Hitting the surf

So it may not have been the way that Ian is used to it, but after a dog walk down at Lyall Bay, he suggested that we purchase some body boards, plus a wesuit for Annalie, and head back to the bay to catch some waves. It didn't take much persuading as it was a lovely sunny day, although one of the windiest we've seen.

It's taken nearly four months, but finally Ian got Annalie into the sea! We spent a couple of hours picking our waves and cruising around. Despite Ian's leanings as a "proper" surfer, even he had some fun! Here's sort of the proof after the event. Annalie, new wetsuit and body board. Ignore the screwed up face. It was very sunny and VERY windy!

One of the important things to do since getting Maddy was to register her with the council - a bit like dog licensing in the US or how it used to be in the UK. This week her tag turned up, and as you can see, she's well and truly a Wellingtonian now ;-) Annalie has also been out for the first spin on the two-wheeled toy. It's the first time she'd ridden a motorbike in nearly 3 years and the first geared bike in nearly 4! We headed over to Miramar (no, not the Top Gun version) as it's quite quiet, flat and sheltered. She had a quick ride around unscathed but more practice is required to build her confidence up.

We picked Miramar after driving around there the previous night and getting takeaway pizza to eat looking out over one of the bays. We stayed out trying to get a picture of the sunset over the South Island, which is often visible from Owhiro Bay. This was the best we could come up with though - not pretty at all ;-)

Check out some of our other photos here.

The perils of our new home

No, not earthquakes, but it appears sharks are on the prowl. The sighting reported here was just about an hour after Annalie had been walking Maddy on the dog beach (or Woof Woof Ruff as they are known) at Lyall Bay! This was also the beach we walked on on Christmas Day and is also next to Ian's workplace.

Well, at least we know what we're up against!

Some views around our new home

We thought you might appreciate some pictures from around our new home. So here goes.

This is from Tawatawa Reserve, taken about two minutes' walk from our house (which is on the road on the left). It is looking down towards Owhiro Bay (pronounced owe-fear-o).

This is also from the Reserve and looks over the other ridgeline to Island Bay itself. You can see the island that gives the bay its name.

This is also from the Reserve, on Maddy's first walk up there, and looks towards Berhampore, Newtown and Wellington in the distance in the top left.

This is a bit further down Frobisher Street and looks across to the Cook Straits. You can just about make out the Interislander Ferry making its way back to Wellington from Picton on the South Island.

And finally a sunset from our living room - we just loved the colours.

Maddy breaks free!

On the way back from Taupo (and yes we did plan it this way!) we stopped off at Levin to finally pick up little Ms M, who'd completed her 30 days' solitary confinement and we could break her free!

She got sooooooo excited when we turned up we could barely get her out of the unit door! But she soon settled down in her crate in the car.

When we got back she was introduced to her new back yard. Finally we have a fenced yard so we can just kick her out for early morning/pre-sleep toilet breaks - although we have yet to get her into the routine and mindset that this is what is required! We have to start training her from scratch.

Later that afternoon we decided to take her down to Lyall Bay, which has a good stretch of dog beach. As a dog from a central American state, she's not exactly used to the sea or tide, so watching her reaction to the water is interesting! We don't think she'll ever be a water pup, but we'll try to get her more used to it. Maybe after time she'll realise there's nothing to be afraid of?!

She's currently settling into her new lifestyle and seemingly enjoying it (apart from down at the beach!).

A Christmas holiday

In NZ most businesses shut for Christmas, giving Annalie two and a half weeks off. The nice thing is that, because of the bank holidays (or statutory holidays as they're known here) she only has to use 6 days' holiday :-) As well as Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day, we also get 2nd January - bargain!

So we had the opportunity to take a break and go somewhere. We'd bought a new tent just before moving out here, so we thought we'd give that an outing (seeing as it had just about arrived in time on the container!) and go camping in Taupo. Now, some of you may remember that we visited Taupo on our holiday in 2009. When we were there it chucked it down so we weren't able to do the activities we wanted to. So, the theory was, that we'd head up there over the Christmas break and do the two things we'd wanted to achieve the last time we'd been there.

As we were planning to be so active, we decided to camp at Taupo DeBretts campsite. The main incentive being that the main hot pools are on site and we got cheap entry fees! It turned out to be a very good move!

We drove up on Monday 27th on a glorious day, possibly boding well for our three and a half days in town? Unfortunately it wasn't to be and the heavens opened on the Tuesday. Luckily we knew this in advance and we'd managed to rearrange our plans to have a chilled/lazy day in Taupo, getting a massage and relazing at the hot pools. Oh it really is a hard life!

On the Wednesday, as forecast, the weather broke and bright blue skies greeted us once again. Today was mountain biking and heading out to Fishers Track. It's predominantly downhill but there are some pretty steep uphills to get you there first. Then it's a lot of fun winding down. Except that following the rain on the previous day, it made the track very technical and quite tough. Typically Annalie had a few tumbles (and even Ian came off once or twice!) but it was definitely Annalie who came off worst. Her first fall was quite an innocuous slide but her foot also slipped resulting in a huge graze right across her knee. Still, being the brave soldier she is, she carried on and made it to the end.

After that, it was an hour's drive back to Taupo and to the hot pools to soak the tired muscles in preparation for an even bigger expedition the following day. Still, our preparation was interrupted by our friends Ness and Dave. They were starting their Christmas holiday and were on their way to the East Cape but thought they'd join us in Taupo for a night. And they turned up with beers in hand. Well. It would be rude to turn it down after they'd cycled all the way across town to meet up with us!

Thursday was a very early rise to head back out to the Tongariro National Park. This time we were attempting what is billed as the single best day hike in NZ - the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. It's not so much "alpine" in the summer, but in the winter it's definitely more challenging. Still, it's a 19.4km trek - which doesn't sound much. But when you realise that in that there is an ascent of around 900m in total, it sounds a bit tougher!

Maybe a half-day mountain bike trek wasn't quite the best preparation for this! But then we had originally planned to do the Crossing on the Tuesday, but they weren't even running transport that day, the weather was that bad. The guidelines suggest it's a 6-8 hour trek, so we knew what our targets were.

The climb starts off gradually and then gets pretty steep, although you are helped be a lot of steps. When you reach the Southern Crater, there's an option to climb the summit of Mt Ngauruhoe - but that was a three-hour side trip that we didn't reallyu have time for. Plus it's a bloody steep climb and there's no way we'd have made it!

Still, it was a good photo opp! In the background is Mt Ngauruhoe (pronounced Now-rue-oe-ee). This was Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings films, and you can see why they filmed so much around here. It is truly desolate and barren, but picturesque at the same time.

From there it was up to the highest point of our climb, which was not quite so forgiving and no steps! It was more mountain goat track! But it made for an interesting climb. At the top you're greeted by the sight of the Emerald Lakes, which get their colours from the minerals taken from the surrounding rocks. They are absolutely stunning and a welcome break from the volcanic landscape.

From there it is pretty much all downhill, and we cracked it off at a good pace. We reached the return pick-up point just before 2pm, meaning we'd done the Crossing in five and a half hours. Not bad going even after our exertion the previous day.

Obviously there was no other excuse needed to hit the hot pools again, so guess what? We did! And then it was a bit of packing ready for a fairly early departure on Friday, followed by an all-you-can-eat buffet to replenish the energy we'd burned during the day.

You can see the rest of the photos from our Taupo holiday here.