Had a phone call from Tricia last Wednesday, they are coming to see me for a couple of days on their way north, having spent 2 months in South Island. They planned to get the ferry from Picton at 2 on Sunday, & I had invited Hilary to come up as well for dinner, but the ferry was cancelled because of engine failure so they didn’t arrive till the Monday. The weather has turned extremely cold, with strong southeriies, so they had an ‘interesting’ crossing! They are staying in the local Backpackers, which is very cold, so I lit the fire ‘early’ & we had a long chat on Monday. Since Erola & I had cleaned the house all day on a very cold Sunday, 12, with NO heating, I didn’t feel at all guilty!
On Tuesday we planned to go into Wellington, but by the time I had taken them to see my section, called in on Hilary at work and gone to her house where they had a lovely chat with Ali (still off work sick), we decided to come back & walk along the beach because it was a beautiful day. I picked up a bag of kindling and successfully kit the fire with it.
On Wednesday I drove to the South Wellington coast, where we hoped to see seals, but the tourist facilities are being re-built and the path was blocked. But it is an amazing bleak landscape, really wild & woolly, with a capital city literally just round the corner. We watched the aeroplanes wobbling into the airport, and picked Paua shell from a little secluded beach, then had a very late lunch in Oriental Bay. It was a lovely day, and I have never been to that area, so it was really good.
On Thursday we went into town by train, a bargain at $20 return for all 3 of us on a Group ticket. We went on a tour of the NZ Parliament buildings, I have been before but it is free (!very important where ‘the girls’ are concerned!) & well worth doing. We saw the earthquake protection which has been put in place, very impressive. Does bring it to mind again though, I have only felt one very minor ‘tremble’ since I have been here luckily. The Parliament buildings are only 400m from the major fault line, so they do have to be very careful. We had lunch in the old BNZ building, the vaults have been converted to a Food Court, & then went up to the Botanic Gardens on the Cable Car, a ‘must do’. There is a lovely view from the top, & lots of nice, if hilly, walks, we only went a short way because we were all tired by then and it was getting chilly, once the sun goes down it is noticeably autumn now.
I had various things to do in Paraparam on Friday, so first Erola invited us to a special performance by her Taiko Performing group, at 8 a.m. i.e. before school, it was lovely but a bit early on our holidays! After that we went to the Nga Manu Wildlife reserve in Waikanae, I had no idea Kiwis were so big, the size of chickens. We saw 2 really close up, it was great. There is also a lovely bushwalk, it is very easy to see how difficult it must have been for the first explorers, very dense forest, really quite jungle-like, & this one was swampy, fortunately with a boardwalk above it. Although it is quite a small area, we all thought it was well worth the $10 entrance fee, particularly as I had a one get in free voucher from Hilary!
The ladies left early on Saturday morning, so I got up to have breakfast with them beforehand. I have really enjoyed their company again, think I had got into a bit of a rut & last week I was definitely homesick, so it was great to get out & about and see more of the local area. Of course it all costs, & I am watching my pennies, particularly before our trip to South Island which is coming up very soon.
The relationship between the ladies & Erola was interesting to watch! Tricia is very much ‘in command’ and has absolutely nothing in common with someone who believes in astrology, clairvoyance etc. I cooked for them all here every night, apart from Friday when we had fish and chips, so they spent quite a lot of time here. After they left Erola told me she was rather glad they’d left, she’d had enough!
On Tuesday we planned to go into Wellington, but by the time I had taken them to see my section, called in on Hilary at work and gone to her house where they had a lovely chat with Ali (still off work sick), we decided to come back & walk along the beach because it was a beautiful day. I picked up a bag of kindling and successfully kit the fire with it.
On Wednesday I drove to the South Wellington coast, where we hoped to see seals, but the tourist facilities are being re-built and the path was blocked. But it is an amazing bleak landscape, really wild & woolly, with a capital city literally just round the corner. We watched the aeroplanes wobbling into the airport, and picked Paua shell from a little secluded beach, then had a very late lunch in Oriental Bay. It was a lovely day, and I have never been to that area, so it was really good.
On Thursday we went into town by train, a bargain at $20 return for all 3 of us on a Group ticket. We went on a tour of the NZ Parliament buildings, I have been before but it is free (!very important where ‘the girls’ are concerned!) & well worth doing. We saw the earthquake protection which has been put in place, very impressive. Does bring it to mind again though, I have only felt one very minor ‘tremble’ since I have been here luckily. The Parliament buildings are only 400m from the major fault line, so they do have to be very careful. We had lunch in the old BNZ building, the vaults have been converted to a Food Court, & then went up to the Botanic Gardens on the Cable Car, a ‘must do’. There is a lovely view from the top, & lots of nice, if hilly, walks, we only went a short way because we were all tired by then and it was getting chilly, once the sun goes down it is noticeably autumn now.
I had various things to do in Paraparam on Friday, so first Erola invited us to a special performance by her Taiko Performing group, at 8 a.m. i.e. before school, it was lovely but a bit early on our holidays! After that we went to the Nga Manu Wildlife reserve in Waikanae, I had no idea Kiwis were so big, the size of chickens. We saw 2 really close up, it was great. There is also a lovely bushwalk, it is very easy to see how difficult it must have been for the first explorers, very dense forest, really quite jungle-like, & this one was swampy, fortunately with a boardwalk above it. Although it is quite a small area, we all thought it was well worth the $10 entrance fee, particularly as I had a one get in free voucher from Hilary!
The ladies left early on Saturday morning, so I got up to have breakfast with them beforehand. I have really enjoyed their company again, think I had got into a bit of a rut & last week I was definitely homesick, so it was great to get out & about and see more of the local area. Of course it all costs, & I am watching my pennies, particularly before our trip to South Island which is coming up very soon.
The relationship between the ladies & Erola was interesting to watch! Tricia is very much ‘in command’ and has absolutely nothing in common with someone who believes in astrology, clairvoyance etc. I cooked for them all here every night, apart from Friday when we had fish and chips, so they spent quite a lot of time here. After they left Erola told me she was rather glad they’d left, she’d had enough!
On Saturday Hilary & I went to the theatre in Wellington, 3 plays back-to-back which were ‘The Pick of the Fringe’. The first one was incomprehensible & not at all funny (to us), the mostly student audience seem to find it so! The second play was the best, a sort of modern morality play complete with Chorus, much better acted & very funny. The last was ‘2b or not 2b’, which as the title suggests had very close references to Hamlet and other very famous plays, so it was fun to try & spot the original dialogue within a modern tale of teenagers with angst. Afterwards we went to the Sushi Bar nearby where I was introduced to sushi by Hilary last year, I really like it, though I don’t eat it at home!
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