The weekend was a full on one with Jossy at home all weekend, although the weather on Saturday restricted us from going very far. Even Max didn't get a walk as it poured with rain the entire day! What we did do however was lots of cooking and we made a carrot cake with Jossy before Liza gave me a beginners lesson on how to make curry from scratch which is actually more double than you would expect. It just took a long time to prepare but when we finally got to eat it it was very nice. The following day it was still pretty grotty weather although it did clear up by the afternoon to an extent and we went out for a drive, heading up to the Brooklyn Wind Turbine which overlooks Wellington. The views up top were great. On the way back down to headed over to the southern coastline and Owhiro Bay where we went to this cafe and had cake before heading back home by dinnertime.
On Monday it was still pretty miserable weather but it once again cleared up by the afternoon. This allowed us to go out for a walk with Jossy along the promenade in Eastbourne so we at least did something. The following day the sun finally came out all day and we therefore did a bit more work out in the garden, cleaning the decking and removing a load of weeds from the side of the house. Fingers crossed it will be bbq weather soon as it's actually quite a nice little area to sit when it's nice.
On Wednesday Joss had a hospital appointment in Wellington in the morning. This meant an early start to get him ready, although I didn't have to go with them to the hospital as his Dad was meeting them there, instead staying and doing the hoovering and dog instead. That saved me doing it after and also sitting in a hospital for hours as they were out for quite a while. When they got home Jossy was only there for a couple of hours before his Dad picked him up. He's staying round there until Monday so it's going to be longer weekend than usual which will be nice. After he left I decided to head into Lower Hutt and look round the shops just to get out the house, despite it raining, although it did clear up by the evening.
With the day off on Thursday and a good days weather forecast I decided to head out for the day to the Kaitoke Regional Park, located north of Upper Hutt. To get there was a challenge with 3 different buses taking me to about 1km off the southern entrance, and it obviously didn't go to plan as I missed my last connection by about a minute meaning I had to kill an hour in Upper Hutt. I hadn't actually been there yet so it was nice to look round. When eventually arriving in Te Marua about 2 and a half hours after leaving, I followed the road to the car park where I headed up to a lookout over the Stuart Macaskill Lakes, a twin reservoir which supplies much of Wellingtons water. I then headed up along the ridge track, which was very muddy after all the recent rain but did give some great views of the Hutt Valley to the south and Tararua Ranges to the north.
I eventually headed back down and into the touristy part of the Kaitoke Regional Park which is popular with Lord of the Rings fans as being where the set for Rivendell was filmed. With a bit of imagination and help from these information boards you were able to recreate parts of the film, and there was even an arch created to replicate part of the Elvish Kingdom. I then followed this path with gave views of the Hutt River Gorge before entering the rainforest which had some pretty impressive trees inside, some even loosely replicating Hobbit holes. It eventually emerged at a swingbridge where there were more great views of the Hutt River Gorge, as well as this weir further upstream. The final part of the walk took me along the Pakuratahi River which had several swimming holes, which would have been tempting if the water hadn't been turned brown from all the run off from the recent rain!
When exiting the park I had about a 6km walk along the road to get a bus back to Upper Hutt. En route I stopped at another viewpoint of the Stuart Macaskill Lakes. It was frustrating when arriving at Te Marua however to find out there wasn't any more buses from Te Marua to Upper Hutt so I had to walk a bit further, all be it along the Hutt River Trail which was pleasant, to get another bus. The bus I caught however was meant to go to Petone but was cancelled to there and only went as far as Upper Hutt which was again frustrating as it meant an hour wait for the next one. I therefore had dinner in Upper Hutt instead of Petone where I was intending to kill the hour. When I finally got a bus it just topped it all off that I had to wait 40 minutes for a connecting bus towards Eastbourne, meaning it took nearly 4 hours to get back, not my idea of fun.
The following day is was back to normal in terms of weather with it being a miserable day. Luckily it was housework day so that kept me busy in the morning, although I didn't really fancy going very far in the afternoon. In the end I just had a chilled out afternoon, spending time looking at things to do over the weekend which looked like it would be nice, as well as starting to consider my options for when my visa for New Zealand runs out on March 5th which may sound a long way away but I'm sure it will come round quick. Come evening I went out for a few beers, although I went into Petone instead of Eastbourne just to try out somewhere different.
No comments:
Post a Comment