What's S'UP Waikiki?

For this trip, we decided to try our hand at stand-up paddleboarding (S'UP!). After all, it's much easier falling off into warmer water!

We have been very lucky with the weather being stunning and very warm, so we've been glad to get on the water. Despite his surfing background, Ian lost the learning race to Annalie, who was off like a rabbit.

But Annalie managed to get better photos of Ian, capturing the Diamond Head landmark in the background.

Day two was slightly more choppy with both of us spending more time in the water than day one. But it could be something we persevere with. Only with wetsuits rather than shorts and bikini. The Cook Strait isn't quite so forgiving!

Wish you were here!

Windy Welly lives up to its name

After the best summer in decades, Wellington showed its dark side last night. The forecasters had warned that a 'weather bomb' was on its way.

And a weather bomb hit the bullseye.

Winds gusted up to 200km/h and the Cook Strait had 11m swells. The inter-island ferries were cancelled and moored in the centre of the harbour to protect them from being slammed against the docks. The airport was closed. Trees, benches and trampolines found new homes of their own accord.

It was classed as a Category 1/2 Atlantic Hurricane. Wowsers. But we bet you didn't hear about it on the news. Wellington has carried on functioning as normal. The coffee shops are open so all is right with the world!

We came away unscathed (so far). But others were not so lucky.

Annalie's Mum and Colin may recognise these pictures as being right outside the dive shop in Owhiro Bay (for those who haven't been, it's at the bit of coast at the bottom of our road).

Another month, another half marathon

Annalie's third half marathon in three months was the Vineyard Half in Marlborough. This region is reknowned for amazing Sauvignon Blanc, which is made possible by the cool nights and warm, sunny days.

The autumn weekend that greeted Annalie over the Strait typified this - although she hadn't counted on the 1 degree Celcius temps as she got up that morning (thank heavens we'd recently invested in an electric heater for The Bach!).

Her walk to the start line rendered her fingers inoperable, despite the glorious sunshine that drowned everyone at the start/finish line.

 

Once the race kicked off, the rest of her body started to warm up. However it took a full 9kms to regain fully-functioning fingers! Not ideal during a pee stop at 7kms, when she had to try and pull up her compression tights over sweaty legs with hands that didn't work properly!

Eventually they regained a pinkish colour, but they weren't really required too much, except to reach out for some of the samples of the local, ahem, fayre that was on offer. You'll be pleased to hear that no alcohol was consumed on the course, but some yummy food samples were not refused (it's called sustainance!).

She wasn't aiming for a time and even turned the volume on her running app down so she didn't know what pace she was running. It wasn't until she crossed the finish line that she knew she'd done around 2 hours again. The official time was posted a couple of days later at 2:00:01 - if only she hadn't needed a pee! (Because the Sauvignon Blanc gelato was a necessity ;) The official course photos make it look like she finished strong too.

The course was incredibly scenic and it was a wonderful event - as she keeps telling everyone! We don't think she'll be alone next year! And when you get a "medal" like this, why wouldn't you?

Another view of home

Here's some more views from Ian's recent trek to the top of the hill opposite our house.

In this photo, the field in the bottom left is Tawatawa, one of our local dog walking reserves just two minutes' walk from our house. You can see a track cut into the hill just above it. That's our short track for walking Maddy.

You can just about make out the harbour entrance in the distance of this photo. That's how high up this hill is!

This is looking out over our house, the reserve, Owhiro Bay, Island Bay and numerous other suburbs, up towards the harbour. You can even see Somes Island (the old quarantine base) in the middle of the harbour.

Now here's one from a little bike ride up the coast with Scott. Some of you may recognise Kapiti Island. This was taken from the top of Paekakariki Hill Road.