Kaitoke Regional Park

A few weekends ago, J and I went out to Kaitoke Regional Park with some friends of his from work. It's about an hour from our house, in the country outside Wellington.

Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera on this excursion, so you'll have to put up with pictures taken on my phone, which is pretty decent for a phone, but can't compare to an actual camera.

We met our friends down by this lovely little river, dressed for swimming. However, it only required "swimming" up to my ankles for me to be completely convinced that wearing my swimsuit had been unnecessary. The water was crystal clear and ice cold, and the few people brave enough to swim must be a different breed of human than I am. Fortunately, the rest of our party felt the same way, so we elected to go for a hike instead.

Kaitoke was apparently one of the places where they shot scenes of Rivendell in Lord of the Rings, and you will be pleased to know that this particular tree was apparently in the movie.

As was this arch, which they left when they were finished filming.

J and I are reasonably elvish, we decided.

As is true in many parks in NZ, there were lovely paths through native bush.

We stopped on a bridge and watched the crazy people braving the cold.

The amazing cliff for jumping was the only thing that actually tempted me toward the water, but I still wasn't willing to be that cold. I did have a very fun time taking action shots, and got fairly good at catching the jumper in mid air.

See? Pretty paths.

J loved this particular landscape, because it looked just like a scene from one of his video games. I wouldn't be surprised if NZ hadn't inspired many picturesque landscapes in fantasy worlds.

I appreciated that our hike took us over several bridges, because I love looking down off high bridges at scenes like this.

So, no swimming, but a lovely exploration of a new park, to which we will definitely return.

Night Market Date

I have successfully done not one single blog-worthy thing this week, allowing me to finally post these pictures from way back in November or early December. Yay for me!

J and I went on a date to the Wellington Night Market. 

It starts at 5:00pm Saturday nights in the summer, with tents and trucks setting up along Cuba Street downtown, with foods from all over the world.

We wandered around, admiring all the amazing displays of cuisine and cooking techniques.

It was particularly interesting seeing the different Pacific Island cuisines, as they are not something we grew up with in the States.

Fried savoury dumplings are among my favourite foods in the world, so it was awesome to get to pick several different kinds and try them out.

J got a meatball sub, which I thought was fairly unadventurous, and you can see by his reaction how much he cared about "adventurousness." Plus, it was apparently stunningly delicious, so I won't argue.

I also got kumara (sweet potato) fries, which I was surprised to discover came with powdered sugar on the top. J, however, was not surprised, so perhaps this is a normal thing that I've simply never noticed.

As usual, J just couldn't possibly wait until after I took the picture to dig into his friend ice cream. 

One of the booths was selling local honey, from right here in Wellington. The "Bush" honey is actually from Zealandia, which is about 10 minutes from our house. How cool!

We also hung out for a bit in a lovely little used bookshop called Arty Bees. It is an inviting, quiet place just off Cuba Street, so it's nice to pop in once in a while.

I think that the Night Market is a fabulous idea. We ended up with a string of busy Saturday nights after this one, and so we didn't go again, but next year we'll try to go more often. Wandering down the street trying new foods is a beautiful experience.

Makara Peak

It has actually been months since J and I hiked to the top of Makara Peak and took these pictures. I feel that I should inform all of you lovely readers that I am hopelessly behind in my posts, and will have to lead a boring and uneventful life for several months in order to catch up. Fortunately, I am finding the everyday happenings of life quite adequately challenging, tiring, and even sometimes overwhelming lately, so I think quite and calm (where I can find them) are in order. I will do my best to capitalize and catch myself up.

Makara Peak, as you may remember from my December post, is in the mountain bike park by the same name that is right next to our house.

412m is 1,352ft, which is not very high for a "peak," although one must remember that it is 9 kilometres from the ocean, so it is a considerable difference from sea level. And yes, please feel free to empathize with the fact that I bike up and down a considerable percentage of this incline every day.

(Aotearoa is the Māori name for New Zealand, in case you were wondering).

The path, however, is not always easy. We found it interesting and engaging as hikers, but were constantly staggered to think that it is actually designed for mountain bikes! I was profoundly reinforced in my belief that I will not ever be riding on the "Expert" trails, given that "Expert" is clearly code for "Fine with falling off a cliff onto jagged rock or shattering your bike on an unexpected boulder."

I love green landscapes!

We haven't explored the paths in this direction yet, but I'm sure we will some time. All the green area is still part of the massive park, and you can also see some of Wellington and the harbour.

