Sigh...

I'd just love a bar of Cadburys caramel right now... I never ate alot of them but there are just some afternoons that one is called for... and this is one of them!

Wahoo!

I'm off to Melbourne again!! This time I'm on a 6am Sat morning flight (that means 4am rising time) with a midnight arrival back in Welly on Sun night. And staying in nice hotel to boot. Oh yay :) So my relaxed chilled weekend for this weekend has become mad get home and pack, order taxi, shower & wash hair, eat dinner, bed, hopefully sleep and then get up at obscene hour of morning. Unbelievably (or may not so unbelievably), Melbourne which has had temperature in high teens all week and high teens next week has forecast of wind and storms for tomorrow with a grand high of 14 degrees. It seems that while I may like Melbourne it doesn't seem to think the same of me!

Right food... cleaning, sorting and general tidy up next week then!!

Rotorua and volcanoes...

Had a great a weekend up in Rotorua though we weren't in fact there for very long. Headed off from Wellington in the rain on Fri evening after work. It's a fair old distance to Rotorua so we spent Fri night in Taihape and then carried on to Rotorua on Sat morning arriving there at 1:30. To get from Taihape you need to go across the Desert Road which is about 1000m elevation. On a clear day you get a fantastic view of Ruapehu... or so I've been told! That was my 4th drive (2 return journeys) across that road and I've yet to see it. I did get the following


We were staying in the Princes Gate Hotel which advertises itself as New Zealand's oldest Boutique Hotel. Nice place... definitely old decor but it all seemed to work. The room surprisingly was not freezing cold unlike the night before. In fact, it was decidedly warm and I still haven't quite figured out how that was because even though there was a radiator in the room (I'm shocked at that) it wasn't on. But needless to say I'm not complaining :) After arrival headed off to The Polynesian Spa for a dip in The Lake Spa. It was fab... 4 outdoor pools varying in temperature from 36 degrees C to 42 degrees C. We probably spent about an hour moving between the 4 different pools... it was gorgeous. Weirdly my skin was all tingly at the end of it all but I guess that was due to either the heat and/or the minerals in the water. Needless to say I was wonderfully sleepy all that so I headed back to the hotel for a wee rest :)

I did manage a short walk down to the lake front of Lake Rotorua for sunset. There was an amazing red sky but unfortunately I had real trouble trying to get a decent picture... too many things in the way.


On Sunday headed back to The Polynesian Spa (it's tough I know but somebody had to do it) after a v disappointing hotel breakfast. We were booked in for 1 hour treatments but your treatment involves you turning up an hour in advance to use the pools (and you can also use them again after if you want). Unlike Saturday it was actually beautifully sunny on Sunday so sitting in the warm water with the sun shining on my face was just bliss! I definitely recommend it :) And all that was followed by a one hour massage... I was a happy indeed!

We'd been thinking of a number of different options for the drive back on Sunday but in the end went with a visit to Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. Personally I think the name of the place is a bit silly but my God it's a fantastic place to visit!! It just reinforced just how much the earth is a weird and dangerous thing... not to mention smelly (that's the sulphur)! This is a thermal area that has the largest area of surface thermal activity of any hydrothermal system in the Taupo volcanic zone. You have to stick to the paths/walkways as you go around as the place is covered with collapsed craters, boiling pools of mud, water and steaming fumaroles. Pretty wacky and the colours because of the minerals... fab!



After that we got back in to the car and started on the long drive back to Wellington. As we drove through Taupo we noticed however that it looked as though it was going to be a lovely sunset... and luckily we made it in time to pull in at edge of Lake Taupo to get some photos of a beautiful sky!


And then it really was back in the car for the drive back to Wellington. In the rain. And as we arrived in to Wellington it really rained! Ah yes... wet and windy Wellington :)

Bookcrossing Kiwi Style

Not long back from a very enjoyable Wellington Bookcrossing meeting in Mac's Brewery. I was a late arrival at 6:15pm but that wasn't a problem and I was soon relaxing at the table with the others enjoying my glass of Pinor Noir (interestingly Mac's Brewery is relatively expensive by local standards, but the wine was nice :) ). I'd say I lasted about 10 mins watching everybody eat their fish & chips before I headed up to order mine. They do a lovely fish even if it's a less than healthy meal!

