Tramping in Kaitoke Regional Park

On Saturday 29th Jan, we went for a wee tramp in the bush near Wellington. Kaitoke Regional Park is just on the edge of the Rimutakas, and has a beautiful river with pools to swim in and shingle to sunbathe on.

Before we treated ourselves to a chillout by the river though, Jen made Nige climb a big hill to look at the views. The bush was beautiful, and the day was gorgeous, so lots of dappled forest and glimpses of tree-clad hills all around. We took a posh picnic (wine, olives, bread and cheese) and ate it at the top at a lovely viewpoint - someone had put a bench there just for us! and then we climbed back down and paddled in the river until the sandflies drove us home!

On the way back to the car, we visited a LOTR spot - the place where they built/filmed Rivendell! You wouldn't have been able to tell it was the same place, if they hadn't put a handy sign up to tell you! Oh, and there was a cool long rope bridge and we both climbed a big tree!



Kaitoke Regional Park

Jen climbed her first tree

Nige up a huge tree

beautiful spot for a posh picnic

Jen in Rivendell

Off to Nick's party!

After the races, we cruised along to Upper Hutt to visit Nick, taking a rather wasted Daniel with us (the madman in the front of the photo!). We had a barbie, played Twister, and laughed at Dan's amusing speech-making, before introducing yet more people to the hilarious but crippling cereal box game!


Off to Nick's BBQ

Twister

Twisting...

Fiona taking it easy

Girls twisting!

the cereal box comes out again!

good on ya mate - da boys on the train home!

The Wellington Races

On 22nd Jan we went to the Wellington Races - The Oaks, all dressed up in our posh frocks, for a bit of a flutter on the gee gees! It was a gorgeous sunny day and we indulged in a couple of slabs of Export and some delicious hot dogs - New Zealand's finest fast food!

It was a really relaxed atmosphere and we sat on a grassy bank with lots of people with their posh picnics with a great view of the finish, put a bet on every race, and for once in our lives, actually won some money!!


Ladies at the races

At the Oaks

chillin in the sun

You beauty!

what a beautiful day!

Earthquake hits Wellington!

Well, we've been here 3 months and we've just felt our first earthquake!! At about 9:30pm last night we were sitting on the sofa when we felt 3 little jolts! How exciting! After wondering for a few seconds whether we should be hiding under the table, we settled down to watch the rest of our film! Apparently it was 5.3 on the Richter Scale and there were loads of others yesterday that we didn't feel at all! Here's the report from www.stuff.co.nz:

Seven quakes in nine hours jolt North Island

Seven earthquakes within nine hours jolted parts of the North Island yesterday, with the biggest reaching 5.3 on the Richter scale.

The first, at 1.38pm, measured 4.4 on the Richter scale and was centred 30km northwest of Porirua at a depth of 50km, the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences said.
It was likely to have been widely felt throughout the Wellington region and in the Marlborough Sounds.

The second earthquake, measuring 3.6, hit at 5.19pm and was centred 20km west of Hastings at a depth of 20km.
The next five were centred 40km southeast of Martinborough and were at a depth of 15km to 25km.
The most recent, measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale, struck at 10.26pm last night.
GNS said the quake would have been widely felt in the Wairarapa and Wellington regions.

It followed a 5.3 magnitude quake emanating from the same area about 50 minutes earlier.

Earlier quakes from the same area hit at 6.54pm and 7.24pm measuring 3.8 and 3.7 respectively.
Both earthquakes were likely to have been felt on the Wairarapa coast, GNS said.

Mr Miller said earthquakes were common in the Martinborough area, but it was a "little unusual" to have so many of them in such a short period of time.
It was too early to say if the multiple quakes were a "cluster event" or a coincidence, he said.
"Sometimes you can get a cluster of earthquakes, like in Rotorua last year there was a period of about one week where there were lots and lots of earthquakes."

Another possibility was that they were a series of foreshocks, followed by a main event and aftershocks.
Police said there had been no injuries or reports of damage.

Getting Medieval!

On Sunday, we were lucky enough to attend the International Jousting Championships in sunny Upper Hutt! Competitors came from all over the world - well, Norway, Sweden, Aus and NZ anyway!!

There were lots of people dressed up in amusing 'authentic' medieval costumes, and for the crowd's delectation there was jousting, archery and hand-to-hand sword fighting, as well as a man in stocks that you could throw eggs at!

It was a scorching summer's day, and as we were sheltered from the wind of Wellington, the temperatures climbed to nearly 30 degrees! All the food stalls ran out of drinks and ice-cream - Jen queued for 45 minutes and just managed to get the last couple of 99's!

Eventually we had to leave before we melted, so we drove down to the Hutt River and went paddling to cool down, before driving home.

The jousting was good too!



getting medieval

just another day in Upper Hutt

Sir Bruce's victory gallop!

A tramping we will go!

In order to find a few more people willing to scale mountains with her, Jen has joined the Wellington Tramping Club! Nige refused, based on the fact that it sounded way too middle-aged! So Jen went along to the meeting, met lots of lovely people, and on Saturday, went off on her first tramp with them.

The Wellington Tramping Club has about 400 members, all aged between about 20 and 40, and each weekend they have lots of different tramps organised, ranging from easy to hard fitness levels, and including kayaking and mountain-biking trips.

Jen started off with an easy day tramp, and had a brilliant time exploring the Makara Coast near Wellington, walking along wind-swept beaches and over grassy cliff-tops in the sunshine, with views right across to the South Island. Everyone was really friendly, and she's already made a new pal :-)

Nige has now expressed an interest in coming along on the next tramp as Jen seems to be having too much fun without him! Nige, we'll make a Barker of you yet!!


The lady is a tramp..er

Sowf Island la,la,la

Summer's here at last!

To celebrate the fact that the weather has remembered it's supposed to be summer, we christened our new BBQ with a few burgers and steaks on Friday night! We even sat outside to eat - miracle!!

Nige enjoyed the ease of cooking on a gas barbie - so much more civilised - no more struggling to light it and then waiting hours for the charcoal to heat up! Gas is definitely the new charcoal!!



I am man, hear me roar

Our esteemed guests, Jack and Heather, eating al fresco

Thank you to the Hemingways!

We'd just like to say Thank You so much to Katie and all her family: Sally and Andy, Bill and Elaine, Trigger, Priscilla and all the sheep, for showing us such a good time in Queenstown and making us so welcome! Wish we could have stayed longer and we hope to see you all again soon.


Grub's up!