Work, wine, walking and winning

So this time I have not left it three months to blog again but I am still struggling to remember everything we have done in the last month and a half.  Work has been very busy for me with team members leaving to go to new jobs or have babies.  This has meant everyone else has to pick up the work load.  I have done twice as much on call work in November than normal.  I am still living by the Kiwi motto of 'work hard, play hard' though and have packed lots of 'fun' stuff into my free time.

The better half has had more free time.  This is entirely due to the excessive number of hours she had to work in September which she is now claiming back in lieu.  Friday's have become a 'work optional' day .  If the forecast is for rain - work, if the forecast is for sun - day off to ride the horse.  I am slightly envious of the shortened work weeks but then I remember the time and effort that she put in over the winter here so the respite is well deserved.

Back on October 28th we had a public holiday giving us a long weekend.  We took the opportunity to go and explore the nearby Wairarapa wine growing region and spent the weekend in Martinborough.  On the Saturday we had a pleasant seaside walk then went out for dinner and jazz at a local festival.  On the Sunday we hired bikes and cycled round the vineyards.  Weirdly the place that rented us the bikes was run by a man from Derby (it really is a small world). The tour round the vineyards was accompanied by many wine tastings and a picnic of local produce.   The cycling definitely gave us justification for all the tastings but I think we only made it to 8 out of about 20 vineyards before we decided we were becoming too dangerous to be on the roads.

 

On the Monday,  on the way back from Martinborough, we stopped at Kaitoke Regional Park.  This was one of the locations used for Lord of the Rings and had some beautiful native rainforest and spectacular river gorges.  After a shortish bush walk we did the touristy thing and explored the area that was used when filming Rivendell.  Including posing for some strange photos (see facebook for the evidence)

Our Christmas plans have now come together and we are booked in to do the Lake Waikaramoana Walk over Christmas itself.  This is one of the nine 'Great  Walks' in New Zealand and we will spend Christmas eve in a hut 1500m up on a mountain side.  After four days of walking (or tramping as it is known here) we will take a bit of a road trip round the Hawkes Bay Region and probably come back to Wellington via Lake Taupo.

To prepare us for four days of walking carrying packs we have been trying to get out and about every weekend.  The better half is not quite so used to carrying a big pack so two weeks ago we went out into the Tararua Mountains on a six hour tramp and I made her carry a large bag the whole way.  We got some strange looks from a couple of people we met enroute and I had to explain that I had her 'in training'.  Maybe I'm just cruel.

Cricket season has arrived here and we have been getting along to see the local team.  In what turned out to be a better performance than England the recent Ashes test, we made it down to the Westpac Stadium last weekend to watch Wellington in a Twenty20 match under floodlights.  It was a tense and dramatic evening's entertainment which the Wellington Firebirds won with a six off the last ball.

In amongst all the other fun stuff I have been doing some climbing and sailing.  Wellington Harbour is such an amazing place to sail and there are races at least 4 times a week.  A couple who I sailed with during the winter series have bought a new yacht so I am now crewing for them.  They have only had it three weeks so we are not pushing it to it's limits but last weekend in light winds, and much to the surprise of everyone including us, we actually won a race.  Not bad for a bunch of novices.

Hopefully more sailing and climbing this weekend although in typical New Zealand style we are going from 20 degree sunshine today to torrential rain and 120km/h winds overnight.  Sunday may be better.

I will sign off now and leave you with a picture of our bounty brought back from Martinborough.

Hei kona mai!

Birthday Blog

So I am still here. Now thirty-three years old!  I have not fallen off a rock face, sailed off the edge of the world or been buried under falling buildings.  Three months on from the last blog this missive is long overdue.  From one perspective there is not a huge amount to tell, work and life go on.  Of course,  you can pack a lot into 90 days and the better half and I have been busy working and playing hard.

In the last update I talked about the shaky ground Wellington (and indeed the whole of New Zealand) is on.  July and August saw a series of large earthquakes strike the region.  They were strong enough to damage buildings and one of those affected was the building I was working in.  Once you can see daylight through the walls on the third floor it is generally time to change the working environment.  There was a couple of weeks of working out of other offices and from home before we found a new home.  There had been plans to move to this new building anyway but everything had to be rushed to get most of us in.  As it stands half the building is still being refurbished while we are packed into the other half.

There have been regular aftershocks of decreasing frequency and magnitude and the hope is that the faults have settled down for the moment.  Of course, this is never guaranteed and "the big one" could happen anytime.  Something we never had to consider in the UK was having an emergency food and water supply.  We haven't built a bomb shelter but our Harry Potter cupboard under the stairs is well stocked.

