Seeing stars in Muddy Makara

When Harry Met Doger

What a Venetian Tapas restaurant
looks like

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!