Interesting weeks in Wellington

Recently, we went for a weekend fund raiser in the Wairarapa - a weekend of visiting other peoples places and viewing their Christmas decorations.  After a few houses we decided it was like one big open home.  Most of the houses were fairly minimalistic in their decorations, but we enjoyed seeing the houses and got some ideas if we ever want to build our own home.  We caught up with Nicky and Dave and their girls, and also Cheryl and Marty.  Not many photos taken as there was a 'no photo' policy during the visits.

Then a week later the earthquake hit Kaikoura and Wellington.  Wellington managed to come out of it reasonably unscathed (about four buildings on the demolition list which is likely to grow - a friend reckoned about 30 which would not suprise me) but the beautiful coastal route and the little town of Kaikoura have been hit really hard.  Very sad.

So, after a day off work we returned to our new building which we had just moved into to unpack.  Harry stayed at home for the next four days.  Tuesday - the floods hit with rail and bus links down and the city was again in a bit of turmoil.  Thankfully, we can say that no Wellingtonians were injured, but it could easily have been a different story if it had happened during the day.  It is great to see the help given to Kaikoura especially from all the naval ships come to NZ to celebrate 75 years.

Margot organised a degustation meal at Jano's in Wellington.  About 20 of us went and we had a great evening.  The vege meals were superb and often were the envy of those meat eaters (I didn't share much!!).

We've finished our gardens out the front (spend a few hours shovelling more sand and stones) and now I am busily encouraging the trees to grow as it looks quite bare.  We have some berries on the bushes.  A couple of weekends ago in the rain we went for a drive to Makara to find stones so that we could paint them.  We've also wrapped some in tin foil to scare off the birds (a trick we saw in Adelaide).  We also walked up a forest path in the rain to find some wood so Harry could make reindeer and a stable for Christmas.  Pictures to come later.

Mike arrived at midnight on Thursday.  We had a nice breakfast with him before we went to work and he took off for Olly's stag do in Rotorua.  Looking forward to next weekend when Connie and Becks are also over.

Tabby wants to go on holiday.

This Sunday we had a lazy start and then headed for a walk in Wilton Bush. You can guarantee a nice sheltered walk even when Wellington is at its windiest which it is today.  We parked in Chartwell and walked 2.5 hours up and down which was a lot of fun - some new found trails.  Also bumped into Phillipa so that was a welcome chat.