All the stresses of the quakes coincided with the better half's busy few months at work.  She worked some ridiculous hours to meet deadlines and complete reports to sign off dates.  All is back to normal now and the hours she accumulated over the last few months will add up to a long break over the summer.

I have found time to climb and sail on a fairly regular basis.  I have been crewing on a racing boat and now taken part in two full series.  We actually won our class in the second series of four races and were awarded a bottle of champagne.  I resisted the temptation to emulate Formula One drivers and soak the rest of the crew, especially as it was good champagne.  I have just signed up to crew the same boat in two more series over the summer.  Hopefully more champagne to come.

With some really good bouldering areas within an hour of Wellington I have managed to get outdoors to climb every few weeks.  There are two indoor centres in Wellington which provide me with good training grounds.  After injuring a finger tendon last year grade progression/improvement has been slow and I am still tentative about how hard to push myself.  I've found plenty of willing climbing partners of all abilities and have been organising climbing events for the local Meetup group "Adventure Wellington".  I am hoping for more outdoor trips as the weather now improves into the summer.

That pretty much brings things up to date.  It has been over eight months since we touched down in this weird and wonderful place.  We miss all of you back home and can't wait for people to start visiting (I know - it's expensive).  Having said that, life is good here, we are enjoying ourselves and making friends.  We have plans for a long weekend away next week (Labour Day public holiday here) and are starting to make plans for Christmas.  We are looking at being away in a hut on a mountain somewhere.  I'll keep you all updated.

Ka kite ano whanau - until next time

On Shakey Ground!

Huge apologies to those who have been waiting with bated breath to hear more tall tales from The Land of the Long White Cloud.  Over the last week we have spent less time looking at the clouds and more time hugging the ground.

If you hadn't already heard (how anyone could have missed it I don't know), Wellington has been suffering, what they charmingly refer to as, a swarm of earthquakes.  It all started about a week ago with a few "pre-shocks" that tipped in at around magnitude 5.  The strongest of these on the Friday (Magnitude 5.7) lasted about 30 seconds and had us putting into practise our "Drop, Cover and Hold".  As it was around 9 in the morning everyone was in work and a lot of people were quite shaken (no pun intended).  It was hard to concentrate on work for the rest of the day but the general consensus was that would be the end of it as it was the largest quake Wellington had experienced in a long time.

There were no noticeable quakes through Saturday although the internet was telling us there were a huge number of small tremors occurring.  It wasn't until Sunday morning we felt one again.  This one weighed in at 5.8 and woke us up first thing in the morning.  The minor shakes carried on throughout the day and then at 5:09pm the big one hit.  We had just been food shopping and walked into the house, put the shopping bags down, closed the door then heard/felt a low rumbling.  This rapidly increased to shaking and we staggered to our bathroom and crouched down in the corner.  After approximately 20 seconds everything went quiet again.

We got off lightly; one bottle of shampoo fell off the shelf in the bathroom.  One of the girls I work with lives in an apartment block in town.  She described her flat as "trashed" with large items falling down and breakages all over the place.  Some city centre buildings faired even worse with structural damage, smashed windows and chunks of masonry falling off.  There have only been 4 injuries that I have heard of and none too serious.  I suspect this is mainly because very few people were in the office blocks in the CBD at the time of the quake.

One of the casualties of the earthquake is my workplace.  It was yellow stickered before the quake (basically that means it wasn't up to modern building standards) and we were scheduled to move later this year.  The quake has caused concern about the structure of main stairwells and it burst a high pressure water main in the building which has saturated everything on the bottom few floors.  Today was the first time I was allowed back in and that was only to collect a few essential (if soggy) items.  Whilst alternative workspace is being arranged we are all working from home (as best we can).  The better half was straight back to work on Monday.  Her building is touted as one of the safest in Wellington.  The fact that everyone keeps saying this makes her nervous - I think it's like the Titanic predictions.

It's difficult to know how to feel about experiencing a 6.5 magnitude quake.  In the grand scheme of things it was not that big, it didn't cause much damage and certainly wasn't life threatening.  For comparison the earthquake in Christchurch was only 6.3 but because it was directly below the city it caused vastly more damage and loss of life.  Also, this saga might not be over, the aftershocks are still going; over 30 quakes of magnitude 4 or higher since Sunday.  I guess, at the moment, I am just thankful to be able to sit down, collect my thoughts and write about them.  I will keep you all posted.

(No photos but if you want to know more about the quakes I recommend www.geonet.org.nz)

Rocks and Waves - Take 2

So these are the promised scribbling's to add to last weeks lengthy blog.  The better half is off riding a horse, the weather is less than favourable (gale force winds and horizontal rain) so I shall take the opportunity of being stuck indoors to write.  I apologise in advance to those of you who don't rock climb or sail.  Most of what follows is shameless glorification of two minority pastimes. 

