Friday night was full of surprises. They began small scale –
the Venetian tapas (yes, really) place we went for dinner had surprisingly
gamey venison meatballs. Then we went to see a film about a tickle fetish cult
by New Zealand’s version of Louis Theroux, which was surprisingly shocking as
it unearthed the twisted world of a twisted, wealthy megalomaniac. Then, the greatest surprise of the night – as we bumped into my university
friend Harry Miller on the walk home, who happened to be travelling through
Wellington on a laissez faire tour of New Zealand (and beyond). Our final
surprise of the night was as we got home, when we find it was 2am!
We washed away our tiredness with some trendy beans on toast with friends at a brunchery that strictly only served in-season, local produce (yes, really). I then headed off
to football, whilst Dora prepped the house for her parents’ arrival this week;
cue, cleaning montage.
Later that evening we sent for a night time trail run event at
Makara Mountain Bike Park, donning headtorches and heading out into the mud,
wind and rain. Weighed down by heavy legs after football (and a couple of
beers) I managed a respectable time, whilst Dora zoomed around the slightly
shorter course quicker than she did on a bike a couple of months ago, lugging a
Tupperware full of home-made flapjack around with her (yes, really). As we
celebrated surviving the slippyness with pizza provided by Xterra, the clouds cleared and we got to see the
promised starlight, although the cold was a strong disincentive to the keenest
amateur astronomer.
I topped off my night by rejoining my football team, where
we toasted an easy victory in a Wetherspoons-esque bar with a quaint betting
shop extension.
A final hoover, a coffee with a couple of friends and the
acquisition of a heater and a shoe rack topped off a more sedate Sunday. We
completed it with the discovery of a
brilliant New Zealand comic film: What We Do In The Shadows:
In a week and a half we’ll let you know how our trip to
Vanuatu went!
Roger is out in the cold and drizzle with his running group (with head torches) and I am pleased to be on the sofa under a Pure New Zealand Wool blanket, which recently had to be purchased from the op shop, because winter has arrived. Properly this time: Roger wrote it on the calendar.
Skyline bike ride. Spot Richard.
In contrast to the frozen-in-summer-and-frozen-in-time delights of Napier, this weekend contained the more usual ingredients: a trip to Pak n Save, a visit to the recycling centre and two football matches. Roger also went on a mountain bike ride with his new friend Richard. I also bought three pictures from the recycling/tip shop Second Treasures. Along with two new canvas photos we can now transform the spare room into a hotel-level guest room.
Grittier times
My football match was over in the Wairarapa, an hour and a half's drive over the Rimutakas, which was spent chatting pleasantly to a French team mate (in English, although she's been warned when I'm not driving I might try French). The team had a beautiful turf pitch and a vocal crowd in the stands. It was a closely fought, physical match that ended 1-1, with the second half in the pouring rain. I did miss the mud element a bit. Less gritty.
Roger wrote a brilliant (I'm allowed to say so) match report for his game (it was his turn), in the style of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner. You can read it at the end of the blog.
In other sports news, the Xterra West Wind trail run video is ready for viewing. In fact, if you are social media savvy, like my parents, you may have already found it!
Now that the days are short and the Southerlies increasing, we are spending significant amounts of time planning for Springtime adventures. I'm off to Malaysia to meet up with Becky in October and Roger to the UK, and then at the end of October/early November our friend Simon is visiting. At last, we will head to the South Island on a mystery route governed by the weather. Luckily we are developing a comprehensive Google Spreadsheet of all possibilities, which will be useful for other visitors.
But first, our VIP winter visitors, Mum and Dad! Perhaps they will do a guest blog post?
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Roger's football write up: to be read in the style of ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’
It is an ancient footballer, And he stoppeth one of three. "By thy spiked grey hair and glittering eye, Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?
Basque does some great Sangria And I really want a drink; I don’t want to hear your old mans’ tales, If that is what you think."
He holds him with his aggressive gaze, He cannot choose but hear, And thus spake on that ancient man, The downbeat footballer.
"The pitch was wet, the game was set, Some people got there late, Down the Valley, on Pitch 2, Phoenix were to meet their fate.
The game kicked off and things looked good Despite some occasional slips, Dave punched a ball out from a corner Whilst Adam licked his lips.
A three week drought was ended then, As some passing broke us through, The goalie went right, Adam shot left, His goal-streak began anew.
One-nil up at half time and The enemy seemed dead, Tim’s sister swooned at our use of width, And Ganes even tried to head.
But then, they grabbed a goal, O Christ! This half looked like a slog, The blinding sun made passing fun, Particularly in a bog.