Lots of books on the table though as I'm still working my way through Sacred Games (see earlier post on this) and have a shelf of books to read I'm not taking anything. In fact I'm taking a break from Sacred Games and reading another Henning Mankell book but I'll be back to finish it after that. We may have a new recruit as well... the waitress clearing our table came back for a couple of books before they were all gone. She's currently staying in Nomads hostel and apparently there's not a great selection of books there.. so it was decided that that might be a good place to wild release again.

Later it was pointed out by somebody at the table that this place did good desserts. Needless to say, not to refer to stereotypes, but if one person at a table of women orders dessert, it wasn't long before we all, bar one, had ordered! This was mixed with lively discussion on Pride & Prejudice -v- Jane Eyre, The Time Travellers Wife (great book or not - not in my view), Dan Brown (awful stuff but very readable.. at least the Da Vinci Code was; the rest were not), and last of course, the movie version of Pride & Prejudice -v- the BBC adaptation. No bonus points for knowing which won :)

And I still have to post about last weekend, just not had chance yet as psych class last night.

Let me psych you out.

Headed out to The Pinnacles and Cape Palliser last Sunday. It's a 2 hr drive to The Pinnacles and then about another 20 mins on to Cape Palliser. This is a beautiful area along the Martinborough coast. Short walk in among The Pinnacles but as we were walking among them no really good pictures unfortunately. It was also hard to get good photos because the sky was just grey/white. Was interesting how just adjusting angle when taking photo to put less sky in meant that picture would be clearer... unfortunately doing that you lose part of what you're trying to capture.


But luckily the sea was just fantastic on Sunday. Some fantastic waves near Cape Palliser and as it was late afternoon (sunset was 5:24pm on Sunday) the sky was gorgeous. Not bright oranges and reds or anything but just interesting because of the clouds. I even went up the scary steps again to the lighthouse. It's beautiful once you're up there there but I just don't like the steps!


Monday evening was the first evening of my practical psychology course in Wellington High School. I turned up at 6:05 for 6:30 start. A bit early I know but I just didn't know how long it would take me to walk down there. It was nice to see that i wasn't the first to arrive. It's the first time that this particular course has been run so we're all aware (we weren't before Mon evening of course) that we're effectively guinea pigs as I guess our feedback will decide how course is going forward. The tutor is, well, interesting but not sure how how long he's actually worked as a psychologist. He did undergrad in psychology then became primary school teacher then social worker then did Masters in psychology and then became concert guitarist and I believe has been doing that for about 20 years. He got back in to psychology following the Peter Ellis case here in New Zealand. I don't know all the details but abuse of psychology - toddlers/children saying they've been abused as a result of suggestion. Since then he's still playing guitar but he's now also a journalist and writing a psychology book. But having said all that at the end of the two hours I came out not quite knowing what, if anything, I'd taken out of the class. A couple of experiments were done that were messed up but I'm putting that down to first class sort of thing. But, he also said one or two things (when we were discussing topics we'll cover in coming weeks) that I'm not sure about. So, I reckon that there's still a good chance that I'll really enjoy this course but there's also a lingering thought that I shouldn't be surprised if I don't :) But definitely looking forward to next Monday!

Heading up to Rotorua for the weekend. Rotorua is well known for its mineral pools. I don't aim to do a lot there other than visit these pools and go for my hour long spa relaxation treatment at the Polynesian Spa on Sun morning :) Sigh... relaxing already!

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Margo and Simon on the birth of Rory Grace!
I think I'm getting old... reading that text late this afternoon brought a few tears to my eyes. I'm so happy for you both :)

La Boheme

Just got my ticket for La Boheme on the 15th. Excited :)
What was even better was that I didn't even have to arrange... all done by another, how great is that? There's a bunch of us going from work so should be a fun night. Might be good outing for those new shoes of mine...