Spring snow

 Mt Wainui from the washhouse window. A dusting of snow overnight.

Interior view

 Front door and through to white blossoms on plum tree at the end. Daily life.

Full moon and old windows

We have two living room windows that are original beach house style from the 1950s. They have white etched scenes of frigate-like birds and yachts. The moon rises on that side of the house.

We moved to Rāumati Beach!

 

 

 

We've bought a 1952 bach-like weatherboard house at Rāumati. That's about a 30 minute drive north from our ex house on that windy hill in Newlands. Not that far as a seagull flies but it's a really  different environment. A warmer and calmer climate for starters. We can grow a bunch of things we couldn't grow in Newlands. Waaaay less wind here and a flat coast. We hear the sea.

Rāumati is the te reo (Māori language) word for summer. It's pronounced ro-mat-ee.

We're on an old sand dune so are a wee bit elevated (15 metres above sea level and prepared to host the neighbours running up the drive in a tsunami). 

We've been here a month already and still feel like we're on holiday!

Okay, let's go back to the move and work forward. It's been a while between blog posts.

'Twas a 2-day move. Movers loaded one truck on Feb 11 and then Mish and I abandoned the house and went into the city to a swanky hotel for the night. We walked out for a birthday dinner at the local yacht club on Oriental Bay. That's one birthday I won't forget.

Had to get back to the house early and we just made it before the jolly moving guys who cheerfully arrived with truck number 2. They loaded that one in a couple of hours and off we all went in convoy. Bye bye house!

At the new house, here's the front and a view from the garden the first day we saw it in October 2020.

Yep, liking it. Let's buy it!

In the same spot, five months later in March 2021. Mish is calculating what we'll see if we build something on the site and go up. She is full of, full of, full of...oh, ideas, that's it. 

Summer has been hot and dry - look at that grass, or lack of grass rather.

At the moment we have a peaceful interior green view (a lot like Robertson for those who remember that house), with western views over a huge park to the top of Kāpiti Island ... 

... and southern views to impressive hills leading into the Tararua Ranges. There will be snow over there. That's a big pohutakawa centre of image. We have trees and loads of interesting trees around us. Mish thrilled. Newlands has few trees. We had an exposed site in an exposed area and we copped the Cook Strait wind in both directions. 

There's lots of work to do on the house and in the garden. Here's a sample of house works so far, as the unpacking went on. One box to go I think.

In the kitchen, Mish draft-proofing a window and installing a UV sun blind (cause it has been blazingly bright in there).

In the washouse, we had to move the washing machine out to reveal the entry under the house the internet installers needed to crawl down into. Internet connection took nearly a month to install - hooray for wifi.

We have a mudroom! It's an add on room that will be veeeery useful. That's the house's original exterior back door steps and Mish is laying some garage carpet. We spruced up the room before that with a good dose of Wet and Forget. 

Screwing in some of the windows in anticipation of breezy winter nights.  This one had a monster gap. No more. The joys of an old timber house - we've done it before. 

Siliconing some bedroom windows shut. All original 1950s windows. The casement windows with the metal bar with holes in it you pop over a bump to hold open - they get to stay. 

Now Mish and I have both fallen off a ladder. She hit the ground and hurt herself, and I fell backwards into a chair and didn't hurt myself. Ladders!

It's not all work of course. We've had absolutely beautiful summer days since we got here, and walks and swims and cafe strolls (walk to great cafe!) and cycles (loads of tracks and parks and wetland areas) and bbqs and deck lounging. 

We're enjoying the large number of fruit trees we've inherited. We're never buying lemons again! Feijoas and figs and oranges and limes and tangerines and grapes are coming along; peaches and plums and blackcurrants have finished for the season. This is a pear experiment. 

The meringue maker is also enjoying the bigger kitchen.

Shops at the southern end of the beach. Mish with mosaic chair and a little library.

Our path to the beach at the end of the street. High tide. South Island just visible.