Last weekend the weather was much better and on Saturday I got to head outdoors to go bouldering again.  Mike (my new climbing buddy) and I headed out to Baring Head (again).  This time we avoided fording the river but took a slightly longer walk in that didn't involve the chance of getting wet from the waist down - see previous blog Rocks And Waves.  We made it to Baring Head and found a bouldering playground.

I won't bore you with details of everything we climbing.  Suffice to say, a lot of it was quite highball and slabby which I enjoyed but Mike not quite so much.  The area had been battered by the recent storms and some of the boulders close to sea were caked in sand and salt.  There were still plenty to climb on though and we spent nearly 3 hours playing.  We walked back out a different way over the top of Baring Head and were treated to some great views of the Rimutaka Mountains and the mouth of Wellington Harbour.

On Sunday I took to the water again for the second race in the winter series.  The results from the first race had been written off due to how slow the race was and a number of technical challenges to the placing's.  This meant we were starting on a clean sheet.  The weather was perfect;  10-15 knots of northerly breeze, a light swell and bright sunshine.  We had a brilliant race.  We need to work on our start as we once again mistimed our arrival at the start line and crossed near the back of flotilla of 30 boats on the wrong tack.   I had been given the bow position for the race in charge of the hoist and drop of the spinnaker during the downwind legs and mainly tidying up and balancing the boat during upwind legs.  Having only rigged a symmetric spinnaker once before (I have sailed with asymmetrics) this was hard work and required all my concentration.  As all my attention was on the sails, until the last downwind leg I didn't notice the progress we had made through the field. We battled up the last leg neck and neck with another boat and eventually crossed the line in 7th half a boat length short of 6th.  The fine weather and fast paced racing was a great change from the drizzle of the previous fortnight.

There is not a great deal more to tell for this week.  I looks like this weekend might be a but of a washout.  Hopefully we will get out for a short walk somewhere and I think we have plans for a meal out.  Once again, until next time...

Pacific Island Paradise

Apologies to all of you who have been waiting in anticipation for more tales of our exploits.  I accept I have been lax in the promptness of my update about our holiday.  Given this, I shall probably fill in all the other little bits and pieces of news since we got back from holiday in another blog and concentrate on our trip to Rarotonga.  So here we go...

On the 18th June we had a wonderful lie in and at a very civilised hour drove ourselves down to Wellington Airport.  The airport actually has a sign on it purporting itself to be "The Centre of Middle Earth"!  After a smooth check in we settled down, underneath a giant fibreglass model of Gollum, for the first drink of the holiday (Beer for me gin & tonic for the better half).  Waiting there for our flight to be called we were approached by a woman and her two kids who asked us (and I swear I am not making this up), "Have you seen a gold ring anywhere?"  I suppressed the laughter (and the urge to make a fatuous comment) and discovered that one of her children had been playing with her ring and had lost it whilst they were seated nearby.

We boarded our plane, flew to Auckland and transferred smoothly to our international flight to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands.  Due to Rarotonga being across the international date line we actually took off at 7:30pm and, after a 4hr flight, arrived at 1:25am the same day.  The flight was a bit turbulent as we had a 100km/h tail wind most of the way but it did make it quick.  We landed in the dark and stepped off the plane into a warm sub-tropical night.  To greet us at the airport was a ukulele player singing the greatest hits of the Cook  Islands.  Half asleep we cleared immigration, caught our transfer bus to the hotel and before we new it we were tucked up in bed.

We woke, on Tuesday morning again, and had a chilled morning around the resort.  With a private beach onto a marine reserve and a bar overlooking this there wasn't much need to stray from the resort that day.  We snorkelled in crystal blue waters and then at a very civilised hour wandered to the bar and ordered a drink.  It then struck me that in some strange, paradoxical temporal dichotomy I had already had a drink at this exact time on this exact same day but in a different place.  Thinking about this hurt my tiny brain and as I was supposed to be on holiday I gave up trying to work this out and settled down to a cold, refreshing beer.

That evening we treated ourselves to an "Island Cultural Night".  This involved a long speech by a local chief then a huge "umu" (feast).  There was fish (at least three types), pork (slow cooked), chicken (curried), lamb (roasted) and all accompanied by local fruits and vegetables.  Desert was more mounds of fruit and sweet things.  To follow this there was a fantastic display of drumming and dancing - a truly memorable night.

