A Fun Day

I had quite a fun day yesterday. Lots of silly little things that probably don't sound like fun to others but which I enjoyed :) I was meeting Dave in town at 12:30 so I headed in earlier to spend some time in Hodges Figgis and Waterstones (big bookstores). I'm still thoroughly enjoying the fact that books cost so much less here. Unfortunately not much in the way of good 3 for 2s in HF so I poppe across the road to Waterstones. I knew that I definitely wanted When Will There Be Good News (Kate Atkinson) so was hoping it would be in a 3 for 2. Not only that but instead of finding 2 I wanted and then struggling for a 3rd (which happens so often in those selections) I picked at least 4 I wanted so had to narrow it down to 3. In the end it was the Kate Atkinson, The Girl Who Played with Fire (2nd in trilogy) and The Reluctant Fundamentalist which I've heard alot of good things about. Another close runner was Howards End but I'll get that another time.

It was actually rather sunny and toasty here yesterday so to pass the rest of the time I sat in the Green enjoying the sun. It was quite toasty :) Hiking gear in New Zealand is actually relatively expensive and no one shop has a very good selection of hiking boots so it was with quite a bit of excitement (on my part at least!) that we headed in to The Great Outdoors. I didn't try on any boots yesterday but there was quite a bit to choose from so maybe I'll pay a visit tomorrow. While Dave was trying some boots I just browsed and observed (as you do in these situations) another shop assistant with what I can only call a fairly demanding customer. She wanted this and not that (definitely minimal stitching!) and he (assistant) should remember this... quite amusing really :)

Now... Ikea! The republic's first Ikea opened at the end of July so we headed out there. It was great! We were like two little kids both wishing for an empty space to furnish. We weren't buying (sure I don't get to move back in to my place until October so no point) but it was fun to wander around. No idea how we did it but downstairs we ended up going in via the checkouts and at one point we were very much walking against the crowd (and it was busy!). I was wondering how many people get lost in Ikea ('cos that is exactly what we were at one point... okay only for a couple of mins :) ) Amazingly we did walk out without buying anything but I definitely want to visit again!

Rest of the day was just chilling out in Marino. A walk down the Bull Wall and the beach. Some food (Bombay Pantry... good but disappointing Nan break!) and then home :)

And last but not least... for those of you asking for another photo of Matthew...

Time for a Name Change?

Well I no longer live in New Zealand, I live in Ireland again. So, as somebody pointed out to me a while back the name of this blog is no longer apt. I'm open to suggestions 'cos I certainly can't think of anything to call it.

I've been back since Tues afternoon. The weather has been relatively warm actually but not quite as bright or sunny as I would hope for for August. Actually even though I knew, while in New Zealand, that it's much brighter here than here (even in winter), it was still a shock to be faced with it. But all in all at least I've been able to go around in t-shirts, if not shorts :)

So on Tuesday afternoon I met my godson and nephew and Matthew. I'm not a baby person. Never have been and doubt I ever will be. But he's a cutie! What I've found fascinating is that watching him I realise that babies are born with literally no motor skills and have to learn everything. He's only 6 months old so he's a bit to go yet but he can still move around a carpet by rolling himself about. It's great. So as part of my godmother duties my sister asked me to give him his dinner last night while she ran out to the Chinese. His main was some sort of chicken and spring vegetable stuff which looked pretty unappetising (actually most baby food looks unappetising but this particularly). Ciara warned me that he was only getting to used to the taste of the chicken so I didn't expect him to eat too much of it. I got him to eat a bit of it but after the grimace on the swallow which had been preceded by him spitting it out at me twice (oh yes and the timely sneezes as I put food in his mouth) we switched to his Autumn Vegetable stuff which he likes much better. 45 minutes later (I kid you not!) I was gagging for a glass of wine and he'd eaten his main plus some mushed pear stuff and some milk. Brownie points for me from the parents. He proceeded to spend the rest of the evening busy razzing (first I'd heard of that word) at a rate of knots combined with chatting to himself. Result? Four adults trying to watch TV with baby making bizarre noises and adults breaking up with laughter at regular intervals.

