Christmas Celebrations

Christmas Day started with us opening our stockings in bed. We prepare stockings for the children and they do ours. It is a quaint tradition but a lot of fun! Noreen got some bling.
After brunch at the Firths', Christmas Dinner was prepared in the afternoon. Here is Sam being master chef.

Sarah joined us for the meal.

Nico has blogged on our damp Boxing Day. We are hoping for better weather next week when I am off on the Morris Tour. No doubt there will be pictures then. In the meantime have a very happy new year.

Happy Christmas

We are preparing to celebrate Christmas in the curious hybrid way that a lot of Kiwis do. Although it’s midsummer we insist on having roast chicken, lashings of vegetables and traditional Christmas pudd.

Our concession to the climate is to start with a smoked salmon salad. In days gone by we were wont to work off some of the excess with a game of cricket down at Anderson Park but these days it is more likely to be a gentle stroll through the Botanic Garden. If the weather is fine we will sit out on the verandah in the evening and drink cooling libations.

Yesterday we went to see a football game between Team Wellington and Waitakere in the NZ Football Championship which is the top tier of national soccer. The standard is nowhere near what it would be in Europe but it has improved in the years we have been here. Lots of goals were scored but mainly by the other side! Here is a general view from the stand. The bank on the far side shows you how dry it has been here lately. Up to the top left of the picture is Wellington Zoo. We hope the animals enjoyed the game!
Blogging may be a bit sparse and random in the next couple of months. We are going away on a couple of trips and hosting my brother and his family who are coming out to celebrate Sam’s 21st and my 60th birthdays in February. I will report when I have time and access to the interweb. In the meantime the crew here take this opportunity to wish all my readers a very happy Christmas and a safe, healthy and prosperous new year.

A run, a swim and a walk

Noreen finally did her run and swim on Saturday. These are a series of events for women designed to get them participating in exercise. As well as Noreen, Jane, Liz and Eileen from the walking group participated. Nico has made a film which we will try and post on YouTube.
[Update - It's on Nico's blog now. Scroll down about half way and double click on the Video icon to launch YouTube. We have a CD version for anyone who wants it in high definition. Let me know and I'll send you a copy.]
Each event is in a different location. A few weeks ago Jane participated in Eastbourne. This week it was around Oriental Bay in the centre of Wellington. I went to near the half way stage and took some video on my camera of the running stage. I saw a couple of interesting sea birds on my way round. This is a Variable Oystercatcher, a species endemic to New Zealand.

As I was making a video I didn’t get any photos of the run so here are a couple from Jenny to give you a flavour of the event before we post the video.

Above - Liz, Jane and Noreen before the start. Below - Noreen, relieved it is all over.

On Sunday a select few made the trek from Kaitoke to Smith Creek over the Puffer Track.

We had our lunch on the river bed. This is covered by a raging torrent when it has been raining!

Here is the group - Nico, me, Andy and Eileen.Much of the walk is through unspoiled forest. We met only a couple of people on the track. There is a remarkable variety of vegetation which is difficult to convey in photographs. Here is a typical bit of forest as a taste of the experience. The return journey was over the Dobson Loop Track which went up a lot more than I remembered! Consequently I wasn't in the mood for taking photos but this is view on the way down. It's looking towards Upper Hutt and that is Mount Climie in the upper left.

A Hot Day in Wellington

On Saturday Sam had a gig as steward at a posh ball. This is him in his tails – mainly to prove that he can dress elegantly when he wants to.
On Sunday a fairly large group of us did another variation (the zig-zag from Fraser Street) on the walk that ends up in Eastbourne. This time we started in Wainuiomata and climbed up to Mount Lowry before descending down the other side. It was Jane’s birthday and at the first refreshment stop she was presented with her present – it looks suspiciously like gift wrapped chocolate!

Here is the group on the bench that I have used before. Ingmar’s girlfriend (second from the right) arrived in the country from Germany late Friday night. She’s in the country for six weeks.

This is typical beech forest – one of the best examples around Wellington.

At the end of the walk we came out to the beach at Days Bay. It was a wonderfully hot day and as you can see the place is quite crowded (by NZ standards).

These three young ladies (Polly, Jenny and Bryony) joined us for lunch

and afterwards Noreen went for a paddle

before taking the plunge (Bryony and Nico beyond her and Wellington across the harbour in the background).

Finally, no blog is complete without pictures of cute kittens. Here is one of the three that Dave and Jane are training. Dave insists they are being returned on Thursday!

Pictures of people

Sam was complaining that I have too many pictures of plants. So to correct that impression here are a few of humans. Sam has just bought a guitar. Here he is practicing a very difficult chord (he told me to say).
On Wednesday Bedlam held their monthly meal. This started years ago when the hall we used for practice was booked by the Mountain Safety Council on the first Wednesday of every month. So we went for a meal instead. The MSC stopped their meetings at least 15 years ago but we still go for our meal. Generally it’s a low cost Asian restaurant of some description. We do like Indian and the last meal of the year doubles as a Christmas party and has been getting more popular. For the past couple of years we have been going to Natraj in Paremata. This year we decided the theme was Hawaiian shirts. Hence Sam dressed up like this –

(If you look carefully you can see he is about to drop Noreen's pager into a glass of water - although he didn't actually do this!).

