Surf's up at Lyall Bay

I met Daya, Libby, and Esther for coffee at a cafe in Lyall Bay last week and caught some surfers on camera, as well as a couple of very cute shots of Daya and Arlo. Lyall Bay is top of my list of places to live in Wellington at the moment - awesome mix of cafe's, beach, beautiful scenery and all a stone's throw from the city, not to mention the airport!

Spring has sprung...

On one of the first spring days of the year we decided to visit Wellington's botanical gardens, then Zealandia - a huge bird and wildlife sanctuary on the outskirts of the city that is bordered by a 7ft fence protecting its inhabitants from pesky mammals like rats and possums. The sanctuary aims to cultivate a piece of land in it's most original form possible, ie, with birdlife that isn't threatened by the predators that were introduced by NZ settlers. It was amazing to stand at the centre of the park and just listen to the cacophony of bird calls. And we saw some takahe getting fed - they're like giant pukeko's, mind you that won't mean anything to english folk! Just look at the pic....

The lesser-spotted, red-breasted Izzy...

 A takahe!

 

Pretty but poisonous

This is a photo I took whilst walking through the botanical gardens on my way to work in March this year. I've just re-discovered it on my phone and thought I'd add it to the blog since it's (in my life at least!) pretty rare to see these pretty but poisonous toadstools. I once wrote about them for a school project at age seven, I think mum still has it in a box somewhere..!
The weather at the time was turning autumnal, and this fly agaric appeared over the course of about three or four days.

Out and about with the Frondies...

Izzy has met some lovely people at Fronde where he works, and we have started up a 2-weekly quiz night! Well, we try and make it 2-weekly, but it doesn't always work out. Krislyn and Marcos knew a pair of quiz geeks when they saw us (well, more me) so they invited us to take part in a quiz raising money for a local school. We came 3rd out of about 25 teams I think, so we did us proud!! Here is a snap of the team...

Krislyn also kindly invited us to her 50th 'pink themed' birthday party, which was fab. You'd never guess she is 50, I think it's the Indian genes!

Skiing!

Exactly 6 months after our wedding in the February sun, we headed up to Taupo to stay with Izzy's cousin Charlie, her husband Rob and their pooch Oscar for a weekend in the snow on Mount Ruapehu. After waiting for a couple of weeks for a sufficient 'base' of 100 cm to appear (Izzy's criteria, not mine!) we headed up to Whakapapa resort on Friday 10th August...

It was a stunning morning - we left early for the scenic drive and I don't think i've ever seen such a contrast of hazy morning mist and bright blue sky in one place before! Must be something to do with the lake...

This photo to the right shows Mount Ngauruhoe, it's got a classic volcano shape with a flat top, then to it's left - Mount Tongariro, which was still puffing with steam from its erruption earlier that week! Eek! Made for an incredible backdrop to my first New Zealand ski expedition.

And here's Ruapehu.

So once at the top, skis rented, picnic packed, we headed up for one of the best days skiing I've ever had! Hardly anyone was there so the lift queues were tiny compared with what I'm used to in Europe, and while the pistes are shorter and there's a distinct lack of trees, there was something pretty special about skiing on a volcano.

Earthquake!

On Tuesday night (5 July), we were in bed reading when the bedroom door suddenly started rattling on its hinges for no apparent reason! My first instinct was 'uh-oh, earthquake' and said as much to Izzy, who thought differently - that someone had broken in and the Wellington wind was blowing up the stairs causing the movement!
We jumped out of bed to investigate and both felt the floor shaking quite violently beneath us. Izzy realised then what it was, and said 'get into the doorframe' - which I did, and when the movement had subsided a little, we ran to the back of the house (which is built into a hill), where there is a door to the patio, and nothing much above or below our heads.
It didn't last all that long - probably 40 seconds or so - but it was really scary. All I could think about was whether another part of the country was being completely devastated, and whether there would be aftershocks in the night. It made me realise how powerful the earth is too, and how we should really be more prepared for having to survive if a big one hit. We're going to start putting together an emergency pack.
It turned out that it was a magnitude 7.0 quake - a real whopper (the devastating Feb 2011 Christchurth earthquake was 6.3), but the epicentre was 230 km underground and 60 km out to sea, so no damage was done thankfully. This picture from the Geonet site shows how far across the country it was felt..

Weekend with the babies

Last weekend we went to Otaki for a much-needed catch up with the family and escape from the city. Not all of the adult members of the Pritchard whanau were there, but all of the junior ones were, and, as always they provided us with much entertainment and collective cooing. Here are some shots..