To justify the way we had stuffed our faces the previous night we set off the next day for a long walk.  We caught a local bus  to Avatiu on the north side of Rarotonga.  There is one main road on the island that goes all the way round the circumference.  It is  only 32km long.  There are two buses Clockwise and Anti-clockwise.  These come complete with mental drivers who take pleasure in telling you they are convicts on work experience - island humour apparently.

The walk was hot, sweaty and steep but well worth it for the views and the jungle.  Why we picked the middle of the day to walk in I don't know.  Temperatures rose to nearly 30 degrees - I'm glad it was the cool and dry season.  We actually walked completed across the island (from north to south) a distance of about 7km.  The track rose from sea level to nearly 400m and back to sea level again and was hard work.  It ran through pristine jungle and at the highest point was a 50m high pinnacle of rock called "Te Rua Manga" (The Needle).  I was very tempted to climb it but the green moss, lack of rope and sheer drops dissuaded me.  We descended to an idyllic beach on the south coast, via Wigmore's Waterfall (which was more like Wigmore's Dribble).  We had to wait nearly an hour for the bus but couldn't really complain about the bus stop with white sand, lapping waves and palm trees.

Thursday was another chill out day, snorkelling, walking on the beach, cocktails at the bar then dinner overlooking another beautiful beach.  On Friday we headed to Muri Lagoon on the east coast of the island for a day with Captain Tama's Lagoon Cruises.  We were treated to singing, drumming, giant clams, tree climbing, coconut husking and sarong tying on top of a cruise round the lagoon in a glass bottomed boat and BBQ lunch on one of the smaller islands off the coast.

On Saturday we headed into the main town, Avarua.  We spent a few hours exploring the sat in a bar on the harbour and had lunch watching canoe racing in the lagoon.  Unfortunately our flight time returning to New Zealand wasn't as civilised as outbound.  We had to hang around the resort until 1am on Sunday morning before catching the bus to the airport.  We were then serenaded onto the plane by the same ukulele player.  After a less turbulent, but longer flight, we touched-down in a cold Auckland on Monday morning (another temporal anomaly due to crossing the international dateline again).  After breakfast at the airport we caught another plane back to Wellington.

While we were away Wellington had experienced some unusually wild weather.  (When they call weather wild in Wellington it means it is pretty extreme.)  On the Thursday whilst we were away Wellington had been subjected to the mother of southerly gales.  Winds reached over 150km/h and there 9m waves on the south coast.  Trees and powerlines had come down, houses had been damaged and the south coast had been battered by the sea.  There had been landslips along the coast line with sand, trees and huge rocks scattered across roads, gardens and the foreshore.   Thankfully, despite the devastation, no one in Wellington had been seriously hurt.

Our car had been parked in an open car park next to the airport and was caked in salt from the sea spray.  We drove home along the coast road which was still littered with debris.  We were quite apprehensive about what condition the house would be in, especially given we live on a ridge 100m from the south coast.  Arriving home we drove past a flattened garage three doors away and the neighbours wooden fence flat on the ground.  Our house was still standing, still had a roof and appeared to have suffered no ill effects.  There were lots of small branches and leaves in the carport and a few cracks in the plaster but nothing more.  Our landlord has said he will send a builder to carry out an inspection just to be sure.

Writing this the holiday is becoming a more and more distant memory.  The better half is reaching the busiest point of the year at work and I have had a week of early mornings and long days.  We have both just made the most of the glorious weather last weekend but I think I will leave that for another blog.  That is all for now...

Rocks and Waves

So once again I probably should have written this blog a week ago so that my imperfect memory is not a factor in the lack of information contained herein.  (Reading that back, that is an overly complicated sentence to say that I am useless.)  I shall do my best to recall the interesting (obviously depending on point of view) details of the last two weeks.

Work goes on as usual for myself and the better half.  I am doing more and more duty cover (being on call).  The bonus pay for it is very welcome but the calls in the middle of the night when you are half asleep and have to work out whether an environmental incident can wait until the morning are taking a bit of getting used to.  In between being on call and investigating incidents I have been getting more climbing in.  I've found a few people to climb with regularly and last weekend managed to get out on some real rock for the first time since arriving here.

Last Saturday I drove out to Baring Head (on the east side of the harbour) with Mike to check out the boulders.  It had been mentioned to us that there was a stream crossing to get to the point but this was a fairly normal Kiwi understatement.  The stream was a river and after attempting to cross at four different points, wading up to thigh deep in freezing fast flowing water, we gave up.  Thankfully, 40 minutes from Baring Head, is Turakirae Head which despite the longer walk in also has some world class bouldering.  We got to spend 3 hours playing on some great Greywacke Boulders (rocks to everyone else).  Definitely going to go back.