Today was the big day. The Christening. The parents were well behaved. Matthew was extremely well behaved. There was a bit of chatting to himself in the church but that just resulted in me laughing to myself. He looked very angelic in his white gown and robe...



There was some food and friends in a pub across the road afterwards. A little later more friends arrived and before long I was scared. I felt like I was in a creche with no way out. Luckily all the young people were in one half of the room so I made sure I was in the other half. For the record I was not the only person afraid. Hearing that there'll be 30 children there is not the same as the actual reality of being in a room with that many babies and children. Trust me. I know I made the right decision in not ever even considering being a teacher :)

Hmm... what else? Oh I excitedly visited a bookshop the other day. One of the things I have been looking forward to about moving back here is the fact that books do not cost $30 each! Unfortunately it was a slightly disappointing experience. My fault. I should have gone in to the city centre to one of the bigger stores but I just headed down to Dun Laoghaire. Decent stores but I was picturing a Unity Books but with Irish prices (books, cheese and hiking boots are probably the only things where I'll want Irish over NZ prices!). Wasn't like that. I did buy a couple of books but I intend some more purchases later in the week :)

p.s Yes I miss Wellington.

A bookcrosser in the making

Meet Matthew my godson and nephew... I think we might have a future bookcrosser in our midsts here :)

However as he loves the camera (seriously this kid poses for photographs) he did act nice and take a break from his reading to pose for the camera. But I do like that "What, I'm busy here" look on his face.

Making Someone's Day

Yesterday morning I met some friends for brunch at Midnight Espresso in Wellington. I'd only been in there once before to have a coffee so it was my first eating venture there. There were four of us (the usual international crew of a German, a Canadian, an American and an Irish person) and we all ended up ordering variations on the same thing - pancakes with banana and fruit, pancakes with banana and fruit without the maple syrup and pancakes with bacon and banana. As we didn't know how long the food would be Megan appeared at our table with a muffin to help us get through to breakfast.

I hadn't seen these guys in a few weeks so there was alot of catching up (Kate's in the process of moving, Megan will be moving at the end of August, Kat going to Australia for Christmas etc) and as usual with these girls, alot of laughter! Later as were eating our breakfast one of the girls working there was clearing some stuff off the table to give us some space and went for the last quarter of the muffin. My comment of "oh you should leave that... it's food!" produce a "you guys make my day" comment. I'm guessing it wasn't that particular comment so much but rather the fact that we had been laughing rather, well, not demurely for the previous 30 minutes! About an hour after that the same girl appeared at our table with a glass of freshly squeezed OJ (and maybe grapefruit or grape juice?) for each of us. We looked at her in surprise and got told that we had the staff's day with all our laughter and chatter that morning and they'd enjoyed having us there hence the juice! There was quiet for about 10 seconds... and well, after that it was back to our chat and laughter and yummy juice.

It's hard to believe that in a few weeks I'll be gone from Wellington and there won't be that sort of international brunch with the ability to laugh at anything in such a great little cafe for some time to come.

Will I Blog when in Ireland?

I met an English but living in Kiwiland friend for lunch today. We were discussing my return back to Ireland in August and she asked if I would keep up my blog once home. It made me think... when I started this it was purely my trip to New Zealand. And I've certainly posted less and less as time goes on so I reckoned I wouldn't. But she'd like me to so I will... and it's so I can give Dani and idea of what it's like settling back in to life in Ireland after being away for two years. I can't promise that I'll be any more regular than I am now... in fact I suspect I'll be worse but I'll certainly try. For a few months at least :)

Harder than I thought...

For some bizarre reason I thought to myself last Wednesday (1st July) that it would be interesting if I could take a photo a day for the rest of the year. Then I thought a little longer and decided that I'd start with trying it for a month and carry on if I managed that. It started with this

Last Saturday we had finished breakfast out at Maranui Surf Life club cafe when I thought "oh... I have to get my photo for today, this could be a good spot". So, it was a case of, not we can't leave yet I have to go get my camera. And this was the output (which I quite like!)