Maapihi cuddling Arlo and Arlo cuddling her back!
Maapihi was quite focused on the babies, being careful not to hit them or be too loud, it was lovely.
This was also the weekend Jonah woke up to find Maapihi had brought him a clean nappy and a box of wipes because she'd done a poo! Clever girl!

Meika and Arlo hanging out on the sofa. They're both just about sitting up on their own - Arlo more so at 2 months older. They didn't interact too much, I wonder what they make of each other? Little baldies.

Sam and Arlo woke up, got dressed, and realised they had put on the same thing! Ha! No, Sam did this on purpose I think... wonder how long it'll be before Arlo's embarrassed by the thought of wearing the same thing as his dad?

JB had been given a box load of girly baby clothes for Meika and I couldn't resist putting these pink Bonds panties on her! They looked so funny - she clearly thought she looked a bit like a superhero too, so I took her down a peg by adding a massive woolly hat and some fluffy boots, mean auntie.

A bit of a catch up...

So, apart from the wedding and all the fun of having UK and Aussie visitors come to see us and share in the fun, lots has been happening since December that has taught me more about the land Izzy comes from and the family he is (and now I am) part of.

Here are some highlights!

We made a veggie patch at Taylors Road to distract us during all the mad wedding preparations..

We met Arlo, our nephew. We even had the honour of welcoming him into the world as soon as he arrived, Daya allowed the whole family to be present! It was incredible, and really fascinating...

We had some fun evenings at Otaki beach - including this one, with a view of Kapiti island, Izzy and I borrowed Mardi's jetski and had some fun until Izzy got a little carried away and threw us both off...

Some of my best buddies came to help me get ready on the morning of the wedding, and having them there made all the difference to my sanity!

Coopers Beach - Northland. Pretty much the only really sunny day on our tiki-tour honeymoon in North Island New Zealand. Can't complain too much though, this was stunning.

I ran up Mount Eden, and was rewarded with this fab view of Auckland.

We met this lovely cow who lives in Taylors Road and likes to watch the world go by.

We gave Maapihi a bath in a bucket!

We met Meika who fell asleep during no nappy time!

We housesat for a month in Kelburn, Wellington, where we thought the view couldn't get any better...

We went to an airshow.

We ate some tasty home-grown goodies!

We went to a basketball game in Wellington and I met Piri Weepu - star All Black!

We had some cuzzies over to watch Daya play netball for the Central Pulse, and dressed up like fools!

We moved into Black Rock Road, Izzy's first house purchase from 10 years ago, and our first home together! Let the renovations begin!

And we find that the view here is the best in Wellington by far...

I get baking - gingernuts to start off with, but have since made scones, brownies, chocolate sponge, numerous crumbles and an apple scone cake. And lots of banana muffins too - baking is so satisfying, I never believe it's actually going to work, so when it does - it's brilliant!

We started off the renovations in the master bedroom, dark blue/grey to a nice cream - shame we didn't insulate first though...brrr thank goodness for electric blankets!

We witnessed the carnage/success of the first duck shooting weekend of the year.

And I get persuaded to have a go at gutting one!

Izzy got to work insulating the house - expol in the floor to start with. Horrid mucky job and I'm secretly relieved he didn't ask for my help!

I designed some blackboard spaces for us to write reminders and shopping lists - such is the sieve-like nature of our memories!

We get to babysit Arlo whilst Daya is playing netball.

We play a trick on Meika when JB and Mardi are away for the weekend.

We go to see the Hurricanes at the Westpak stadium - they won.

We set up a french table for dinner - this is when Nick and Janine came for one of our Super Sunday dinners - we take it in turns to cook something from a different country and make ourselves feel better about the fact it's Monday the next day! So far we've had UK, Thailand, Spain, Mexico, France and next time (our turn) is Italy!

Izzy demolishes and reconstructs the study into my office when I start back working for MedWire again - full time freelance writing from home, and I LOVE IT. No exaggeration.

Although I do sometimes get distracted by the amazing view!

And lastly, for now, I stewed some tamarillos to have with ice-cream one night, as I'd never heard of them let alone tried them before, and they have just come into season. They are a bit odd though, just like fejoas are odd - not sure what I make of NZ fare.. I tried freshly-caught kina (sea urchins) recently too and they were DISGUSTING.

That's it for now. Will try to be a little more regular from now on!