Not a great deal to report through the week.  The other half and I had a nice quiet Saturday this weekend, she went riding and I chilled.  Today I took part in the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club Winter Series.  I got to crew on a 10.2m MRX racing yacht.  This was not quite as exciting as it sounds due to the fact we had almost no wind all day and it rained constantly.  There were about 30 boats in the race in two divisions and multiple classes.  Despite the lack of wind, and the dampness due to rain, it was great fun.  We finished middle of the field.  I shall be going back in two weeks for the second race of the series hoping for more wind.

The next blog should have more photos and more news.  On Tuesday we fly out to Rarotonga (in the Cook Islands).  We are only going for five days but are really looking forward to the break.  I will fill you in when we return.  Until next time...

Chasing Rainbows

It would be easier to write this blog if I actually could remember what I have done since the 19th May when I last posted.  I am sure there must be moments of interest and amusing anecdotes aplenty that will never be recorded for posterity.  My memory seems only to stretch back as far as this weekend so that is what I shall describe.

Today is The Queens Birthday  - "Many Happy Returns Liz". In New Zealand this means a Public Holiday.  Whilst my readers in the UK were enjoying a sunny bank holiday last Monday the rest of NZ and I were working hard.  Now I can relax on a bonus day off whilst the rest of the world slaves away.  Why Kiwis, now fiercely independent and proud of their unique culture, still celebrate the birthday of a distant monarch I don't know.  The result though is that the better half and I got a long weekend and on Friday we drove up the west coast to Taranaki.

Finishing work early on Friday, having already packed our bags on Thursday, we headed off on State Highway 1 (SH1) along with half the population of Wellington fleeing the city for the weekend.  Of course, half the population of Wellington still isn't a huge number of people but SH1 isn't quite the M1 so traffic was slow.  Lots of people criticise New Zealand roads but when you consider the country is the size of the UK with only 7% of the population (approx. 4.5 million and 63 million respectively) the resources assigned to building and maintaining them are limited.  SH1, the foremost highway in the country, running over 2000km from Cape Reinga in the north to Point Stirling in the south, is a single carriageway road for most of its length.  Travelling the 320kms to Opunake in Taranaki, therefore, took us over 4 hours.

We had booked a room at a hotel overlooking the sea and arrived in time to get into the restaurant for a fantastic dinner.  Taranaki is cow country and the steak I had showed what wonders volcanic soils do for grass and in turn beef.  As we arrived in the dark we didn't get a view of Mt Taranaki - a 2518m high "dormant" volcano.  The classification as dormant is a curious one.  Apparently there is evidence to show it had minor eruptions every 90 years and major eruptions every 500 years right up to about 1860 AD when it went quiet.  Geologists think that a significant eruption is overdue but there have been no signs of any activity in recent years.

After a well deserved lie-in to compensate for the long drive, breakfast on Saturday was Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon - mmmmmm.  We then headed off towards a wall of cloud and climbed steadily up small country roads to Dawson Falls visitor centre  on the slopes of Mt Taranaki.  The better half was convinced up to this point that the volcano did not exist and a day of cloud and drizzle did nothing to persuade her otherwise.  Despite the rain we had a few hours fantastic walking.  Mt Taranaki gets over 7000mm of rain a year so the waterfalls and rain forest were pretty impressive.  What was surreal was walking up through thick, lush green vegetation on a path covered in snow.

We made our way up to around 1000m and stopped at a memorial to Sir Edmund Hillary  (very fitting as it was recently the 60th anniversary of his Everest ascent and yes, he was a Kiwi).  Realising at that point, given the dense mist across the mountain and the fact we were less than half way up,  we were going to be denied a view of any kind we headed back to the car.  The sun did try and break through on a number of occasions and the combination produced some wonderfully clear rainbows which seemed to rise out of the grassy fields within touching distance.  Our efforts to get a view of the mountain were as successful as trying to chase the rainbows.  After a late lunch, hoping for better luck with views, we drove out to the beach and got treated to a pretty sunset.

Sunday dawned not a great deal better than Saturday with grey skies threatening rain at any moment.  Following another huge and indulgent breakfast we packed up and started the trip slowly back towards home in Wellington.  We had planned a stop at a wildlife reserve for a short walk and lunch in Hawera.  As we drove out across the lower slopes of the mountain the other half made a sort of squeaky noise and point out the window of the car in excitement.  Sure enough in behind the drifting clouds were the slopes of Mt Taranaki.  We were treated to a couple of  minute of curious unveiling and re-covering of the mountain by clouds, never revealing more than a fraction of itself.  It was like some strange meteorological strip tease and we were not entirely convinced our eyes weren't playing tricks on us.