Friday afternoon I ran upstairs (ok so I got the lift!) to the 8th floor at work to the one meeting room with a good view out of hte harbour to get this (through a window)

Anyway, it's day 8. I would just like to say that this is not as easy as it sounds. Well I guess it would be easy if I just stuck any old photo up on flickr for this (actually that's sort of what my July 2nd one is) but I am trying to get something vaguely interesting/different. That's how I ended up with the office reflected in the window for July 6th!

For anybody curious to know how I'm going to manage for the remaining 24 days of the month, I'm putting my One a Day snaps (started hearing that word again recently... reminds me of my Grans :) ) up on flickr here.

p.s. If you live in Wellington I highly recommend breakfast/brunch/lunch out at Lyall Bay at the Maranui Surf club cafe. Seriously yummy and lovely views if you get a window seat :)

Staying Warm

I really must write up a proper blog entry on my Lake Waikaremoana tramp. I was so looking forward to it and to be honest I absalutely loved it! No I didn't always find it a doddle, and yes it was cold but it never rained on us (amazing considering we were walking for 4 days in the depths of winter!) and we didn't meet anybody on the track or in the huts until the last day. How cool was that?

Anyway, to give little indication of the coldness I thought I'd blog a photo where I'm wearing 3 layers while tramping! ANd that's a bit of snow on the ground but actually that was early on the first day so not too much at that point. More to come later when we hit Panekiri Hut with the frozen water :)

Night Lights

We may have had some grotty weather this winter in Wellington (and it's only June) but we then also get some beautifully calm evenings. And walking down by the waterfront on those evenings, in the dark, is such a pleasure with the lovely lighting that has been set up under bridges to provide lovely colours reflecting on the water.

Night Lights

I'll miss this.

Queen's Birthday Long Weekend

So the weekend just past was the last long weekend here in New Zealand until, eh, October I think it is! Unlike the Northern Hemisphere we have Christmas to look forward to in the middle of winter. Here in New Zealand... zilch!

Anyway, I got the ferry over to Picton on Fri evening with a couple of friends I met on my Easter tramp. After the horrible storms that we'd been having recently the ferry crossing was surprisingly calm. I was much impressed :) On Sat morning, after brief visit to the great Picton Bakery to pick up some lunch we got the water taxi out to Punga Cove which is some way along on the Queen Charlotte Track. Our destination for that day was Portage, 23.5km somewhere in the distance. It wasn't the clearest brightest day but it didn't rain and considering the forecasts earlier in the week we were happy for that.

The DOC time for that walk was 9 hrs which I was not prepared to accept. Kate and Megan spent the first part of the walk trying to persuade me that it would be better for myself if I accepted that it was going to take us that long to do the walk. I couldn't do that... no matter how hard I tried! And we didn't need to. Enough time for photo stops and breaks and we got to Portage in about 6.5 hrs.

After "The Kavanaghs" checked in to the wonderfully friendly Portage resort hotel there was time for some hot chocolate and Baileys and a photo or two before a visit to the hot pool to relax!

This was the view from outside my room...

The next morning we were not looking forward to the steep walk uphill on the road to get back on the track. As we were paying for breakfast a lift was offered to us to drive us up the road to the start of the track. Before the offer had even been completed Megan jumped in with "Yes Please!" We gave her lots of slagging for that... but she informed us that that was what we both really wanted so we should be grateful to her :)

Sunday was much much colder than Saturday but on the plus side it was beautifully clear and sunny so there's always a plus side :) I don't really know why but there was lots of laughter... and talk of food. The bit of hail that we did experience didn't last long and it wasn't long before we were in clear weather again.

On reaching Anakiwa we waited for our taxi pickup (extra clothing layers were required for this as it was cold!). It was still lovely and sunny but weirdly once we turned in to Picton harbour I could see that the weather was not so nice... it was snowing! Back to the B&B, time for a shower and some sit down and then out for a bite to eat. We were all knackered though and I was asleep by 9pm... I tried but failed miserably (unlike the others) to keep reading past 9 but it just didn't work!

