Unsettled life on the weekdays

On the way back from Hand to God we
came across the Wellington light show -
in this case projection of ballet onto water
fountains

Our dispatches tend to be quite weekend-heavy, so this time we’ll also update you on some things we did to while away the time leading up to 5pm last Friday.

(the prior) Tuesday – We’re in the midst of the Wellington comedy festival, so Dora and I went to see ‘Hand to God’, a rather rude play with a possessed puppet that ran wild on Broadway.

(last) Tuesday – Kiwis are quiz crazy. We joined this obsession along with Matt and Phoebe at the ‘Southern Cross’ pub. The poor diction of the Quiz Master added an extra challenge to the event, where we drank mulled cider to drown our sorrows at coming mid-table.

Wednesday – We accompanied Matt to indoor climbing, testing our belaying skills to the max by falling off a variety of walls.

Dora gleefully piloting

Thursday – More comedy beckoned, this time with Rich and Lucy. We chuckled through a show called ‘Live, Laugh, Love’, which turned a critical eye to scandi-loving-candle-burning-slogan-sponsoring yuppies. Arguably an exercise in self-depreciation.

#droneselfie

Come the weekend, we were ready for some rest, and found it at Helen’s farm in the foothills of the Ruahines. She needed some drone photos taking, and we were delighted to help out, in between some Masters reading, marshmallow-cooking over wood-burning fires, and an enjoyable viewing of ‘Hidden Figures’ in Helen’s indoor cinema. Sunday evening saw us return to Wellington, batteries recharged for a less intensive week.

Next weekend we’re going to a club night (no, really). Given our low alcohol tolerance I doubt we’ll get up to much else.

Photo of drone looking as big as our car (not hard)

Settled life in a weekend

The week followed its usual course of The Bachelor-watching, swimming and Skyping after work. We both swam unprecendented numbers of lengths front crawl (freestyle). I won't tell you how many lengths that was for fear of embarrassing Roger. On Friday we met up with new friends Phoebe and Matt for hipster beers at Little Beer Quarter and hipster food at our fave Ombra, followed by more drinks and a game of pool, followed by a stumble up to the Terrace and bed.

Maximum visibility at the entrance to Westpac stadium

The next day we eschewed our hangovers with a firm cup of tea and set out to Do Jobs. In order of achievement, these were: buying Roger new chinos and a new jumper, completing a Masters assignment (Roger), taking our recycling to the tip, shopping at Pak 'n' Save, and hoovering. I also met up with Erica to check out the Better Home and Living Show, at which my old friend the IONIQ was parked for maximum brand awareness. I bought a lovely Wellington print by Sarah Platt.

The unexplained bath tub in the Library cocktail bar

To celebrate Sophie's birthday we joined her, Tim, and a larger number of friends than we'll ever have in Wellington, at the cocktail bar The Library. It was cool to meet some new people, hatch Lions-watching plans, and sing a tuneful (as always) Happy Birthday to Sophie so that we qualified for the amazing cake her friend had made.

Bright and early the next morning we were zooming off to Peka Peka to join our cycling group, headed by one Andy Corser. The ride took in the beautiful Kapiti Coast area - beach, wetlands, river, suburbia - and the equally intriguing Kapiti Expressway cycle path.

A spoonbill in the wetlands of Waikanae

A Roger on the muddy riverbank

Paraparaumu Beach - recognise the island?

At lunch (left) we were totally spoiled by Chris and Andy's picnic catering - transported in the ute and spread out on two tables for the 25 cyclists. 

The Kapiti Expressway cycle path zoomed us back to Peka Peka

Thanks for welcoming us on another trip, Marton Cycling Crew!

Sunday evening saw us finish the first series we've watched together, all of it, on Netflix ('Stranger Things'). A milestone in our relationship.

Au revoir Akaroa

Last weekend we revisited the Banks Peninsula to see Jack and coincide a visit with Charlotte at last, the parents of my friend Anna. Our short plane journey was at Koru hour, which led to some speedy wine drinking from Dora on the descent. Our little Holden Spark rental made it up the hill and we were warmly welcomed for a lasagne and red wine supper, which helped us unwind after a hard week’s work.

The walnut grove

Come morning we made ourselves useful on the farm. I embraced my inner sheepdog by moving some livestock. We collected up possum bait stations that temptingly offer up cyanide capsules in a liquorice-allsorts paste. These were to be moved from the walnut trees (autumn possum hang out) to the pine trees (spring possum hang out). A walk in the stunning evening light and a relaxed meal in Akaroa rewarded the day's work.

Farm or paradise?

We took to the farm with renewed vigour on Sunday. A swath of excess undergrowth was chopped, ripped up and burned, and we set up lethal treats for the aforementioned possums in the pines. The day was interspersed with hearty soups, walnuts and wise nuggets of knowledge from Jack and Charlotte concerning the various flora and fauna, and life more generally.  