And in case that wasn't enough, here is a beautiful view of the stunning Wellington Harbour.

And in case that wasn't enough, here the the broader expanse of Wellington, sprawling out around the harbour and in among the hills.

J was quite pleased to get to the top. It was a pretty hot day, but although the top meant we were out in the sun, it also meant that we got the full force of the chilly breeze, which was fabulous.

I was very excited to see this wind farm, as I quite like them. J informed me that it is the biggest one in NZ (and acted as if he had known this his entire life and didn't understand how I hadn't).

Also, I love seeing the land across the water. We were told that you can see the South Island (which is actually west of Wellington) from Makara Peak, but neither of us could actually determine the proper direction to look accurately enough to tell where it was. We think that it was not this view, which is way too close, but a similar one of hills farther off and in a different direction. The camera did not agree that they were visible, so there's no picture. Anyway, it was cool.

I have decided that I like this city.

J likes it, too. We think we'll stay.

I love the layers that you can see from up there!

I think it is very cool that we live right by this beautiful area, and I look forward to having visitors who can climb to the top and look out over the majesty of this landscape.

Helicopter Trip

For Christmas this year, J and I decided to give each other events or experiences rather than objects. It was a brilliant idea (that I came up with), and has worked out very well.

J's gift to me was a certificate for a helicopter trip to the Coromandel, complete with a picnic lunch and time to explore before flying back. He picked very well, knowing how I'd fallen in love with the Coromandel's beauty when I went there with Mom, and how I adore anything to do with flying. He did not, however, read the details very well, which became clear as we discussed it. I said, "So we'll fly from Auckland over the bay to the Coromandel." His response: "What? It leaves from Auckland? We have to go all the way to Auckland!? No!" Sometimes heart is more important than being a thorough planner, so it's all good.

Unfortunately, I was mildly sick and J was stressed out and we were both easily irritated, so the drive up to Auckland (all 8.5 hours of it) were not our most enjoyable (or even civil) of times. A pity, but it happens.

Fortunately, we put all the aside and resolved to have a fabulous time on our helicopter trip, which was easy, given how amazing it was.

We had two very friendly and capable pilots who flew the helicopter incredibly smoothly.

I look like I belong in a helicopter, I think.

We started out flying over the land south of Auckland, which was (unsurprisingly, as we're in NZ) beautiful. It's be an extremely dry summer, so things are becoming more yellow than green, but it was still stunning.

J tends to get motion sick when flying, even after taking medicine. However, he didn't have any problems at all during our smooth flight, and was able to enjoy the breathtaking views.

This was right in the middle of our flight over the Firth of Thames, which is the bay in between Auckland and the Coromandel Peninsula. The water was gorgeous.

At about this time in our flight, one of the pilots spotted dolphins, and promptly veered and swooped down so that we could get a good glimpse of them. It was both exhilarating and beautiful, which is a fabulous combination.

The Coromandel has all kinds of promontories, inlets, hills, beaches, etc. This is one of many beautiful ones we flew over or near.

As far as I could tell, the whole coastline is squiggly like this, which makes for impressive views from a helicopter.

We landed on top of a hill, in an area that can only be accessed by helicopter or by boat. The pilots set up a lovely little picnic area for us, and left us a cooler full of food. They they flew away, to return a couple hours later to pick us up.

We had our pick of a couple beaches within a few minutes' walk, and we picked this one because there wasn't a single boat near it, so it was our own personal, private beach. Plus, it was beautiful, but they were all that.

I asked J to take a picture of me on the beach, which he technically did, but you'll just have to trust that it's actually me.

We had a wonderful swim on the beach, and the day was warm enough for even cold-blooded me to cope well with the chill of the ocean water.

This was my favourite view on the walk back up to our picnic area. I find the colours and layers of landscape mesmerizing.

We had a great picnic lunch. I should have set it out more invitingly for the picture, but I'll just assure you that it was delicious, and just the perfect thing after a swim.

When we were finished eating, we leaned back and admired the view. It was well worth admiring.

We felt incredibly upscale and important, standing on a beautiful hilltop awaiting our personal helicopter. It should be noted that while J did feel this, he was also fiercely focused on ensuring that neither of us were sliced to bits by the blades, which had been made to seem like a real possibility during the safety briefing. I had, of course, forgotten about that by this point, but as I did not lose a single appendage, I must have done okay.

One more shot out the window, taken on the way back. A fittingly beautiful picture to sum up and incredible afternoon.