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.
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!
