Active Weekend

Well I have to say I am quite proud of our activities last weekend as we managed to spend very little time at home and didn’t use the car once. On Saturday we took the ferry over to Somes/Matiu Island in the middle of the bay and spent an hour and a half walking around the nature reserve hunting for parakeets and skinks – the latter you could hear scampering through the bushes but were somewhat elusive. We continued on the ferry over to Eastbourne/Days Bay on the far side of the bay and met up with a friend, Lisa, from work and her husband to go for a walk in the East Harbour Regional Park for a picnic lunch. The forest was pretty lush with lots of ferns and quite a few orchids. After the walk we spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on Lisa and Pete’s porch in the sun drinking wine and eating cheese and crackers… Can’t think of a better way to spend a summer afternoon.


Sommes Island Light House


The Dominion Post Ferry


View back across to Wellington through the trees

Sunday we rode up to Makara and met up with some girls (one from my work and one from Aaron’s) and went for a girls mountain bike ride. Both Kareen and Katherine were pretty similar in fitness and ability to me – so it was a fun ride and a nice change from riding with the testosterone gang at lunch times….

After our mtn bike ride we headed over to watch the final stage of the Women’s Road Tour of New Zealand, which was a short circuit around the centre of Wellington. It was great to see the race unfold with various break aways and the Peloton reeling them back in. Until one woman (Ina Yoko Teutenberg for T-Mobile) broke away successfully and claimed all the sprints and the stage. There were a lot of Australian, German, U.S., Canadian and New Zealand riders and a couple of other Europeans. Sarah Ulmer (NZ) won the sprint jersey – so the kiwi’s were happy.

Needless to say we collapsed into bed Sunday night.