Hello hello!
We're now in Wellington, having a few 'city days' before we head across on the ferry to Picton and the South Island on Saturday. The past week has been fantastic - we met up with Gavin's parents (Ian and Bridge) in Napier, and spent the past 6 or 7 days travelling with them. From Napier North to the Mahia peninsula, then in-land to Lake Waikaremoana - some of the highlights included:
- Enjoying the 'Art Deco' festival in Napier - the whole city dressed up in 1930's outfits (we felt out of place not dressed up, although Ian came close to renting an outfit to get in the spirit), live outdoor music and a great evening watching tons of pristine vintage cars roll through town
- Biking through the Hawke's Bay vineyards - we stopped in for a tasting at a winery called 'brookfields' where gavin and I picked up a bottle of delicious Malbec, and tasted 22 different lagers / ciders between the four of us at a cidery (they were small glasses - promise :) Huge kudos to Bridge, who was game to spend a day biking without having been on a bike in a while!!
- Swimming with the local dolphin on Mahia peninsula...this dolpin likes to hang out in the bay and play with people...he's wild, but generally hangs around and plays with frisbees and balls and boogy boards. Gavin was even close enough to pet him, he then stole a boogy board and swam off with it (the dolphin, not gavin)!
- Many evenings of Euchre - and I'm happy to report that ian and I took the running total 7-5, likely helped by some scotch / hawke's bay chardonnay induced daring plays (by all players - gavin and bridge did put up a good fight...) :)
- Inaugural launch of the blow-up kayak in Lake Waikaremoana, which performed well despite being a bit 'dingy-like' in nature (pictures on the way... :) It was even quickly requisitioned for some trout fishing by Ian, which worked well (although the fish seem to be a bit shy of the kayak)...
- Gavin and I got in a bit of hiking (although the hike advertised at 7 hours was actually only 3.5 hours long...hmmmm, maybe we took a wrong turn somewhere?), and some biking (where we timed it perfectly to a torrential downpour - 10 mins in it started raining, 10 mins after we got back it cleared)...only two falls this time for me (although it was only on a gravel road, so you would think I wouldn't fall on that????sheeesh)
- We even managed to acquired a new roomate - although I'll let Gavin tell you that story...
So overall, a fantastic week! We're now in Wellington at a cafe called 'midnight espresso' - people watching and getting some computer time in :) We're freedom camping close to Makara Peak, a mountain bike park just outside the city, and this morning had a mountain bike (many more falls for me, despite refusing to do any trails more difficult than the big green circle...EASY). Needless to say, I'm not really getting the hang of it yet. This is by far the most painful sport I have EVER done!
...(I didn't have a chance to post this until now, we're on the ferry on our way to the South Island! Yippee!! a great couple of days in Wellington - including some live NZ stand up comedy last night at the Wellington Fringe Festival)! Freddy (the extra roomate) decided to take off last night, so it's just the two of us again.
Huge hugs!
