With Joss round his Dad's for the weekend this gave me the weekend to do as I pleased. I think under normal circumstances this happens every other week although apparently things can sometimes change around a bit. I therefore decided to head out for a walk, choosing to go to the nearby Belmont Regional Park which could be entered nearby the bus route. The walk followed this stream through the Korokoro Valley, and all the recent rainfall made the valley really fresh and green! After following the valley for a fair while I headed upwards towards the Belmont Trig which primarily went through woodland before emerging in scrubland which opened up great views of Wellington Harbour and surrounding areas. I then headed back down the other side towards the Korokoro Dam which was a pretty dam along this equally pretty stream. After the dam I got back to the turn off where I went up to do go to the trig and followed the valley the same way back to Petone where I started.
After getting back to Petone I headed into Wellington as there was both an All Blacks game, and my first early Southampton kick off since I've been in NZ. I couldn't miss this so headed straight into Wellington, having a little look round Te Papa when arriving to kill some time. After having dinner down Oriental Bay I headed to down to Courtney Place for the rugby and the atmosphere was buzzing, made even better by the 57-0 scoreline which pleased the locals. I then headed to another place which was showing the Saints game, although as it was an 11.30pm kick off I watched the Australia Argentina rugby game before. I was unfortunately the only Saints fan there, although there were quite a few English people there which was nice. After the game I just headed back into Eastbourne, which is serviced by a night bus throughout the night. Come the Sunday I had a lie in and a very relaxing day as I didn't get back until late.
With Joss not returning home until Monday after school, this gave me another pretty chilled out day. I was happy however as when walking the dog I went over towards Point Howard and onto the pier there and saw a Blue Penguin! Apparently they a very shy and only normally come out at night so I was very lucky! Come the afternoon I decided to do go for a little walk, heading out into the East Harbour Regional Park which is literally accessible 2 minutes from the house. There are lots of paths from the Bays which take you up to the main ridge track, making an alternative scenic link to the bays. I headed up from the York Bay entrance up a pretty steep track, and it passed some small waterfalls with the occasional clearing to get views over Wellington Harbour. When reaching the ridge track I followed it for a bit despite it being very muddy and dropped back down to Days Bay. There are plenty of paths up here so I'm spoilt for choice if I ever fancy a walk on my doorstep!
Tuesday was a more grotty day in terms of weather, although we did go out in the morning to pick up a few things for Jossy as he had his artsplash performance the next day which is a performing arts events the local schools in the Wellington area do. We also went out to look for some curtain rings for some curtains Liz bought from a car boot sale they went to at the weekend which proved unsuccessful in the end. It was nice to get out and Liz showed me round Lower Hutt which was nice of her.
The following day was yet another grotty day in the morning although it cleared up after lunchtime. We did head into Petone though to pick up a few things including dog food to make Max happy. With artsplash in the evening and his Dad picking him up from school I therefore had a few hours spare and I thought while the sun was out I would go for another little walk in the East Harbour Regional Park, this time accessing it from Lowry Bay where once up on the ridge got some great views into the Hutt Valley, and some more great views of Wellington Harbour. I exited at Point Howard so it was a nice little loop walk. There was even apparently a 5.0 earthquake whilst I was out although I didn't feel it!
Come evening it was artsplash time and after getting into Wellington we went out for dinner at a local pub before heading to the theatre where it was taking place. It was actually a pretty big event with a fair few schools in attendance and despite being really scared went up on the stage and sang. They had songs from Joseph, Moana, and we few specially written songs, as well as sections of dance, orchestra, and artwork and was actually a really good evening. Afterwards as he did so well we went for an ice cream before heading home, with Jossy going with his Dad as he was staying there the night. The rest of the week was more chilled out as Jossy was round his Dad's and weather restricted me from going out very far, although he did come home for a couple of hours after school on the Thursday before his Dad picked him up after work. He didn't come home properly again until Friday after school.
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