We carried on to Lake Rotokare, a scenic reserve which is surrounded by a predator proof fence.  It is a conservation area of national importance due to the habitats and bird life it contains.  Whilst doing a 4km walk around the lake we were treated to sightings of Tomtit, Kereru, Fantail, Grey Warbler, Silvereye, Pukeko, Bellbird, Scaup, Tui, Black Swan and numerous others that we weren't quick enough to identify.  The Silvereye and Fantails were especially tame.

Heading away from Lake Rotokare the clouds finally parted and we got a proper view of Mt Taranaki.  It is truly awe inspiring and I will have to go back in the summer to climb it.  It even stayed out of the clouds long enough for me to get a photograph.  The weekend having hit a climax we grabbed a quick lunch then hit the road back to Wellington.  With it being winter we arrived at home in the dark and had a chilled out evening of TV and pizza.

I write this now wondering where the weekend went.  Today has been spent catching up on all those little things that would have been spread out over a normal weekend.  The better half has been out to ride the horse.  I have sorted out some more climbing for this week.  All in all the wheels of our life are turning fairly smoothly.  A small portion of the day has been taken up scouring the interweb for holidays in the South Pacific.   We hope to get away later this month so watch this space for tales of palm trees,  cocktails and tropical sunsets.

  

Routinely Weird Weather

Only in a country that has been colonised by the British could the weather be as ubiquitous a topic of conversation as in the UK.  Of course, being two small islands at the meeting point of three major seas/oceans (take your time - count them - Tasman, Pacific and Southern),  weather tends to be changeable not just over days but in minutes.  The prevailing Northerly winds need only shift a quarter of a point on the compass and a bank of cloud that was on the horizon will arrive to wreak havoc with your picnic plans.

The reason I have launched into this diatribe about all things meteorological is due to the insane switches in weather we have had over the last week (and partly due to the lack of specifically exciting activities to talk about).  But don't doze off now, this won't take long. To illustrate the variability on  Saturday 4th of May we had 20 degree highs, high humidity and thick could.  By Tuesday we had passed through two changes in wind direction and bright sunshine to torrential rain (60mm in one day) causing flooding, then to an almost freezing night followed by light breezes and sunshine again.  Peak wind speed during this time was 94 km/h (this is the windy city).  This week there was the sudden onset of a huge thunderstorm.  We spent the evening watching sheets of rain and lightning over the hills out over the valley from the comfort of our sofa.

All this was interspersed by day to day life. The better half and I have been working hard during the week and playing hard at the weekend.  Thankfully the weather has not stopped us having fun.  I have managed to get out sailing on the harbour again; I have now committed to the winter racing series with the yacht club through June and July. The other half has been riding a couple of times; she has come to an agreement with the owner of a thoroughbred-cross, called Seze, to ride her twice a week.  We also went for a great walk around Dorset Point on the Mirimar Peninsular overlooking the mouth of the harbour.

(Insert at this point a weeks break during which I should have completed this blog but for many reasons failed in that task.  If you want the sensation of the gap take this moment to put the kettle on, make a cuppa and then return to the conclusion of our thrilling saga.)

I can't actually offer thrills, even vicarious ones.  I suppose one of the facts of settling down somewhere new is that eventually routine starts to set in.  With this hours, days and even weeks start to fly by. Our life is by no means boring but some of the monotony of getting up for work Monday to Friday it setting in.  For me, at least,  not working shifts is a double edged sword. I am enjoying having the weekends off and being able to plan outings and spend time with the better half.  However, I miss having days to myself during the week  when it feels like the rest of the world is at work.

This weekend I have been on call as the duty officer for the region.  In amongst the seven jobs I have had to deal with since Friday evening we have been able to get into Wellington centre and do a bit of shopping.  Some of this was stocking up on blankets and warm clothing.  The locals keep promising us that it will get really cold, though there is no sign of this yet.   We have only had our heaters on a couple of evenings and the sun makes an appearance often enough to provide psychological warmth at least.

Maybe the next blog will contain more thrills and spills.  We are trying to plan a long weekend away for the end of May/start of June. Towards the end of June we hope to go on holiday somewhere in the Pacific.  Of course, I will have been even more lax with my blogging if I don't write something before then but I will make no guarantees.  If you are really desperate for news of what we are up to we always appreciate e-mails and skype.

Hei kōnei rā

Noho ora mai rā



Away at the Beach

Nothing much of interest happened in the first half of last week and because of ANZAC Day (Public Holiday kind of like Remembrance Day in the UK) being on Thursday 25th we only worked the first three days.  As the better half's birthday also falls on ANZAC Day it means she always gets it as a day off.  We made the most of this and both took Friday off work so we could get away for a couple of nights.

