Peka Peka swim

 Still trying to get the dog calmly into the water. She's not a happy swimmer. This day we got the bikes off the car rack and one tyre went pzzsht!  Put the bikes back on the car and drove along the beach to a quiet spot. Plenty of those.

Mish encouraging.

But no. So we just went in ourselves. Water unusually warm and although it's a dark grey day the air was warm as well.

Road trip Taupo and New Plymouth

First stop, the honey shop an hour north of here. Honey ice creams for everyone; Janey and Peter enjoying their pit stop snack. Honey and ginger Janey's new favourite.

Onwards, along the Desert Road with the mountains in cloud but suitably atmospheric.

Then three nights at the Wairakei Resort in Taupo. Lots of damage around from Cyclone Gabrielle, trees cracked and bent and blown down all around the resort. Beside the resort there used to be a radiata pine forest.

Huka Falls, roaring as usual.

Bit of shopping and sightseeing and hot pool bathing, including a walk to the Aratiatia rapids and  through the thermal area of Craters of the Moon. Mish and Janey strolling through the steam.

Across the top of Lake Taupo and through paddocks and wee towns to the east coast and New Plymouth. The weather changed and Mish grabbed this car shot of Mt Taranaki as we got closer.

Squeaked in a walk on the waterfront that afternoon, the sea driving in from one of our many passing storms. 

Time for indoor sports and a visit to the Len Lye exhibitions in that amazing mirror steel building, and then across the road to hot food in a modernised big old pub.

Found an industrial salvage store in town and spent a while in there. Spent cash too, buying a light for one dim corner of the house and later buying some cheese storage boards from Gouda in the Netherlands. Mish had to go home and measure. They're long and wide and they'll be bookshelves in our new library (coming soon to a renovation near us). 

I wonder what the cheesemakers make of that - knowing their old boards are bought by some guy and off they go on a sea voyage to New Zealand to be oohed and aahed over and then reused as a treasure. Bet they laugh. He's a regular buyer. And he had some cool stuff from Bangladesh ship wrecking yards too.

Home after a week away and picked up the dog next day. She had a nice stay at one of the local kennels - we think. She seems relaxed at home again, in the late autumn sun.

 

Plum meets the Tasman Sea and the Rosetta Cafe

 At first, there was suspicion and fear - she wouldn't go close to the water. Then we had a breakthrough, but still suspicion and fear. Not going in there.

Days later,  frolicking in the waves.

But not yet swimming, still a bit anxious about the nice warm sea.

Meanwhile, the Rosetta Cafe coffee is nice. 

Happy new year with a new pupper, Plum

We finally got another dog. Here she is, a staffy cross rescue pup about 5/6 months old. On her brand new bed at our place on day 3. And not every pupper gets a Le Creuset drinking bowl either. New toy on the bed, not yet destroyed - she  went through two others in minutes. Now we have an EXTREME Kong, that'll fix 'er jaws. Maybe. 

There's dog training with an abundance of treats.  

This is lead training (she's pretty good on the lead, not a puller). Michelle's water feature bubbler  is bubbling on the right - it's not balanced yet and we need to landscape the surrounds of course. 

There's lots of puppy naps too. I'm on the back stretch roller.

Road trip Blenheim and Christchurch

Over to the South Island on the ferry again. Big swell leaving Wellington harbour  but it was an exciting ride to be outside with the waves and, below, nearer the South Island, albatross and petrels. Another ferry on the horizon, heading for Wellington. Those wrist pressure bands for sea sickness - they work!

Heading into Marlborough Sounds. These guys just came topside. 

Car looks little down there - with bikes on.

First stop, Blenheim. Lovely cycle along the river paths and a night at the theatre watching Dan sing in Les Miserables. Next day, a bit of work picking olives for oil pressing. The trees are around Sue and Phil's house. Beginning the stripping of branches and dropping olives onto sheets of plastic for Phil to collect. He kept just ahead of us laying out sheets. That's guide dog in training Lincoln sniffing runaway olives.

Harvest about 100kg; made about 19 litres of oil and we scored a jar on the way back through Blenheim.

On to Christchurch, down the coast through Kaikoura and obligatory stop to watch baby seals and collect circular white stones at mint imperial beach (Kekerengu).

Mish got us an airy light-filled air B&B for six nights just out of the city and we had a good look around the city and environs.

First up, an organic fruit and veg market where a guy told us about the panoramic view up on the Port Hills. Bought some veg and headed up into the hills. He was right.

The Port Hills are a large area between Christchurch and the port of Lyttleton (which sits on the edge of an old volcano). We did get a terrific view west to the Southern Alps.

And east over Lyttleton harbour which formed from the crater of that volcano many years ago. A beaut day, the hills full of walkers and bikers and one butterfly expert who showed us a rare one.

And then down narrow roads into Lyttleton for lunch.

