First day or two

February 2016

A lot of walking takes you quite far in this city. The greenery of summer makes it all the more lovely with some Pahutakawa trees having a second flowering. We've had wind, rain, wind and clouds, all interspersed with that clear, clear bright sunshine. 

The first thing I notice is the noise. It is actually quite loud and everywhere. It is Cicada season and will last another week or so. Millions of them. They sleep at night, thank goodness.

I love the Norfolk pines, with their huge cones that are attached right at the trunk, some the size of cannonballs!

Today is a rest day, time to upload the pictures from my camera to the computer, upload these to dropbox too, as a backup and see where that gets me. Very technical trip this time, traveling with not only the computer but a tablet, a camera, jump drives and using the cloud.

The last few days have been quite busy. My sister had arranged for a lampshade making course. She likes fixing things up and had a lamp that needed a fresh new shade. A bunch of small shades that needed to be covered completed what we were going to attempt in the day. I enjoyed it enormously, learned a great deal about something that is not difficult but fiddly and time consuming. We did experienced disaster on the way home, though, when the wind (an ever present part of this city) caught it and blew it away, unbeknownst to us! Sad, but funny in the end as we imagined it stuck under a car carriage, sparking it's way to wherever.

We also went on a hike up to the Porirua area. Catching one of the suburban trains up to the town and then crossing the highway to work our way up into the hills.. This was a group of three, working our way along a trail, following a river then up and up to a hilltop.

Overlooking a huge area. This is again all the close and far. Big and small. The detail of the trunk of a tree fern. These would be where the leaves had been attached.

Tiny plants and huge trees. 

We saw ducks and tuis ( a bird) and a few that I was unable to identify. 

As we ended our walk, we passed through an area that , it said, had a public washrooms. We walked around a whole shopping plaza, only to discover we had been standing practically beside them. They are all automated, vaguely self cleaning and sort of protect themselves from abuse. This, I suppose, is a picture worth a thousand words.

Our little band of three, enjoying lunch on top of a very windy hill.

 

I have been taking walks all around where I am staying, in the hopes of finding branches that have fallen to the ground (that wind thing again) so I can carve some walking staffs for my sister and her husband. They are both avid trampers and use them, so fun for me, useful for them. I bought a set of simple carving tools to work with and joined up a shared working space club so I can make a mess there and have clamps and better chisels to work with. My biggest challenge at this moment is to find a honing compound to polish up the sharpening. Sticks have been found, not the honing compound though.

 

Saturday morning is a day to find a brunch/breakfast. Not really brunch as we are at the restaurant by about 7:45 am. We are not the first and the place is bustling with families as there seems to be some competition for life saving training. Marquees everywhere, kids racing up and down the beach in bathing suits, despite the fact that it is cool and cloudy. 

We head toward the downtown, as my sister and I are going to go to an outdoor farmer's market right beside the Te Papa Museum. The trip has a lot to see. Street art is everywhere.

There are a lot of vendors, some with delicious nut butters, too goo to pass As we are leaving the market, a Salvation Army band strikes up a tune. If it is not posted here now it's cause I was defeated in my attempts to do so. 

We walk toward home and wait to watch a marathon run go by. This one has shorter walks and runs and push car categories. Drones fly overhead as the media cash in on all the new technology.

 

The house I am staying in is an easy walk from downtown. All uphill to one degree or another. There is a lot of street art, some more interesting than others, all worth a look. Since the weather here is hot, I am pretty sweaty when I stop.

Wellington is a very beautiful city with fantastic views from almost everywhere. Peeking between two buildings, seeing green hills and trees right in the downtown. The sea is never far, dramatic or still, high or low tide. 

Sunday is a rest day. 

Even that has a bit of activity. I did find sticks to carve, so I spend part of the day stripping them. A simple straightforward one for my brother in law, an initial carved on it. His first an last name start with the same letter.

Monday, we head out to the Miramar area of town. This is where Peter Jackson has his studios and must have turned it into a tourist area by it's unvisitable premises alone. We have a lovely lunch at a tiny cafe that serves Italian fare. A chicken Foccacia for me thanks. Limonata is so refreshing. Again, a close encounter with the self serve toilets, one stall of which was inhabited by a little bit of a bag lady who told me to move off. I did and she then came out to tell how bad the government was at sorting things and making them work, including this toilet.

The combination of the heat and humidity, uphill walking take it's toll. By afternoons, I am a little sleepy and take a short nap. Not me at all, but really, I cannot stuff more into one day.

A beautiful rock face at the bottom of the street.

This the Menzshed. Pay a membership (nominal) and have a place to do woodworking, with all the tools needed. Have the companionship that comes with it. It was exclusively for men till just recently when a woman joined, then my sister and now me. Very useful for all the projects we seem to like to do.

A movie somewhere this week I am hoping and later next week, we are traveling to the south island to visit a bit of Christchurch and environs.

Tuesday we go to the Menzshed and work on our respective projects. A very beautiful piece of burled wood, salvaged from the woodpile in the garage to make a base to hold my little morepork sculpture.

Moreporks are native to New Zealand, a small ground burrowing owl/ I had planned on mounting it on a walking staff, but he assured me that most of his go skittering off a cliff on a regular basis, so I decided to mount it on a more stationary object.

We go from there to a Thai restaurant and have big soup. I have a spicy duck one and he asks how spicy. Medium and he was good to his word! Beautiful.

We had planned to see a movie and enjoyed “Carol” I am still digesting it. Best production design I have seen in a long time. 

Thoughts

When I arrived, I had a few projects in mind. This trip is not one of running around to see all the sights but more one of visiting with my sister and enjoying my winter in a warm climate. Florida this is not. Anyway, I thought I would work on the sticks, the blog, of course and anything else that turned up of interest. My sister mentioned that her tea cozy was on it's last legs with several amputations that brought it closer to it's end. Okay, I will make a new one. But not ordinary. As I knit this thing over the last week, I was wondering if it was going to be a real hot mess by the time it was done, but it has turned out all right! There was the lampshade covering course. Lots of shades need to be recovered. A fun thing. I am in the process now of cutting out a pattern for a stuffed dog on a platform tht will be a doorstop. Also fun because I can paint it up any way I like.

I am enjoying this relaxed approach, with no huge agenda other than a few specific planned outings.

Am I being lazy or just enjoying life in another place?

Just some pictures