A glimpse of hope, as their defence broke, Patrick hit the back of the net, We were back in the lead and just had to pray, Their long balls would fail to beget.
But lo! A Phoenix throwing found their dwarf, Who was marking him? Who knew! He skinned two, then three, and shot with glee, To even up: 2-2!
Throwings, throwings, everywhere (particularly down the left hand side), But still our attack faltered, Decs ended up in centre back, Our strategy thus altered.
With minutes to go, we won a corner, Only for it be called goal kick! After 90 minutes of unpunished late tackles, We concluded the ref must be thick.
They long-balled again, but this time there was Confusion across our back line, A man was found, he thumped a round, They led, with little time.
Phoenix had come back from the ashes Of the first half, and we were beat, Even a Vinnie Jones-style tackle from Patrick, Failed to rouse the Elite.
But who to blame? Ross missed a sitter, The fault is his methinks, But then my memory of the whole match is clouded, By Greg’s night of leaving drinks."
The Footballer, whose hair is spiked, Whose beard with age is hoar, Is gone: and now the Basque patron Turned towards the exit door.
He went like one that hath been stunned, And is of sense forlorn: A sadder, wiser, hungover man, He rose the morrow morn.
This weekend we travelled back in time. Sort
of. Napier, Hawke's Bay is world famous for its Art Deco, the architecture of
choice for those who oversaw its extensive rebuild following a devastating
earthquake in 1931. The city centre is now frozen in time and acts as a
honeypot for enthusiasts of the interwar period and curious tourists. Having a
Mediterranean climate, extensive beaches and numerous wineries also doesn't
hurt.
We arrived on Friday evening armed to the
teeth with recommendations from NZ friends of places to visit. Top of the
culinary list was 'Mister D', a fire-side seafood-centric experience culminating in
its signature dessert - donuts presented with a range of alcoholic fillings
held in do-it-yourself syringes.
We cleared our heads the next morning with a
run up and down Te Mata peak, which rewarded our exertions with some great
views of the surrounding area. We cooled off in the sea at the
imaginatively-named Ocean Beach, and then headed to the Black Barn
vineyard to refuel. In case you've never been wine tasting in Hawkes Bay, the
general idea (or at least the way we did it) is that you pop to the 'Cellar
Door' to taste a selection of the vineyard's offerings (free of charge), before
choosing a glass/bottle and considering your next move over a plateful of food
from their well-equipped kitchen.
Next on the ad hoc agenda was a visit to
Arataki Honey Farm. With limitless honey samples and a bee-filled hive display,
this was a nice post-lunch pit stop before we headed to Havelock North,
well-known for its shops' interesting paraphernalia. Dora bought a snazzy
wooden garlic crusher and some chutney whilst I looked on benignly.
Clearview vineyard was our next stop,
successfully selling us a dessert wine that we felt would make an excellent blue
cheese accompaniment. Sunset was spent walking towards a modestly famous gannet
colony, and although we didn't have time to definitively identify the birdy
specs in the distance we felt satisfied we'd got the gist of the place.
That evening we continued down our great
recommendation list to Restaurant Indonesia, which unsurprisingly serves
authentic Indonesian cuisine. Its service is based on an ancient ceremony in
which tens of dishes were brought out to guests, who then paid according to the
amount of food they were able to consume. Unfortunately this clashed with our
habit of not leaving leftovers, the outcome being some very full stomachs.
Me standing in front of cliffs, no gannets in sight
The Criterion, paradigmatic Spanish Mission Art Deco, and also our hotel
On Sunday we decided to enhance our fairly
rudimentary knowledge of Art Deco, so we joined a walking tour. This was led by
Ron, an affable Yorkshireman with a solid knowledge of architecture, and a
slightly shakier awareness of the gender equality movement. Ron turned every
shopfront into an engaging history lesson and was also happy to share his thoughts
on some of the local politics. One thing that struck us on the tour was how
quickly Napier had recovered following the earthquake, with most of it's CBD
fully rebuilt less than two years after three minutes of shaking and a two-day
fire gutted its centre.
Walking tour over, we grabbed some bikes and
cycled up the coast to Crab Farm winery, formerly a target of giant crabs that
were known to carry off small sheep as recently as 1999! Once we'd procured a
bottle of red for our burgeoning wine cellar (which will be difficult to
install in our fifth floor apartment) we headed back to the car via a hipster
pizza place to drive back to Wellington. During the journey the clinking of
wine bottles, chutney jars and honey pots provided a pleasant reminder of a
fantastic weekend in a beautiful place (my favorite city apart from Wellington,
I think), and pointed towards some tasty consumption in the weeks ahead.
