Historical Weekend

This weekend seems to have had an historical focus. Last night we went to a 50th birthday party. The theme was 50s (as in the decade) so we went dressed in fancy costume which might have had a passing resemblance to what they wore at the time. Noreen dug out her genuine fur coat (bought from a second hand shop in Brighton in 1973) and accessories to match.I wore my tail coat – the same outfit I wore at New Year (the seventh photo down here).
Today we went for a walk in Jubilee Park which is in Lower Hutt below Normandale. At the end of the nineteenth century and for the first half of the twentieth it was the site of some grand old houses owned by professional people. They had tennis courts, swimming pools and extensive gardens. The land was acquired after 1950 to enable the Western Hutt Road to be widened and the houses were either demolished or left to rot. The vegetation ran wild and the area became a jungle. In the last 15 years a group of volunteers and the Hutt City Council have managed the park and cleared paths, restored some of the areas and put up information boards. They haven’t given it a web site yet. This is the best I could find.
The view overlooking the Hutt River, Lower Hutt city centre with the Wainuiomata Hill Road in the background.

One of the information boards gave the answer to a question I posed before. Who was Mount Climie named after? Well, J. D. Climie was a surveyor. He came from Shrewsbury in England and named his house “Longmynd” after a part of the Welsh border hills not far from there.

Lastly, here we are at the end of the walk, about to take off to La Bella Italia for coffee and stickies.

Autumn Colours and Belmont Regional Park

We are nearing the end of autumn. On Saturday Noreen and I went for a walk in the Botanic Gardens. Noreen loves kicking up the dead leaves from the deciduous trees. We also enjoyed the colours on some of the exotic species.
Almost all native trees are evergreen. It takes a while to get used to the more monochrome nature of the New Zealand bush – sometimes referred to as “a thousand shades of green”. For example this scene near the start of the walk we did on Sunday.

The route was through the Belmont Regional Park from Dry Creek (near Upper Hutt) climbing up to Boulder Hill then along the top coming out at the Old Coach Road in Normandale.From the top there are views across to Porirua with Mana Island in the background and the South Island beyond that

The area was a military ammunition dump in the Second World War. It was built by the Americans before the push up through the Pacific. The magazines are still standing, mainly used as shelters by the sheep who inhabit the hills.

There is a small airstrip. I believe it was originally built and used by the military but recently has served as a top dressing base.

Another view looking down a gully towards Porirua.

Finally a dramatic shot of Wellington Harbour with the city in sunshine, the Miramar Peninsula and Seatoun in shade.

Dunedin

This weekend we went to Dunedin to visit Jenny and see her perform in the Capping Show. Denise joined us from Christchurch
as did Janie who is very attached to her new car.

It's funny who you see loitering on street corners.

We also delivered 10Kg of cheese to Edward and visited his house

and strolled through his back garden on the banks of the Water of Leith.

Pencarrow

Today we did a trip to Pencarrow Head on the Eastern side of Wellington Harbour. It’s generally a flat track along the coastline so a few people who were keen to cycle took their bikes whilst the rest walked. Jane wasn’t keen but she cycled anyway …
This is the view looking south near the beginning. Pencarrow is beyond the headland visible here.

The landward side is pretty steep and covered in gorse although some native revegetation is taking place. It is home to goats

and sheep.

There are two lighthouses on Pencarrow Head. The oldest one at the top of the hill is on the site of the first permanent lighthouse in New Zealand.

The walkers rested before making the final assault on the summit!

The views from the top are worth the slog up. This is looking across the harbour to Wellington city with Kaukau on the skyline. The beach nearest to us is Breaker Bay – if you look closely you may be able to see the nudists (and their goosebumps given the average temperature of about 10 degrees).

This is “old” Pencarrow

The view looking south-east over Lake Kohangapiripiri and beyond to the mouth of the Orongorongo River.

Teaching Sam to Sew

One of the joys of having our (nearly) grown up children home is teaching them from our vast life experience. Here is Noreen instructing Sam how to make his torn down jeans presentable!