The Wednesday with a run to pick up Christine's car

 Hi,

So - Wednesday eh?  Mike and Callan went for a run after work. And I rode home, fed the cats. And then ran to the mechanic's place in Northland. Hahah. Bit slow - first run in a wee while.

Had fun with finding the car. Raj pointed to it on the main road - up a bit. So off I went. And got close only to find it was not Christine's car. If it was not there, and not in the actual mechanic's car park, it must be down the other road. I know they use that for overflow. So walked down there, trying to find a car that looked remotely likely. No.

Back to Raj. Who was perplexed at this point - then looked behind another car into a far corner. There it was!  So I got in as Raj move the blocking car. Only to discover the ignition was weird. Had to jiggle the key for a bit. Hunt for a button some cars have. No. This one you just push really hard and it finally turns. Great. Then found the foot handbrake ok. Drove home, waving merrily at Raj as I left.

Mike ubered home soon enough. We watched some You Tube (Words Unravelled) before bed. And when I was reading and noticed my book (Kindle) had closed down and I hadn't actually noticed, I realised I was basically asleep.

Up for a bus in for my PT session with Quentin. Deads.  90kg 2 reps x 3 sets. Still got a lot of push ups to get through today.

Work brekkie with iced latte

Work brekkie straight after that. And Matariki for work today. Polly is coming in for it. Sweet. It will be a lot of fun.

Have a great weekend. Long one here in Aotearoa. Time to reflect upon the year just gone, remember those who have passed away, and enjoy time with whānau.

Sounds perfect to me. We also have trap line on Saturday with Callan. His new one in the Orongorongo valley. Choice!

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with dinner

 Hi,

Did get to grab a short walk with Mike after lunch yesterday. Good to get some fresh air.

Quick lunch walk with Mike

We went home by bus after work and fed the cats and jumped int he car and made it to Soprano in Petone with 2 mins to spare. Perfect timing.

Had a lovely dinner with sally, Andrew and Polly.  I had cannelloni with ricotta and spinach - tasty. Sally had the same. Tried some of Andrew's pasta too. Starters were good. Desserts looked good.

Dropped Polly home to Epuni and we got home after a weird diversion at our usual off-ramp. The off-ramp was closed. But signage did not suggest that - and I followed a wee truck up the ramp. Only to find it was stopping there. All very odd. Anyway - merged back to the motorway and off at The Terrace.

Good sleep. Then up for Mike to gym with Quentin and me to bus in.

Sunrise Wednesday

Bus this morning

Coffee for me and for Mike

French Kiss cart iced latte - with Mike working in the background

Run after work today. Then burgers and I will ride home.

Busy times.

Hope your day is a good one.

Love,

Angela

The Monday with Mike's birthday

 Hi,

Working from home is so useful for finding things. I went up to the garage to get a few things and searched for Mike's red puffer jacket. I found it. And my missing sleeping mat. So yay. Now we have two good lightweight sleeping mats. Because of course I bought one to replace the "lost" one.

Patched up the greenhouse

At lunch time I patched up the greenhouse. It is pretty much usable again. Maybe another bungee cord or two to connect it to the deck poles.

Sleeping mat - check!

Puffer jacket - check!

After work, Mike got home and I cooked him a nice tea. One I knew he would like. Kinda my version of karaage chicken. Hahahah.

Then off to Raj's place to drop off Christine's car for a service. Then onto to airport to meet Polly. She had a long layover in Chc on her way here - and Toby surprised her by meeting her and taking her for a coffee. Awwwww. She was very happy to see us at the gate  too. Meanwhile - Sally and Andrew had snuck out to the wee unit and turned on the heaters. Good work! We dropped her home to her toastie warm unit and headed back to our place to go to bed.

Up for a ride in. eBike time though as we have a dinner out at Petone with everyone at 6pm tonight. Got to ride home like the wind!

Have a great day!

Love,

Angela

The weekend with Fielday recovery and a drive up Te Ahu a Turanga

Hi It's Mike here. Angela has written about her Fielday adventures so I'm going to talk about the weekend.

On Saturday we both did very little, Angela was running on four hours sleep after she drove non stop from near Hamilton to Wellington and then ... read for three hours before she dozed off. Too much V on the way? I dropped Christine at the airport for her overseas adventure. Angela retrieved the remains of her greenhouse and reassembled it - it is more intact than we thought! 

Greenhouse reassembled, ready for duct tape

That was enough for one day, Angela did not a lot of anything else and I supported her by doing next to nothing as well.

Smudge watches the birds

On Sunday however we made up for lost time. Up early and hurtling over the Remutaka Hill for breakfast at the Greytown French Bakery (since the famous Clareville Bakery doesn't open on Sundays). Hmm, I think they may be coasting on their reputation there, the food didn't seem to be up to the usual standard I associate with them. Or perhaps the likes of La Cloche and our other local options have caught up with them.  