Monday was a lovely sunny day in Picton so we passed some time eating muffins and drinking coffee in Le Cafe before heading off to get the ferry. Apologies to Kate on the rhs of this photo... appears to be have been chopped but is showing nicely on flickr anyway!

We were all smiles at the start of the sailing.. it was beautiful out there...

About an hour in to the sailing though we hit the Straits. It wasn't nice. Time for the iPod to block out the sound of people barfing in to sick bags all around. But we were lucky and hey we got back to Wellington in one piece :)

All in all a very fun weekend with lots of laughter, discussion of food, photography, amazement over the fact that it hadn't rained on us and admiring of views.

Plans and stuff

The last couple of weeks the weather has been fairly icky to say the least. I understand that it's sort of winter now but it's only May and we've had some fairly horrendous storms with lots of rain and wind. Last weekend isn't even worth talking about other than to say that for most people it literally was a DVD weekend. I on the other hand managed to be out for a bit of it. Saturday I was looking for a rain jacket suitable for my upcoming 4 day tramp in June but also something that will be suitable back in Ireland. Not sure such a thing exists but anyway... After that I nipped home, got some and headed all the back down to the end of Courteney Place to see Star Trek (again!). Muchos fun :)

Sunday, it was less cold that Saturday but not less wet. In fact it was wetter. Did I stay at home and watch a DVD? No, after brunch we set out from the Aro Cafe to start on the Southern Walkway. By the time we got to the end of Oriental Parade I was really doubting that I'd do the whole walk. It was wet. But crossed the road and up the steps and then on up to Mount Vic (at which point I was thinking how in trouble I'm going to be in June doing Lake Waikaremoana... I am so not fit right now). Anyway walked a bit and then I voted to walk down in to Newtown from where we walked back. Pretty much everything I had on was wet bar my top which was under a fleece. Even the fleece got wet... bad reflection on my North Face jacket! The rest of the afternoon was spent sitting on my bum reading :)

Today it seems to be picking up a bit though it's not forecast to last. Pity. I'm spending this coming Sat and Sun walking on the Queen Charlotte Track with a couple of friends. We're really looking forward to it as we're being complete lazy arses about it in that we're not carrying our gear with us and we're staying in the Portage Resort hotel on Sat night. Not the walkers lodge but proper bedrooms! The rain radar is not exactly making me smile but at least after 6 or 7 hours of walking (this day is actually the most strenuous of that whole track) I can have a shower, put on dry clothes (already delivered to resort by water taxi for me) and have a nice (hopefully) dinner!

Off to Christchurch in another few weekends where I'm going to bore poor Karen silly with photos and videos of my nephew Matthew. My sister put up two videos on flickr today and one of them is just priceless... lots of mad little giggling from him as she bounces him up and down on her knee. I can't wait to meet the little guy :) {though knowing my luck he'll probably cry as soon as he sees me!}

Then on the 18th I'm heading up North to Te Urewera National Park with Amanda and starting on the 19th we're going to spend 4 days doing this great walk. This is not the cushy deal that next weekend is going to be! Carrying my own gear. Staying huts. And much harder walking! I can't wait :)

Icebreaker junkie

Over the 20 or so months that I've lived in Wellington I've made a number of Icebreaker purchases. Warm tops, t-shirts, cami-tops, socks etc. Today we visited the Icebreaker outlet store in Otaki where I made a few purchases. On the way home I was asked how many Icebreaker items of clothing I now own. Not that many I thought, just like, 2 warm zip tops, 3 t-shirts, oh and the green sleeveless one, and the other green sleevless one. Oh and the t-shirt for tramping only and the long sleeved top for tramping. Oh and my zip up hoodie in the wardrobe. Oh and a cami-top. Oh forgot my pink top and then the wine one too. And sure if I include in todays purchases the answer is "Alot more than I realised!" It does make me wonder how I'll manage back in Ireland!

