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.