Jase came down with a cold so Mish and I headed out without him and cycled around some of the residential red zones of the city. Red zones are areas where houses were so damaged in the 2011 quake that part of the rebuild process has been to demolish hundreds of them in big grids. They now look like parks and are acres of old gardens and roads and footpaths, with just walkers and cyclists allowed. There's a bit of foraging going on. All that remains to show that houses were here are the overgrown driveways.

Hardly anyone around. Eerie to stand in an intersection where no car will ever drive again.

Wrecked footbridge that used to be over the Avon, now left by the river, as is where is.

In the city, the rebuild goes on. There are lots of new buildings and street art, and still lots of broken buildings and work to do. The cathedral is being rebuilt in the same style - after 10 years of debate about that - and it has a wonderful banner on the square. Here it is, from across the road inside the new library, which is a great space.

Walked down the road one night to trivial pursuit at the local pub (we came 11th out of 14 teams, but dinner was nice). 

Cooled off in the Antarctic experience, including being shut in an ice room while they turned the wind chill up, and a ride in an all-terrain Hagglund vehicle.

Saw our old Newlands neighbours Robyn and Sean and went for a walk on their part of the coast, with oystercatchers. 

New Brighton pier is there too.

Drove out to the French settlement of Akaroa on Banks Peninsula for the day. Very quiet there, no cruise ships and hardly any tourists. It was just us when we got out of the car at about 10am so we walked up a hill to earn lunch.

So, we saw some of Christchurch and loads more to see. We'll be back before another 20 years have passed. Headed back to Blenheim after six days, with a lunch stop at Kaikoura. 

The view from the pub:

More cycling at Blenheim, going in a different direction this time. 

 

And home on the ferry. In Picton for a waterfront walk with Sue before the afternoon sail. We're looking for rays.

 That ferry ride was a cool but calm trip with albatross and orca and a rusty dog. Can you see it?

Sean and Mish discussing shed construction. Much measuring and drawing.  Sean is a couple of doors up, a handyman and he helps us keep the monster privet hedge under control.

So he will build the shed base and then assemble the kit under the PM's instructions. We've decided to deck the whole front entry, over the asphalt, so it goes right up to the new bike shed.

Should be great!




Dishwasher went bung last night and drained water into the kitchen. Oops. Mopped up, pulled the machine out, and found a holed connection. I think it's just wear and tear; Mish thinks rats. So, we have to wash up.



Bit of sun and warmth today so had  a waterfront walk. Oriental Parade, looking back to the city. Some  yachts, rowers, kayakers, but only a dog eager to chase a stick actually in the water (ignoring the 'no dogs anytime' sign).



Saturday's cloud going through.

Blenheim weekend

The flight across the strait was great. Wellington waterfront with a couple of tugs taking a ship out. Here's what the 'cake tin' looks like from above (Wellington's stadium).

Binnie family and Carol, strolling at Picton.

 Hi Vincent.

At the end of the path, before we headed back for delicious picnic.

We had a lovely relaxing weekend visiting whanau in Blenheim for Carol's birthday. Much drinking of tea, reading, walking among the vines and short walks to give Vincent, the retired guide dog, a bit of exercise. Thanks guys!

Sunday morning

Waffles with fresh cranberries (thanks Sue), and creamy Greek yoghurt, and real maple syrup (from a maple leaf bottle, thanks Sal). Mmm mmm. I had to have a mouthful straight away, before I photographed it.



Minding Astro for the weekend. It's coming up to lunch time and he's been out for a short walk and then back to bed.



Not cold. Not windy. Bit grey. Bit drizzly. But really quite autumnal pleasant in Wellington.

Still wintry but with blossoms

Cold, blowy and wet - but Wellington has loads of rhododendron and kowhai and magnolia flowering on the streets, and blossoms everywhere. But what a lousy weekend we've just had. Not the best weekend to be dog minding a boofy dog in our tiny house.

At least he knows how to get the paper.

 So we read that with cups of tea in bed and the electric blanket on this morning, cause the heating wouldn't crank up.

Still don't know what its problem was, but Mish fixed it, so I got out of bed about 12, into a warmer house with a fabulous fry up of bacon and eggs and veg mmm  mmm.




When we did get out between showers Rusty kept losing his ball...then we chucked it into the creek by accident.

A helpful labrador picked it up as it floated away and took it back it to his owner, and she tossed it to us across the creek, but it didn't quite make it.



This is Mish retrieving it from the middle
of a flax bush beside a creek.


It's a special ball, one of those ones that goes into a thrower, so we had to get it back. We did.

A bonus of this park is it has big gum trees, and they smelt divine.

Also got out to a couple of art galleries.

This is the Japanese garden at Pataka in Porirua, with azalea balls of colour under a colourless sky.

And a sidewalk power station in Miramar, where a keen local has painted a bookshelf of titles on the wall. Cause he could. Art in suburbia - it's very cool.