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