From the bottom of the beach steps, looking west to Kāpiti. The island has been a bird sanctuary since 1897 and you need a permit to go there. We've been over twice and walked to the top. It's a very cool place. 

A little boogie board surf. The long sweep of coastline from Wellington is not a surf coast. It gets a bit bigger than this but not much. Water temp lovely.

A panorama as I write this at the kitchen table. It's nice to have an actual dining area again. 

Standing by for visitors post-Covid.

Looking south winter morning

Morning fog in Wellington's valleys as the temps have been warm.
This morning, cold air holds the fog down and sun hits our South Island mountain way over there in the clouds.

And so on towards winter

Looking south on a drizzly day. Need more rain!

The warm and calm days continue, but it's getting cooler, especially at night.

We're on NZ level 2 lock down now. Cafes and restaurants have reopened, with contact tracing and don't sit near anyone and groups smaller than 10. Mum and I joined a small queue at the supermarket on her second foray out after two months. All good. Everyone cheery.

Double rainbow looking south

Across our driveway to the harbour.

Autumn walks and jobs

Lovely warm autumn days here. Not enough rain though.

Jason dropped in on his way back from Canada and we took a short road trip to New Plymouth. Checked out the city and beach and Len Lye exhibits - the usuals. Did the great little Wilkies Pools walk at the base of Taranaki, Mt Egmont. Beech forest, lava flows, swing bridge, crossing streams - terrific mountain walk in the cool mist.



Back home, walked up across the western hills last weekend on a fundraiser for a local school and Christchurch schools. Had a different view from up there looking west across dry hills. We look this way through our kitchen window.



Looking back at Mt Kaukau, with its top in cloud. At this point we were on the Old Coach Road, Wellington's track north which followed a Maori path. It's now part of the Skyline track that goes around the city.



Mish on the track up, with gorse in flower, about to dodge some mountain bikers. There were about 100 of us, running and walking, so bikers picked the wrong day haha.



A 5km loop and we were back at the start with a local band and flag wafting at half mast, nine days after the mosque attacks.

Also rejuvenated our decks last weekend, with a scrub and an oil. Three coats and they have come up beautifully. This is looking west to the hills we walked over that morning.

End of the summer holiday

Back to work tomorrow, but not the end of summer hols really. Plenty of summer left for swimming, tennis, bike riding, etc. Even got Mish into the sea at Titahi Bay the day before yesterday!

Our pine planter boxes for veg garden makeover arrived Christmas Eve. We placed in situ, and saw we need another one, so ordered that. But, in the meantime, started to fill these ones and get the beautiful topsoil we've made into the boxes. Then we'll lay weed mat or similar and do gravel paths around them. Fair bit of shovelling there, but they are now full. One even has peas sprouting.



Christmas was calm and relaxing at Rugby Ranch, Norm and Arlene's place. Then we had a few days in Blenheim with Sue and Phil, flying down on a plane that was WAY TOO SMALL, and back on a sunny cruisey ferry ride. Picked some cherries, here's Mish posing with a gas gun - not in use as the rain came at the wrong time and split the fruit - so a poor harvest and lots of mouldy cherries. We still got a couple of kilos, mmmmm.



Sue took us bike riding and kayaking. With lots of lovely food and games of 500. The four of us walked a track out of Picton and admired Marlborough Sounds' scenery





In the vineyard next to the house, rows of just topped vines and ones not yet levelled. There's always something going on in the vines in Marlborough.




Back in Wellington, we've had a spectacular season for flowering pohutukawa trees around town. The one outside our window is the best it has been since we've been here (eight years in a few days). Looking past that bold red to Evans Bay, the airport, and Cook Strait. Orca and dolphins galore down there in the harbour and we keep missing them.




The pohutukawa Mish planted at the bottom of the yard is also having its best ever flowering. This one is a pinky red, with  a plane going over on a new flight path some of them are using (not directly over us).



Jane and Nicola dropped in for a few days and we had a lovely easy time drinking tea and wandering around town, once we got out of our dressing gowns.