Then we visited our workmate Shane to see his partner Holly, their new puppy Tifa (named after the Final Fantasy VII character!) and their wonderful 1899 villa. Wonderful apart from the heating bills. We admired the work they'd done so far, and the huge amount of work to tame the overgrown back yard and form a a 'blank canvas' lawn, plus olive and plum trees and a boxed in vege patch. But heating? The extra high ceilings and plasterboard over scrim makes batting and gibbing a real mission, you'd want to be in the place a long time to get ROI on that. The underfloor is inaccessible making a membrane and insulation impossible. Looks like throwing some batts in the roof space and maybe fitting a second heat pump is the best way to go.

They'd caught a mouse!
I cleared it and put re-baited the trap with peanut butter.

Beautiful coal range in the kitchen

Now we wanted to go explore the brand new Te Ahu a Turanga road - freshly opened about a week ago. This is the replacement road to get from State Highway 2 on the east side of the island, through to Palmerston North and State Highway 1 on the west side of the island. The old Manawatu Gorge road had slipped away a few years ago and the powers that be decided a brand new 4 lane road was the better alternative to trying to restore a narrow windy road that just keeps slipping away every few years.

We figured we needed a buffer of electrons in the tank so we plugged the car in at Z Masterton and went for a wander. First stop was Reduced To Clear to shop for bargains. That's where I got my cheap Allbirds from, a few years ago! They have cheap things, and weird things, and weird cheap things. Anything they can buy in bulk for cheap. We found cheap eggs and cheap Havana coffee and coffee flavoured Snickers bars and masala flavoured potato chips.  Then to Briscoes - we timed it well because they were having a sale just this weekend and we got a replacement electric blanket for lots off. Angela's side had stopped working so it was time for a new one.  That was enough time to get our range up a bit so off we set.

The new road is very impressive. Nice smooth surface and it cut right through a wind farm which means you're seeing the massive wind turbines up close. We went to get out at the viewing spot but many, many people had the same idea as us and there was no parking at all so off we set again. 

This new roundabout is the gateway to Te Ahu a Turanga

Acres of tarmac and mighty wind turbines

The Manawatu and Kapiti Island stretches out before us

Back down via State Highway 57 and out at Levin with to charge again with 99km of range left - enough to get home, according to the guessometer, but with little to no buffer. We did some admin on our phones and before long it was time to set off again.

Picked up Angela's mountain e-bike from Maureen's place on the way, the first time we've used our shiny (well, matte black) new towbar. It fitted okay but Maureen put a third bungee on it to be sure to be sure and off we set again. 

Home with 39km of range, pretty well empty with a safe enough buffer. On to charge, scheduled for our nightly free hours, it'll be back to 100% for no cost before we know it.  

By the numbers:

Where	Start	End	Duration	Rate (c/kWh)	Cost	kWh
Masterton Z	13:18	14:01	0:46	79c	$14.70	18.6
Levin Z	15:19	15:35	0:16	79c	$7.98	10.1
TOTAL			1:02		$22.68	28.7

350 km

5h driving time

2 charges

1h 2m charging

28.7 kWh charged (64.4 kWh total)

$22.68 charging fees

Plus RUC ($76.00 per 1000km) $26.60 = total cost $49.28

Versus the Forester, at $2.57/L for 95 petrol, would have cost $89.95.

The Friday with a Fielday spontaneous excursion

 Hi,

Mike has already sorted out the weekend blog. And it is his birthday today. Monday is stunning here in Wellington. Serving up the best wintery weather for Mike.

Monday birthday weather

Sourdough

I did make bread when we got home Sunday evening. Yay!

Right.  How was our trip up to Mystery Creek? 

I left our house just after 4.30pm on Thursday in the Subaru. The traffic out to Lower Hutt was terrible. Crawling along the motorway. Probably got to Sally and Andrew's place just before 5.30!  Wow. Said goodbye to Sally and drove over Haywards to Transmission Gully. Filled up at Levin and continued north.

We'd decided to aim for Mangakino and Andrew booked ahead for that as we drove up. The weather was a bit pants. Drizzly rain. Fog - especially up the west side of Taupō. Got into Mangakino at 10:30pm. The accommodation was superb. Lake Maraetai lodge  We parked close to the front door and found our room 21 just opposite. Washed up in the shared bathrooms and fell asleep pretty fast. Andrew had read the weather forecast and like clockwork I woke around 3am with thunderstorms outside.

The lodge

Sunrise is coming

Up at 6am to shower. Nice big shower stall - but my drain was blocked so my Crocs were splashing around a fair bit. Everything packed and back in the car and away just before 7am. Another rainy drive through some windy roads towards Mystery Creek. Maybe 1.5 hours to our destination via some Waikato back roads.

Joined a fast moving line of traffic and into a paddock before 9am. Blue car park. Right next to a huge sign saying just that. We got into our Field day gear (decided to wear my hiking boots) and headed to the gate.