And in Other News

I'm to be Matthew's Godmother (yippee!!!)
I'm moving back to Dublin in August (not so yippee)
I have a load of ironing to do...
but nice cake to follow it up with :)

Sunny Sundays

The winter temperatures are definitely starting to do their best to let us know that before long they'll be here in full force. Last week was cold as was yesterday. But in wonderful New Zealand style, when the sun is out it feels about 5 degrees warmer than it actually is. This is one of the weirdest things about New Zealand weather; the air temperature is cold and you have 3 layers on. You move two feet to the left and end up in the sun, air temp still cold but the warmth of the sun is that one, if not two of your three layers get removed while you're in the sun.

Anyway it was a beatufiully sunny weekend here and I'm at the early evening stage of a very pleasant Sunday (it feels about 2 hrs later than it actually is mind you!) I met up with the four other girls who had been on the Easter tramp for brunch in Fidels. It was chilly out but the sun was beaming down and I sat for 2.5 hrs with just one top on... it was lovely! Considering that we met at 10:30 and didn't leave until 1 you may have gathered that it was a very enjoyable (and funny) brunch. We all ordered at different times and yet I ended up being the only person who didn't order pancakes?! I'm sure they it was a sympathy "your eggs look nice Aoife" that I was getting :) Much talk about living in NZ (not one of us was Kiwi), fainting (I had no idea there could be such funny fainting stories!), tramping and what Nicky had to drink the night before. It ended up at 1 with us planning to meet next Thurs evening for dinner and we all bring whatever tramping/day walks books that we have so we can organise an outing.

After that I strolled home in the glorious sun, did some housework, got changed and headed back to the Ilot Theatre for a wonderful 2 hrs of Baroque music performed by Latitude 37. A wonderful combination of Buxtehude, Marais, Telleman, Ramaeau, Leclair, Becker, Corelli and Couperin. On the program was the wonderful Le Badinage by Marin Marais for the Viola de Gamba; this to me has got to be one of the most beautiful/melancholic pieces of music written. If you've watched Tous Les Matins Du Monde then you'll have heard this music.

A bite to eat at The Lido after that and now I'm back home for the evening feeling like it's about 8:30 out there. It isn't. It's 6:40! Well guess I better get on with that ironing that I've successfully avoided for the last week. After that I can eat my tasty looking of carrot cake :)

The Muffin Top is the Best Bit

Okay so I know that I just don't have the will power required to blog, in detail, the second, third and fourth days of the Abel Tasman trip last weekend so thought I'd try and provide some sort of abridged version... so here goes.

Day 2 (Saturday) was the longest day and involved walking from Torrent Bay to Waiharakeke Bay. There are two tidal crossings on this route and it's the latter one at Awaroa what was the reason for the longish day... if didn't make that crossing then we'd have to get up pretty damn early the next morning (in the dark) to do it at the next low tide. There was much relief (on my part at least!) when we reached our camp site that evening. There was a pretty successful dinner of cous cous with dried fruits, a serious amount of vegetables and feta. In fact we couldn't fit all the vegetables in to the billy so we ended up eating them raw (well it was that or someone had to keep carrying them). The original recipe called for 100g of cous cous per person so that resulted in 1kg of cous cous. After we'd all taken some food there was a scary amount of cous cous left... I was worried (the billy carriers get to carry out the communal rubbish). So, while not being particularly hungry I basically took a second dinner. At this point I was very scared as the cous cous still looked as if a dent hadn't been made in it! Then someone else took some and then someone else so gradually with much encouraging, coercing and general hilarity the group actually succeeded in finishing all the food. Without a photo to illustrate it's quite difficult to get across how much food there was. But let's just say that there was so much that my stomach was so full I needed to lie down :)