So Jenny doesn’t feel left out here she is in the garden last weekend.

We have had a number of visitors from the South Island (the Mainland if you are being parochial). Here are Bryony, Elwin and Polly at the meal.

And lastly, Movember has ended and I can revert to normal facial fungus. The final incarnation of Mowbray was mini-Mowbray – seen here with Nico, also at the meal.

I realise I have no pictures of Noreen here. I will make up for it next week when she is participating in another run and swim event.

Flowers and Frolics

Nico has done a good job of covering (plus here and here) this weekend's activities. We had an excellent time at the two football matches and two Morris events but I don't have much to add.

As we have officially now reached summer here are photos of two non-native plants that we have in the garden. Firstly an import from Australia - Callistemon which is generally referred to as bottle brush
and one from South Africa - Pelargonium

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible

Apologies for the late posting. I have been quite busy and we have had broad band problems at home.

I have made a couple of changes to the blog. Firstly SiteMeter has been added to give an idea of how many people are browsing here and where they come from. Secondly I have enabled feeds, so you can get notification of when new material has been posted without going directly to the site. Lastly I’ve restricted the display to one post per page. Hopefully this will improve load times particularly for those on low capacity lines.

Right, down to business. I have become very attached to my moustache. So much so that I have decided to name him. So please say hello to Mowbray (known to his friends as Melton).
There is even a street in Wellington named after him

Expect to see some changes in his appearance over the next few weeks while I work out which style I prefer (and what I am allowed to get away with!)

The weekend weather was hot and sunny. We danced on Saturday morning over at Brooklyn Fair, another traditional engagement. Nico has some pictures.

While at the fair I bought a pittosporum seedling (if you look closely you can see Sam playing silly buggers behind the door!) ...

and planted it up on the bank. (Behind it are a ngaio and a pink flowering manuka).

Also up the bank, this young cabbage tree seems to be thriving. With luck it will get to 15 metres tall in about 50 years time.

As Nico has mentioned, on Sunday morning Jane took part in a run and swim event over in Eastbourne. Noreen was supposed to participate but got called into delivery suite (an occupational hazard!). Nico has made a rather good short documentary of the event which I am trying to persuade him to post on YouTube. Zoe organised the event and here are the proud mother and daughter.

In the afternoon we went for a walk around the Karori Sanctuary fenceline. There are some excellent views (on a clear day). This is looking north across the city and harbour, up the Hutt valley to the Tararuas.

One of the features of the walk is the Karori Wind Turbine. I think this was the first wind generation in New Zealand when it was installed in 1993. Here is the group in the information area shelter. The turbine is fairly small these days and a much larger installation is planned for Makara .

Finally, on the way down we had a great view of a very elegant Kereru. These are lovely birds that we don't see too much of around Wellington. They are relatively large and heavy and sometimes get slightly tipsy on the fruit they eat.

Matiu/Somes Island

Wellington Harbour was discovered about 1,000 years ago by the semi-legendary Polynesian explorer Kupe. He had two daughters and a son. The son was Tara and he settled in the area naming the harbour Te Whanganui a Tara (the great harbour of Tara).
There are two islands in the Te Whanganui – Matiu and Makoro named after the daughters. When Europeans arrived they bestowed their own names on these features. Port Nicholson, Somes and Ward respectively. The old names are making something of a renaissance and we are in the hybrid stage of referring to where we went today as Matiu/Somes.

In the past the island has been a Maori settlement, heavily fortified pa site; in European times a quarantine station for humans and animals and during both world wars it was used as an internment camp. Nowadays it is administered by DoC as a reserve

The journey by ferry takes 20 minutes from the centre of Wellington.
It has been a glorious weekend and today was sunny and warm. This is the view looking north to Petone and the Western Hutt hills

and south west across to Kaukau and Wellington

Lunch was taken amidst second world war gun emplacements

which (along with most of the southern part of the island) has been taken over by gulls for nesting

(sorry this is slightly out of focus)

We did see lots of kakariki, some robins, several skinks and geckoes, some weta in their hotel, but sadly no tuatara apart from Andy who saw one.

I don’t have any photos of these but here is an ancient fossil attempting to be young and trendy

On our return to Wellington some of us went to the annual model train exhibition. There were some impressive layouts including this Hornby O gauge 3 rail setup

and a lovely New Zealand bush railway in N or something fairly small

Rudolf Steiner and Cannon Point

It sounds like the introduction to a joke but I can’t think of a good punch line. Comments welcomed!
One of the first engagements in the Wellington Morris calendar (which starts in spring) is an appearance at the annual fund raising fair held by the local Rudolf Steiner school. It is in a magnificent setting on the Western Hutt hills and we always get an enthusiastic audience there.
After lunch we tackled Cannon Point. It’s a fairly stiff grunt up to the trig from where there are magnificent views down the Hutt river (south) to Wellington harbour and the city beyond.

The tall fellow in the group is a German called Ingmar who has been coming along to Morris.
There is also a view across the top of the Hutt valley to Mount Climie which we climbed a few weeks ago.

The return from the top is through some lovely bush and into a valley which contains the Birchville dam and lake

The stream joins the Akatarawa river shortly before its confluence with the Hutt River.

Access to the track is by a typical Kiwi swing bridge.

Then it was back to Dave and Jane’s for a barbecue and some of Jane’s home grown broccoli