The farming four

On our reluctant return to Wellington on Sunday, we were greeted by beans on toast and a week of work. We’re missing Akaroa already, but are also looking forward to a rare weekend in Wellington.

Cars and caves (and the birds you didn't see last time)

CARS [Dora] After a busy 3-day week, Friday night brought an EV-themed reward in the shape of the Motor Trade Association's centenary car show (MTA100) Opening Preview - free food, wine and an exhibition of new/future cars, including one self-driving, lots of electric cars and some high-end cars. We (work colleagues) roved the exhibition with wine and sat in a lot of cars, tried out the sound systems, annoyed the interpretative dancers, 'accidentally' turned a petrol one on (noisy) to the enthusiasm of onlookers, and even made it into the autonomous Rinspeed that we definitely weren't supposed to be in (where there were peanut M&Ms!). Mayor of Wellington Justin Lester kindly offered to take a photo of me with the Rinspeed (prior to the sneaking in):

Test drive of the Ioniq or Leaf anyone?

On Saturday morning I helped out at the MTA100 electric car test drive area, taking people out in Meridian's Hyundai Ioniq and Nissan Leaf - this involved a huge range of drivers and a huge range of questions. Some were surprised that the inside of the car was "normal". I was the only woman running test drives. Speeding off to get lunch at the Mojo next to work, I ran into a colleague friend Angus studying for his finance diploma so had a nice surprise joint lunch.

An aquatic car comes back from a harbour spin

A few more test drives later and I met my friend Sophie (the other half of Roger's running friend Tim) to see the new Beauty and the Beast film. It was standard Disney and somehow they made the Beast attractive. So much so I was concerned that Beauty wouldn't be into the weedier man-version. After B&theB Sophie helped me charge the Leaf and then I headed (not in the Leaf) to friends Matt and Laura's for his 30th birthday celebrations, which had age-appropriate yummy fajitas and chilli con carne, and entrepreneurial and sporty chats.

The next morning I went to the rest of the MTA100 exhibition not covered tipsily at the Opening Preview. The Rinspeed was still coolest, but they also had a replica of Burt Munro's fastest Indian and bits from the real one (I assume!) in the Famous Kiwi Cars section. 

Rinspeed and segway - in the future you're not allowed to walk

I then shot to brunch on Cuba St with Tom Corser, in the sudden sunshine! We had excellent waffles and caught up at an outside table at Fidel's (hipster) cafe.

Back at MTA100 I did more test drives in the Leaf and Ioniq for the duration of the afternoon, including videoing and chatting for two vloggers (video bloggers) while they drove. I had lots to say! So my voice should be famous on YouTube soon.

E.g. in this video I have a good old chat on the test drive: https://youtu.be/OoezTVifZDI 

This week I also RAPID charged the Ioniq (photo right), which (for anyone who has not been chatting to me recently) is VERY exciting - first time for me and the car. Empty to 80% in 30min!

CAVES [Roger] My weekend started with a lengthy drive up to Waitomo with Tim. We were running a 35km trail run, so a pit stop at McDonalds seemed appropriate.

The lava tunnel race start

A comfy sleep on hotel beds set us up for a 5:30am awakening. We were bussed out to the start line, which was in an ancient lava tunnel. The start of the race didn’t go so well, as some wayward markers led us in a circle back to the start. Once our geographic problems were resolved, however, we headed off into the misty hills.

The ‘super long’ version of the Waitomo run goes through streams, into lava caves, over mountains and into valleys. Indeed, there’s very little land that could be described as flat. The striking scenery kept me distracted for the first 22km, but then my legs began to send me not-so-gentle reminders about their lack of training. I finished in a respectable position nonetheless, while Tim strayed from respectability into downright impressiveness.

We failed in our attempt to bribe a campsite to use their showers, and headed 2.5 hours down the road to New Plymouth for cider, burgers and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. 

6am the next day (seeing a theme here?), we arose in search of a weather window in which to climb Mt. Taranaki. Unfortunately we found it, so come 10am we had walked and clambered up the 2,518m summit, my legs protesting about their workers’ rights. We snapped some photos then dashed down just ahead of banks of clouds bringing wind and rain.

A pie in Whanganui was the highlight of an afternoon’s trip home. I arrived back in the flat flattened, my legs by now on strike. Thank you Tim for not letting me slack, and helping hours of driving fly by with a mixture of techno music and half-decent chat. 

BIRDS

Photos from Kapiti Island that there wasn't room for last time

North Island Robin

Bell bird with wings whirring

Kaka above the picnic table

Bell bird's bottom and a plump Tui

Takahe, retired couple

Kereru, or NZ native wood pigeons

Bell bird on the bush