Next week: Our views on the European
referendum, a lengthy political discussion that will cover all sides of the
argument. Only joking! We’ll probably talk about how windy it is.
We've received some expressions of concern about the work-life balance presented by this blog. To assure you all we're not just on holiday, here is a work update.
Fairy cakes with melted Whittaker's chocolate wells
Roger finished off a cost-benefit analysis exercise this week and received a glowing appraisal. I planned and created content for the Meridian Facebook page, went to meetings about new features for the intranet, and continued with the comms for the trail running event at Meridian's West Wind farm. I got home early enough to bake.*
*Wire rack pending
Havana Bar
On Friday night we went trendy. First stop Grill Meats Beer at the top of Cuba St for their guest craft beers and delicious, brimming burgers perched up on the bar (seemingly staffed entirely by Scandinavian men with top knots). Then to Lighthouse Cinema for a hot chocolate and sofa to watch Eddie the Eagle. A genuine, openly feel-good film starring Rog's school friend Taron.
Across from the cinema is a double-little-wooden-house bar and restaurant called Havana Bar, which we keep meaning to go to. Approaching, the long black coated and bandanna wearing door man greeted us and asked for ID so we figured we better go in. Feeling like we'd stepped onto a film set we went down an alley and through into a lively, (you guessed it) Cuban themed bar. Perched on the bar again we this time sipped port and watched cocktail creation in action.
Saturday took us to Lower Hutt, where Roger's football team won a match 9-0 and I went on a practice trail run up Boulder Hill in Belmont Park, testing out the Meridian GoPro for Sunday. The views are always worth the hill climb round here:
View from Boulder Hill. Spot Somes Island!
It was a quiet night in on Saturday with a homemade lamb curry and the latest Star Wars film (because of course I hadn't seen it yet). We were up early the next day for....
Event HQ at the viewing platform in the West Wind Recreation area was already buzzing when we arrived at 8am. A quick interview for the camera, registration and a debate over whether Roger could fit the emergency whistle and survival blanket in his pockets and the long course runners were off! Shirley the drone hovered overhead. Half an hour later I cheered off Matt, a friend from work, and Sean, the chap in the video above and co-star of the videos (see his on the Meridian Facebook page), on the medium course. And finally, the short course (7km) was off!
Waiting at the start line (Photos onwards: Angelo Giannoutsos or Zel Lazarevich)
Single track through pine forest then down a rocky, gorse-lined gully was (I think) what trail runners call 'technical' and what I call the best bit because it's downhill. I'd been towards the front at the start for the filming and I kept up with a woman ahead who seemed to know what she was doing. The panoramas of hills, sea and gently rotating turbines distracted from any pain and had me side-stepping and pirouetting so chest cam could see them too!
Pausing for the view on the hill (and for filming to be set up)
The long steep hill between 4.5 and 5.5km was tough and most of us walked it, so I took the opportunity to do some candid talking to the camera (see below). 200m from the top the trusty camera crew of Zel and Angelo spurred me on (I had to run for the shot) and then Meridian stalwart Vaughn at 150m from the top. The last stretch was a relief to run, on gravel road and mostly downhill. Although I felt silly almost missing the finishing line at Event HQ! No oxygen was being spared for the brain by then.
It was a brilliant event, superbly organised by Xterra (Tomo and Evelyn) and enjoyed by the very friendly trail running community. It was also really nice realising how many people I knew on the day from Meridian or who were involved in the event. There'll be a video, but in the meantime a couple of photos: some of the Meridian runners (and family) and a lovely pic of Rog and I taken by Angelo.
A selection of team Meridian. Angus (far right) came 2nd in the long)
To fill this space I must add that the times came in and I came 6th in the women's short course! If I'd been a man, my time (51min) would have got me 5th (I suspect the really keen men all did long or medium course). There were 102 women running the short so I'm pretty stoked. Roger came an impressive 12th out of 91 men running the long course. The beach section of his was particularly tricky on the ankles: loose pebbles and a carpet of driftwood.
Later that evening we sent for a night time trail run event at
Makara Mountain Bike Park, donning headtorches and heading out into the mud,
wind and rain. Weighed down by heavy legs after football (and a couple of
beers) I managed a respectable time, whilst Dora zoomed around the slightly
shorter course quicker than she did on a bike a couple of months ago, lugging a
Tupperware full of home-made flapjack around with her (yes, really). As we
celebrated surviving the slippyness with pizza provided by Xterra, the clouds cleared and we got to see the
promised starlight, although the cold was a strong disincentive to the keenest
amateur astronomer. 