Just inside the gate

Huge

We got through easily and I was gobsmacked by the size immediately. So many vendors selling things. From gumboots to combine harvesters and everything in between. Hoping to get brekkie, we went to The Pantry building. But it was all gourmet style food and drink. We did get a lot of samples though. And a coffee from Rude Coffee.

Rude coffee

We bought some salami there - delicious. And continued outside to find food stalls. Andrew tried on gumboots - but they were too sloppy for his feet. We did get free beanies for his trouble.

I ate a delicious scrambled egg breakfast wrap for brekkie and watched a robot dog on a remote control entertain the crowd while I waited for Andrew to find his brekkie.

Then the day started in earnest. A lot of shops and stalls. I can't even tell you what it was like. All my fave shops in one space. Outdoor gear. Power tools. All sorts of gadgets to automate your farm. Tiny houses. 

The ground was not boggy. Tarseal mainly. Some woodchips in some places - but it was never muddy. We saw a fencing competition - the judge was using a level to check the gate that was hung. And then we watched tractor pulling for quite a while. Crazy.

We found Peter's work stall and Andrew chatted to someone from there. We got lunch from a Lebanese stall - Za'atar wrap. Very nice.

Andrew bought a lot of stuff for his track clearing work. Sturdy gear. Boots. Jackets. A saw. Good fun.

We walked 10km as we meandered around. And by 4pm we were one of the few left - a definite thinning out of the crowd by this stage. Picked up the boots the stall had saved for Andrew, a last taste in The Pantry and then out to the car. By 5pm we were leaving the paddock.

Easy road management meant we were off on our way so fast. Back to the 4 square in Mangakino and then home via Tūrangi Z to fill up. More rain. Probably had rain from Tūrangi to Taihape. But easy driving. Dropped Andrew home at 11.30pm and I was home just after midnight.

Read for a bit and then off to sleep around 3am.  

Such a good time. I would do this again, for sure. Fun!

Thank you for the spontaneous trip, Andrew. It was even more fun than I imagined. Actually, I had imagined an A&P show on steroids. But it was not like that. No livestock to be seen. It was all around vendors selling to farmers. But such effort went into every display. Well done to everyone.

Awesome.

Love,

Angela 

The Wednesday at work

 Hi,

After a big day at work, I waited for Barb and then headed home with her. Mike joined Janine and Christine at Otto for a dinner and a chat.

The day had been full of heavy downpours.  We decided to walk home anyway - and how pleased were we with that decision? Very! We only got some misty rain - and most of that was when we were under the bush. The ground was quite soggy in places. But nothing a scrub in the laundry sink afterwards couldn't fix.

Barb and I walking up Bowen

Head torch view

Barb ahead of me

Silhouette Barb

We popped out at Huntingdon and I walked the 1.5km back home along Mairangi. Barb probably made it home before me with her power walking skills.

Thank you Barb!

I then packed for my trip to Mystery Creek with Andrew. Yes. After years of saying we should go (I dunno - maybe 8 years???) we are going.

Field day ready

Yesterday Andrew got his hand assessed - and it looks pretty good to me. Mike showed me a pic. But it will be sore for a bit without all those splints and bandages. Best keep it nice and dry at Field Day!

So today I am WFH so I can get away at 4.30. Go pick up Andrew. Then head north as far as we can and find a good place to sleep.

I will report back in full on this huge event!

Have a great weekend.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with busyness and a towbar and biking up hills

Hi,

Busy day at work. I went to see Maureen's smashed finger and got distracted at her desk by the barge moving around in the harbour. I must find out what it is doing. Because I am a nerd.

Lewis Road for the win

Watching the barge move in the harbour yesterday

Mike's day was full of adventures. He was off early to get a towbar fitted to the MG and worked from home at Sally and Andrew's house while it was getting done. Then working from actual home for a bit. Finally coming in to work from work (getting me a yummy tofu & rice bowl on the way) and then going to the GP after work. He has a tremor in his left thumb that is not Parkinson's disease and turns out it's from phone scrolling overuse. Who knew that was a thing?!

Towbar Express did a great job

Meanwhile I rode my old unpowered bike home up the hill and nearly died. How did I do this every day?  It was almost 10 years ago - so my younger self obviously had legs of steel. I will persevere. It will help with Spring challenge.

Mike got home from the GP and we had some tea and then chilled. Off to bed. I slept ok and then up to grab brekkie and head in on the bus with Mike. He had coffee while I had gym with Quentin. Deadlifts.  87.5kg.  3 x 3. Oosshh. And finished my push ups. 170 today. I feel like I look like a gorilla.

Went to Woolworths and got my Lewis Road. And popped into the post office to mail off some stuff to Sydney and a wee pop vinyl to Shoshana in Dunedin.

Will walk home with Barb after work while Mike runs and has burgers. He is meeting Janine to return her sleeping bag and mat that we brought home from Sydney.

Have an awesome day. Hope Andrew's hand assessment is all good news.

Love,

Angela