Day 3 (Sunday) was Waiharakeke Bay to Whariwharangi. Another beautiful day with a not too early start. I tucked in to my second breakfast of Tararua biscuits with jam quietly pleased that I had thought of bringing these along. It was at this meal that I realised that Mike had brought a 750g bag of muesli on the tramp for his breakfasts!! Don't get me wrong, I've no problem with meusli but there is no way in hell I'd carry a full bag (suspect he won't be in future either)! As myself and Kate were ready before the others we headed down to the water to wait for everybody else to join us. It was this juncture that I learned about "muffin tops". For anybody out there not happy with their muffin top, just remember that the muffin top is the best bit :)

There really was some lovely walking on this day... as you get further north on this track the beaches become more and more beautiful. There was a bit of walking along the beaches too which at first seemed lovely but actually I discovered that walking on a beach in boots and carrying a pack can be a little difficult and uncomfortable. But it made for some nice photographs.

Once arriving at our camp site for the evening we headed down to the beach, our beach, to just relax and wait for the sun to set before heading back to camp for dinner (minimal preparation this night as this was dehy night). This was a thoroughly relaxing way to spend what was left of the day light of Easter Sunday.

Once back at camp the sun was obviously gone so we all put on a few extra layers of clothing. Some put on a few more layers than others. I had 3 layers on which admittedly was fewer than I'd have thought I'd need. A couple of the other girls had 4 layers on. And then there was, as she came to be known, The Seven Layered Woman. Yup, Nicky at one point, had 7 layers on (with one of those layers being a down jacket!). Trust me, it just wasn't that cold! And we were sitting in front of a fire!! Anyway, I'm glad she did as it provided us with endless amusement on the ferry sailing back the next day :)

Speaking of the next day, well it was only a 90 min walk so not too much I can say about it. We were at the road end by 11:30 with a 1pm pick up arranged. Got to Picton for the ferry sometime around 5:30 or 6 so that was alot of sitting/driving after walking for 3 days. It felt odd. The sailing was much smoother than the sailing over and Megan taught us a great game called Drawlies... in which The Seven Layered Woman played a central theme in the first round. Thanks Nicky :)

The End.

Cover Girl

Found this site (magmypic) and I couldn't resist having a bit of fun :)

Abel Tasman Great Walk - Day 1 Marahau to Torrent Bay

For Easter I did the Abel Tasman Coastal Walk with the WTMC tramp which was basically a 4 night 3 day tramping trip (the 4th day was basically a 90 min walk out to the road end and then a 5 hr drive back to Picton.

We got the ferry across to Picton on Thurs evening after work and from there we got driven to Marahau where we were camping for the night. It was about 1am before we got to Old MacDonalds Farm where we were due to set up camp for the night. Needless to say I was feeling pretty tired by this stage and wasn't too happy when I heard, after we'd unloaded all our gear from the mini bus, that we were camping 400 metres up the road. However, we got a great stroke of luck when the owner drove by and indicated that as we'd already we'd unloaded our gear maybe we'd like to use some tents that were already set up and that had some camp beds in them. Would we what? Eh, yeah!! These tents were huge and they had duvets and pillows! Oh yeah... me in my silk liner, in my sleeping bag and with duvet over me, I was toasty warm :)

Friday morning was a glorious day with lots of sun and no wind at all when we were setting off from Marahau. There were ten of us in the group and what really surprised me is that out of that 10 only one of us was a Kiwi (Mike) even though all of us live in Wellington! There were 2 Irish (myself and Dave), 1 English (Russ), 1 Scottish (Nicki), 2 American (Barry, Megan), 1 Canadian (Kate), 1 German (Kat) and one Dutch (Mark). How's that for an international tramp??!

While my pack was lighter than that of others it was still a definite big thing sitting on my back but it didn't cause too much trouble in the morning. We stopped for lunch on a gorgeous beach (one of many) though I can't actually remember which bay it was. I'm thinking possibly it was Stilwell Bay. We had a fairly leisurely break there was we wouldn't be able to make it across to the camp site at Torrent Bay from Anchorage until low tide; well we could but we definitely wanted to avoid the high tide route which was longer.

