With sand from the Abel Tasman still a textured art installation on our floor, and a trip to Christchurch on the immediate horizon, this weekend we opted to chill…although it turns out it takes quite a bit of stamina to do nothing for two days.
Dora was the first to crack, popping out on Friday evening for dinner with those members of her football team over the legal drinking age. A plan was hatched for wine tasting the day before their match in the Wairapa (due to the area's excellent vineyards), with appropriate recovery time built into the evening, including watching She's the Man and Bend it Like Beckham.
I was the next to buckle under the pressure the next morning, getting up early to cycle up to Makara Mountain Bike Park with Tim, a fellow Brit. Turns out he’s better at cycling up hills (and down them, and on the flat) than me, so I had to dig deep to not embarrass myself, grimacing and nodding silently to conserve oxygen as he engaged me in friendly conversation.
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| No wire rack yet |
[Dora] I made like a 19th century wife and went to the Thorndon Farmer's Market for groceries and to the second hand shop for odds and ends for the house, including a baking tin, some novelty egg cups and a copy of Persuasion. I then made oat and raisin muffins in the new tin in between reading Persuasion in a reclined position.
[Roger] After an hour of lunch-time recovery I then headed to football with Wellington United Elite, a Sunday-league-esque team who ‘take football seriously for 90 minutes and socialise seriously for several more hours...’.
We won the game easily, despite my best efforts, by which time my legs were complaining at the lack of forewarning they’d received of this ‘relaxing’ weekend.
I drank some beer to quieten them down, but having miscalculated the depths to which my alcohol tolerance had plummeted was fairly unconstructive with dinner preparations [Dora: luckily 19th century wife had it covered - we had stir-fry].
Once I’d become a little more sober, we went to see a film that was anything but. ‘Hunt for the Wilderpeople’ is a hilarious comedy with a heart-warming, genuine streak that is the perfect introduction to kiwi humour. See it if you can! Given the scarcity of ‘degrees of separation’ in New Zealand, I knew someone who was related to one of the cast members, who held her own alongside that guy from Jurassic Park.
On Sunday it was Dora’s turn to play football, whilst I headed to the recycling centre and Pak N Save.
[Dora] We were coming into this game having lost our first two games of the season. The opponents, Petone, won the league last season. It looked tough. However with a big squad, determination and a focus that saw us passing accurately, shutting down their tactics early and playing our game, we won 4-0! I came on as a sub 25min in, and felt really good running the wing, particularly trying some indoor-football twists and turns to escape their players.
We then met with Barry, a kiwi friend of ours from dragonboating, and had iced coffee and chocolate in the sunshine (though slightly shortened by one of his children falling face-first into a metal bar and loosening some of his front teeth).
Next week - Christchurch!
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