Landing in Wellington, we picked up our luggage from the
carousel and our old friend Rob from international arrivals. He was joining us
from balmy/boiling Queensland, to dip his toe in New Zealand before exploring
it further in the future.
On Tuesday we withdrew to our workplace offices while Rob enjoyed the Wellington sunshine. We met up in the evening to watch an advance screening of An Inconvenient Sequel, Al Gore’s follow
up to An Inconvenient Truth. It was
quite an ironic event: sponsored by a vehicle fuel retailer, watched by Al Gore
fans, and carrying positive messages about the US’ environmental leadership
despite the awkward Trumpian postscript. Worth watching though.
Rob went walking on Wednesday, then joined some of our
friends for a pub quiz (Dora was choiring and I was studying). On Thursday we
went out for dinner, ending up at Ombra after our first choice, the Boulcott
Bistro, was flooded by rainwater! We finished off the introduction to NZ with a
viewing of What We Do In The Shadows
on Friday.
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| View from the Skyline Track, where Tim and I ran |
Freed from work by the weekend, we took Rob up up to the wind turbine on Saturday, and had a clear view over to the South Island's Kaikoura range. We then joined Matt and Phoebe at the Occasional
Brewer with to ‘use their equipment to brew our own beer’,
which takes advantage of a tax loophole and will hopefully produce 40L of
drinkable beverage – which we’ve named Phatt Rob Doger – next week. We bid a sad farewell to Rob mid-brewing.
Sunday was fairly relaxed – a run and a brunch in Karori with Tim and
Sophie.
We made up for this sedateness this weekend just gone. Dora
pre-deployed herself to Christchurch for some work events (including a Great Gatsby-themed awards evening), and I joined her on
Friday evening for a light run around Christchurch and a sleep in her snazzy
corporate hotel. We arose at the crack of dawn to join Phoebe and Matt (again!)
for some skiing on Mt Hutt. 
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| Note the braided Rakaia River |
The weather treated us well, with alpine triangles nestled
beneath blue bird skies. The snow was good – despite some icy patches – and we spent a fun day sliding our way down mountain at breakneck speed.
Exhausted, we then headed to recuperate at Dee and Gerald’s welcoming home nearby. We feasted on home made sausages and great company, and
slept deeply.
We awoke slowly on Sunday, to a hearty breakfast. I
undercooked some eggs for everyone to enjoy. Matt and Phoebe headed off to
explore Christchurch’s Port Hills. Dora and I lunched with her
cousins Mark, Katie and John. We walked along South Brighton beach to build up an appetite, then joined Diana and David for tea and cake, the latter made earlier by Manon and
Bianca, the daughters of Dora’s cousin Henry and
his wife Tomomi, who were all also there. Following the family-filled fun we flew back to Welly. It was
a bit bumpy and someone was sick.
This coming weekend we’ll be bottling some (hopefully) fine
Phatt Rob Doger, then cleansing our pallets at the ‘Beervana’ festival.
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