I have to be honest and say that after my lunch my shoulders were definitely starting to feel a little on the sore side... but having said that I wasn't the only one. The walk to Anchorage Hut was beautiful; the wonderful blue the sea, the beaches, the sun! Once there we topped up on the water front, had a break and then set out across the low tide crossing to our camp...

The site at Torrent Bay was wonderfully small and basic... very few others were there so it was lovely and quiet. After setting up tents and flies, a few folk went for a walk and then we started prep on dinner. Dinner itself was a rather tasty tomato sauce with a mountain of vegetables and pasta sauce. As is the norm when tramping, you have to carry your rubbish out with you and that also applies to any leftovers. Consequently there was alot of encouragement to get the pasta and the sauce finished... at this stage we realised that Megan is very useful to have around when help is required to finish up leftover food! Some other useful things that I learnt that day are:
Don't use a down jacket to lift heavy things... it will melt (learnt this from Nicki who demonstrated this fact)
Chocolate hobnobs are the best... this discussion rose as we ate our dessert of tim tams and toffee pops. Again Nicki raised this but she was backed up by Russ on this.
You can get away with a smaller backpack when your sleeping mat is thing (a ground sheet in fact) and you don't have a sleeping bag (this was from Mark... no idea how he didn't freeze!)


The really weird things about tramping and camping once the clock has changed is that it always seems much later than it is. Yes, you (well me!) feel pretty tired after being out all day but it was dark by 7pm which really threw me off! However there was a beautiful full moon (at least I think it was full) so before heading to bed at about 8:30 a few of us headed down to the beach to just listen to the small waves lapping on the shore... that was the only noise.

Anyway, I'll hopefully write a little more on the following days over the next while. More photos from the first day on www.flickr.com/eefa

A Lazy Tuesday

After 3 days of tramping and then on the 4th a 90 min walk to the road end and then a 4.5 hr drive to Picton, today was wonderfully quiet. I had arranged in advance to take today off and I'm so glad that I did. It was gone 11pm before I got back last night. I didn't manage to sleep quite as late as I would have liked this morning but that didn't matter too much.

So, what did I do on my day off? I made myself some breakfast in bed and finally got up about 10am (admittedly I already had done two laundry washes by this stage!) Did a bit of grocery shopping before getting back to get my photos off the camera. Come 1pm I headed off my massage. That massage was just wonderful. I had looked for a 90 min slot but I guess I was doing well to get 60 mins considering I only phoned them this morning! This was followed by a 90 min doze on the living room floor (yes I doze on my living room floor!). I was feeling pretty wrecked actually when I made myself start moving about pretty relaxed at the same time.

After the "success" of my Tararua biscuits for tramp breakfasts I decided to make some Apricot Slices from my Wholemeal Cafe Cookbook which I bought in Takaka last November. I tried hard (honest!) to not eat any but I was unable to resist. So I guess I'll treat it as my starter and dessert for dinner this evening :)

I did manage to get some photos up on to flickr but plenty more to go!

And the rest of the evening is fairly lazy. Watched some West Wing, eat some tasty dinner and House followed by Boston Legal later on!

So, all in all a lazy, relaxing and much needed "do nothing" day!

Mount Cook... third time lucky

As I mentioned previously I'd been to Mount Cook twice before last weekend but had not yet successfully seen Mount Cook itself as my visits always seemed to coincide with less than pleasant weather in that area. I did see the peak up close on the flight to Queenstown but I really was hoping to see it whilst in Mount Cook National Park itself. And I did!

We arrived in to the national park last Monday afternoon and there was the Aoraki/Mount Cook staring across at me. Whilst driving in to the village I suggested, well said, that I felt we should stop as I couldn't trust it to actually still be visible the following morning. So I got a couple of photos (the ideal place to photograph Mount Cook is across Lake Pukaki but we wouldn't be there until Tues).