It turned out we picked a fantastic time to head to the beach as the sun shone all weekend.  We drove out to the East Coast and a tiny settlement called Castlepoint.  Apparently it was one of the first places Captain Cook saw when he came to New Zealand and he named it for the enormous rock.  It was an idyllic spot and we stayed two nights in a little cottage 100m from the beach.  As there is no land between the East Coast of NZ and South America (unless in the thousands of miles of empty ocean you're lucky enough to hit Easter Island) the sea can be a touch wild.  The water is also chilled by a southerly current and I only ventured in once (that was enough).  We instead went for some great walks along the beach and up "the rock", relaxed at the cafe and pub, read books and generally chilled out.  Whilst there we were treated to clear skies and a full moon rising over the lighthouse - a truly magical sight.

On the Saturday we drove back to Wellington via a place called Matakona Beach.   We only stopped there to see some strange geological formations along the beach.  Something to do with different sediment layers being eroded I think.  It looks completely surreal.  We also stopped for another short walk at Rewanui Forest Park.  Once again, in beautiful sunshine, we followed a well marked trail through native bush and enjoyed some close encounters with native birds.  One particular Fantail flitted around us for about 5 minutes but must have been camera shy and  it wouldn't stay still for more than about 2 seconds.  I am pleased to say on this occasion the walk took less time than predicted and there is no epic tale of wilderness survival to tell.

What was strange was the sensation of disappointment leaving the coast and the sea to go home, only to realise that we were heading back to a house which overlooked the sea.  Still can't quite get used to that.  Back in Wellington on Sunday I made use of this fact and went sailing again.  With winds gusting 35 knots it was a wet, choppy and exhilarating ride.  I have now made my mind up to sign onto a crew for the winter series racing which starts in June (can't wait).

So, until the next instalment...

We're Still Here!

Firstly I need to apologise for the lack of blog over the last two and a half weeks.  This was due to a number of factors.  For nearly a whole week of this time I only had intermittent internet connection (for still unknown reasons).  When I rang my service provider they essentially ran me through a set of possible issues, all of which I had already discounted before calling them.  The technical helpdesk at the (unnamed for fear of libel action) service provider was also unable to help. Their closing comment was, "Well it's not a fault at our end so we can't help you."  I eventually remedied the problem and restored internet access through a mixture of magic and inspiration from my family I.T. helpdesk - you know who you are.

The second reason for the absence of waffling loquaciousness (it that a tautology?) on my part is work.  I have now completed three weeks at the regional council as an Environmental Protection Officer.  Most of that time has been spent trying to get my body adjusted to a regular eating and sleeping pattern, and getting my brain adjusted to training, learning and application of this to a new job.  I have enjoyed it immensely so far.  It is a friendly place to work and the team I am on has been very patient with me.  This week I had my first three days on call and have been doing site visits by myself.  It's a little scary but I am relishing the challenge.

With so much of the days being taken up with work (and so much of the evenings taken up shouting at the computer and trying to coerce it into behaving) There has not been a great deal of time for much else.  The Wellington winter has started to creep in and it has rained almost every day for the last week with the temperatures steadily falling.  New Zealand, for the most part, has not embraced the space-age concept of central heating.  Therefore, we have had to invest in a number of electric heaters which we are trying to hold off switching on until it really gets cold.  In amongst the rain, and the cold, we did manage a day trip out to a place called Makara Beach on the coast to the north-east of Wellington.  We did a beautiful walk along cliff tops then back along the foreshore (and we only got rained on once for about ten minutes).

I have managed to get out sailing on Wellington Harbour for a couple of hours the last two Sunday afternoons.  I even persuaded the better half to come along on one trip (she didn't get wet so I count it a successful adventure).  I'm now searching for a place on a yacht crew for the winter racing series.  I have also been getting down to the local climbing centre a bit more and am slowly building back up the finger strength and making a few friend to climb with.  The other half (even as I write this) is looking for horses to ride.  She has had offers from quite a few horse owners and hopefully will be able to find something to suit her.

Last Saturday night we were invited along to a "Murder Mystery" dinner at my team leaders house.  There were sixteen guests in all and the whole evening was based around 1940's Casablanca.  Everyone had been given characters and had to dress in appropriate 1940's style clothing (no I don't have any photographs). With food and wine helping us along we got into the spirit of it.  By the end of the evening, with all the clues, alibis and evidence presented, we all had to name our suspects.  We all got it wrong (it wasn't the gardener in the library with frozen haggis) but it was good fun anyway.

