okay.

Then Ange was off for her long drive back to Dunedin. Thank you Ange! For the company. For driving us to Aoraki Mt Cook. For looking after us.

Celia and I paid our $8 for our car and headed up to Mt John - so we could say we'd been there. Another stunning day with views for kms.

Top of Mt John

Me in my happy place

We left there just before midday and headed to Ashburton and up SH1. Went to C1 in town after walking around to show Celia inner Chc. Tessa and Toby arrived and then we drove to Pomeroys for some cheese dip. Mmmm.

Back in Chc

C1 - looks good. But... taste was off today.

Pomeroys - never fails to work its magic

Dropped the car at their flat and Tessa took us to the airport. Regional Koru had nothing for Celia so we ate at a cafe and then waited for our flight. Small plane back into Wellington.  Arrived on time at 8pm and Celia dropped me home.

Good to see Mike. :-)  Then off to bed. Up for work at home. Celia has a wee cold so watching for any sign of that.

Best weekend! Want to go back and do it again - avoiding the full moon. Go do it if you haven't already.

Love,

Angela