It was an amazingly clear evening so at 10pm we went along to a star gazing talk/chat/demo/I don't know what to call it! Anyway this went on for an hour and involved us standing outside The Hermitage and somebody pointing out different stars, planets and other stuff in the sky. They had a telescope that we used to look at stuff.. unfortunately we did see stuff but the telescope wasn't always behaving and sometimes wandered a little off course... as I found out the first time I looked in to and saw black! I have to admit that I was somewhat relived that it was the telescope just point at a lot of black as opposed to me just not being able to figure out to look through it properly! We could see Saturn in the sky without the telescope but when using that I could make out the rings. Admittedly my first thought was along the lines of "shouldn't it be bigger through a telescope?" followed by "star trek prop" it was pretty cool to see the rings... for me at least :)

The next morning it was dry (mostly) with lots of low cloud and no views. We still did the short walk up to Kea Point but I was glad that I took my photo of Aoraki the afternoon before :)

Milford Sound

Last Sunday I flew to Queenstown to meet up with Dave, Brian and Carol who had been enjoying a trip down the Sth Island from earlier in the week. It was a great day for a flight down that way and I got to see Mount Cook up close and personal on the flight. It was fantastic to be up so close to it and looking across (rather than up) at the peak in so much detail. Beautiful.

After meeting up with the guys in the afternoon and doing some browsing we headed to Te Anau where we were to spend the next two nights. Before leaving Queenstown we spent some time in the I-Site organising our respective trips to Milford Sound the next day. The three of them were keen to get some kayaking in. I wasn't. I admit that kayaking is a wonderful to get up close and personal with the Sounds (yes I know it's a fjord!), the waterfalls, seals etc but I did the kayaking thing three years ago. I don't like being on something that seems so unstable as a kayak (i.e. something other than a real proper boat) so I was happy to have done the kayaking once and to not necessarily repeat it... and it was nothing to do with the get up that I worse the last time around... honest!

It's a 2 hr drive from Te Anau to Milford Sounds so with the others leaving at 6am Sunday morning and not being expected back until 3:30pm at the earliest I decided to plan a Milford Sound excursion of my own (one that wouldn't require me getting up at 5:30am). I signed up for a "Scenic tour and intimate nature cruise" with Awesome. This involved a much more respectable pick up time of 9:30am where I would be ferried out to Milford Sound in a nice large air conditioned coach with some photo stops at places such as Eglinton Valley (visited 3 years back),

and Mirror Lakes (large pond) to name but two.

Once we got to Milford I reapplied my insect repellant in an effort to deter my ardent admirer, the sandfly and boarded a lovely boat for my 2.25 cruise around the Fjord. I couldn't get over the size of some of the cruise boats in the Sounds... huge with a couple of hundred people getting on. I think that there were maybe about 15 on my boat. Admittedly the boat could handle more than that and I'm sure the operators wouldn't have minded a few more but I was happy with it. It wasn't the clearest day in Milford on Sunday (i.e. it was very cloudy) but at least it wasn't raining. Milford Sound is really very beautiful...

with waterfalls all over the place

We even got to drink some of the water... and I got wet but it was all great fun. Near the end we saw some seals but even more exciting we saw a school of dolphins which we watched for about 10 minutes. I was snapping away taking photos when I realised that I wasn't just watching them and enjoying it so at that point I stopped and took it in. It was fantastic :)

I could bore you with lots of details of the history of the building of the road to Milford Sounds (there is only one) and the fact that one particular mile of that road took 7 years to build.... luckily it wasn't all that slow! Oh and the Homer tunnel about 20 mins from the sounds/fjord itself which took 20 years to build. They basically just blasted through the mountain to make a tunnel. But I won't. I'll just finish with what an amazing and beautiful national park it is...

My "Most Viewed' Flickr Stats

It's getting close. For a long time Maggie and Fergus were way ahead of all my other flickr photos but the Herb Garden has been really going for it the last while. It has just got past Flinders Ranges and is now only 3 views behind the pups.

Looking at my flickr stats it's almost always viewed as a result of a search for "herb garden" on images.yahoo.com I like watching this race :)

By the way, can anybody explain how flickr order photos based on "Interestingness" 'cos I've now idea how they do it!