I can't think of any other news or items of note (this is the issue with not blogging regularly).  I will do my best not to leave so long between updates next time.  I will leave you with a photograph of one of the many animals which have decided, in the worsening weather, to crawl into our house.  This one (a 70mm long Tree Weta) made its way into the laundry basket and had to be forcibly evicted.

Bush Trials

So the process of settling in to life in New Zealand continues.  I started work for Greater Wellington Regional Council last Monday and had the luxury of only working a four day week.  So far, so good at work.  The team and managers are very friendly and helpful.  I still haven't got my head around exactly what I will be doing day to day and have a steep learning curve ahead of me.  Each day brought new questions and an ever growing list of information that I need to know.  The best experience so far was on Tuesday when I got sent on a induction day to the Wairarapa to meet various workers from different departments of the organisation.  The day showed me very nicely how I fitted into the bigger picture (plus I got a tour of the district and a fish & chip lunch).

This Easter weekend the better half and I decided to do some exploring of the area so we headed off on a mini road trip.  Friday we headed north up the Kapiti Coast then through Manawatu Gorge near Palmerston North.  Having missed out on equine activity for nearly two months we had booked on a short ride with rural horse trekking company.  By lunch time we were mounted on Blacky and Buddy and riding through bush, farmland and rivers on the edge of the Tararua Mountains with Cameron, our guide.  It was a relaxing way to see the countryside and the weather (as it has mostly been since we arrived in NZ) was perfect.  We did have one iffy moment when, having emerged from fording the river, unexpectedly and without warning, Blacky decided to roll in the sand, still with saddle and rider on.  Thankfully, the better half scrambled clear as he went down (not sure I would have been so quick) and horse and rider were okay.  Following our ride we had a late picnic lunch and headed to Palmerston North for the night.

    

Saturday we had a relatively lazy day and after a late, delicious and very large breakfast in a cafe in Palmerston drove back through Manawatu Gorge and into the Wairarapa region.  The Manawatu Gorge is a "water gap" (geological term apparently) and was formed as the two mountain ranges, Ruahine and Tararua, were raised under the existing river, which continued to erode through them.  It is also unusual as a river which completely crosses a dividing range.  We spent quite a while exploring little country roads (and in some cases the word road is used loosely) eventually ending up at Pukaha - The National Wildlife Centre.  Pukaha has a collection of rare New Zealand birds and has a big captive breeding programme, releasing birds in its own reserve and others around the country.   The big attraction is a extremely rare white Kiwi (apparently not an albino but still a genetic anomaly). They also have Hihi (Stitchbirds), Kakahi (parakeet), Takahe (an extremely rare water fowl) and Tuatara.  There was a pleasant walk through the native bush with aviaries housing rare endemic species and other wild birds all around.  For our lunch at their cafe we were joined by a Kaka (a bush parrot) who was completely fearless and sat on the back of the chair next to us looking longingly at our food.

    

In the afternoon we drove on to Martinborough, again via some little gravel tracks (which Scooby, the car, handled with ease), and to our B & B for Saturday night.  Martinborough is the wine centre for the Wairarapa and we will definitely be returning to tour the vineyards.  At the B & B, set on the outskirts of the village amongst dairy farms and vineyards,  we received the usual friendly Kiwi welcome. The evening was spent with the locals in the pub, cheering, and drinking, the Hurricanes (Wellington rugby team) to victory.

Sunday was to be an epic day (not necessarily in a good way).   I had picked out a walk in the Waiohine Gorge area to explore some pristine bush in the Tararua Mountains.   Following a delicious breakfast (including home made feta cheese scones) we drove, again along gravel tracks, into the gorge and to the start of the walk.  I had planned a 4hr walk which was roughly an equilateral triangle on the map (each side being 3-4km).  We crossed the 50m long "swing" bridge high over the gorge and headed up hill into the bush.  After approximately an hour of climbing through native forest the path levelled off and the rain set in.  It was not particularly heavy so we pressed on.  Sure enough after 2hrs we reached the first apex of my triangle and the highest point of the walk.  It was still raining but, having done what I thought was all the ascent, we carried on.

    

 

I won't go into detail over the rest of the walk but suffice to say it took a total of 7hrs to complete our bush trial. The rain was persistent throughout, the second side of the triangle was barely a path with stream crossings (swollen with rain water), the gentle descent was actually many short steep up and downs (contours on maps lie) and the third side of the triangle involved wading across a raging torrent that passed for a stream on the map (good job the temperature was relatively warm). The most amazing thing was that we came across other people on the same route - who also believed it was only a 4hr walk. Suffice to say we were elated to get back to the car (damp and exhausted) and drive back to home, sweet home, Wellington.