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 :)