 

Walked out to Point Dorset on the Miramar peninsula overlooking Cook Strait. Mish took a panorama  on the point and her clever new phone turned it into a video pan.

Someone has carved a whimsical seahorse on the beach.

 

And a shopping moment in Kathmandu. Jane and I bought swish puffer jackets, Nicola already had one - so, puffer jacket kitchen pic!

Sparks on the western hills

We're in the middle of a wintry blast. Winds gusting to 120kph up here, rain, cold - blasts coming up from the snowy South Island shaking our little wooden house. Brrr. Hope some blossoms are left when calm descends later this week.

This afternoon we saw a phenomena over at the wind turbines. They were catching some sun and as they spun they looked like they were sparking. Cool bananas!

Spring days

Lots of blossoms around, yellow pine tree pollen over everything, green leaf burst.

Mish flew back Saturday night on the midnight flight, so we had a late start Sunday. Drove over to the hill we look at, between us and the city, and clambered over the 'do not enter' stuff to have a close up sticky beak at the earthworks.

The view through one of the cuttings looking back at our place, just below the water reservoir amongst all those little wooden houses.  Our view to the city is improved at the moment as they bastardise this hill and lower it. But houses will get plonked on here pretty soon. 

Looking over to the CBD from the edge of the earthworks. Most will get a good view and sun, but they will sure get the breezes. From both directions, like we do.

Although we have been windless for a while. It has been calm for months now, with the occasional good old fashioned blow, and we've had a warm wet winter. Sorry about that NSW, wish we could send some rain over.

And through a digger - perched rather edgily - to the airport and harbour entrance.

Teehee.

After that guerrilla expedition we drove over to Eastbourne (harbour east) and had a stroll on the beach and a coffee and some late afternoon sun. Very nice.

This morning's lunar eclipse

Cloudy; rats.

 We had  a look early on and went back to bed, then just before the moon disappeared below Mt Kaukau the cloud cleared.

Then it was a rather nice Saturday, so we put our boots on and walked up the tower.  Nice view to the Kaikouras in the South Island, snow and sunshine. Pretty cool up there though.

 Looking south to city.

Loads of steps and the knees complained on the way down, but we did see a couple of kaka up close. Big parrots - one of them ripping into a tree with its massive beak just a metre away. Unconcerned about us.

Had a coffee at the cafe where we parked that car and sat in nice sunshine feeling virtuous.

Looking at the South Island

From the living room on a clear winter day.

Morning sun on Mt Tapuae-o-Uenuku in the coastal Kaikoura range down the eastern side of the South Island. Tapu is about 120km away, across Cook Strait. From sea level at the airport you can see other white peaks in the Kaikouras; we love our glimpse of the range from up here in the light house.

Summer continues

With a bit of a cold snap for a couple of days, but we're back into it now. Even Mish was out in shorts today.
And the bumble bees are busy  in the lavender. We've been moving some lavender plants to create a lavender edge to the deck. Should be great in  a couple of years.

We have monarchs around and caterpillars and cocoons. All good so far, this year.




The Interislander ferry going out this morning.



Lovely day, no wind turbine movement and then a light cool breeze and hot sun. Had a spin in Mischa's 'new' car, a little red  2010 Honda Fit/Jazz, and a walk over at Titahi Bay.

Christmas eve eve

And what a stunning day it was. High 20s with a breeze, perfect.

Cycled out to the bottom of the island from where the road ends at Eastbourne. Lots of people diving (for Christmas lunch probably). Bit of snow left on the Kaikouras in the South Island.

We have a new walking track near us, so checked it out last week. It overlooks the harbour and has a bush walk as part of it. Very dry all over town at the moment but the ponga ferns are hanging in there. We've had stuff all rain for months now.

Looking east to Petone. The beach where the first English settlers landed. I cycled to work one day last week and got half the beach in my right ear - blazing southerly that day. 

And below us is the other end of Newlands. The posh end, with the street below actually called Dress Circle, and harbour entrance and airport on horizon.

And blooming pohutakawa all over the hills of Wellington. New Zealand's Christmas tree.