The days after the wedding

Well, it is the day after our wedding.  Quiet in the house - for a while anyway.  Wayne left mid morning after helping Harry do most of the tidying up (big thanks from me).  Mike and Becks came round for a bit and then Harry and I went for a walk to the Ataturk Memorial and around Branda Pass - a bitterly southerly blowing, but the sun was out and we needed a bit of exercise after eating so much the day before.  We stopped at Scorching Bay for a coffee and went home to have a nice family time.  Monday morning was a very early get up to take our Aussie visitors to the airport.

Monday we took Rochelle and Graham for a tour of Wellington - something satisfying about showing our little city off to people who haven't been here for a while.  Maybe we should become tour guides.  We went to Wilton Bush, Rose Garden, Brooklyn windmill, Mt Vic, Scorching Bay, Weta Workshops, Bolton Street Chapel, Karori Cemetery (to see a few family graves) and the Roxy Theatre.  And then in the evening saw fireworks because it was 5th November.  Great way to spend a day.

Botanical Gardens

A few weeks ago we went to the Botanical Gardens to have our photos taken - mainly as we wanted to prepare a programme with a photo on it and also not have heaps of photos taken on the day.  We enjoyed the experience - a tea party in the gardens - the week before Tulip Sunday.  So, here are some photos that Susan took ...

Week before our wedding

A few more days to go ... and it has been a quiet week.  We went to see the Intouchables at the movies as well as the Angel Share - both quite good.  I enjoyed having a couple of days off and on one of the nice evenings we went out and took some photos at the beach and in the garden.

Auckland

It was a quiet start to our weekend in Auckland.  The flight back from Cairns went smoothly although I wasn’t too impressed that the customs officers allowed the little beagle to not only sniff the outside of our bags but to lick inside our chilly bag (used to house our food needed for the flight). Its one of those things that afterwards you wish you had said something.  We arrived latish at the City Lodge Backpackers – just off Queen Street – after catching a shuttle and having a long conversation with a woman from Cairns over for the triathlon (Auckland is so lucky to have this event she kept telling us).  Our hotel was excellent and proved itself to deserve its 5 star assessment – so if you want a cheapish place in central Auckland here’s the linkhttp://www.citylodgehotelauckland.com/ (it must be good cos this is the first time I have put a link in to the blog).  We didn’t sleep too well that night, a mixture of tiredness, coughing, tossing and turning and so our plans to get up early and head off to Rangitoto Island didn’t eventuate and we slept through to lunch time.  Which in retrospect wasn’t a bad idea as it was raining reasonably heavily.  So, instead we found a nice place on the waterfront for brunch/lunch (where we started sitting outside but were asked to go inside as the awning was going to be taken down due to the wind).  Harry watched a replay of the rugby (Aust vs NZ) at the same time I watched the NZ vs England netball (we could sit at the same table and do this) and after that we wandered off to watch the triathlon where we were right on time to see the end of the elite men finish their endurance test and the start of the junior mens race – both in rather wet, windy and slippery conditions. Then it was off to see Mary Poppins which was rather good – great props and singing and certainly worth seeing.  The highlight, rather unexpectantly was visiting for the first time The Civic Theatre.  The theatre was built in 1929 (in 33 weeks) and was the first theatre in NZ built specifically for ‘talking pictures’ and later a venue for shows during World War 11 particularly when the American servicemen were visiting. The Wintergarden Cabaret became the home to troupes of adagio dancers – Freda Stark became well known as due to her lack of clothes (gold paint, G-string and feather headdress, and nothing). Nothing is really new is it?  Harry and I picked the Indian and Moorish influences – hardly miss them really Buddhas, twisted columns, turrets, minarets, spires, tiled roofs to name a few.  All built into a ‘night sky’ ceiling.  The theatre was restored in 1999 and it is still huge (later found out it can seat  2,378 people and is the largest theatre in New Zealand).  The casino wasn’t far away so we had a cheap dinner there, watched people avidly play roulette and then wandered back in the rain. The next day started much like the one before – a bit of a sleep in and a meal at the Casino with a leisurely read of the newspaper.  We then took a 40 second elevator ride up to the top of the Sky tower with some brave people who had paid to do a bungy jump – 192 metre drop to the bottom).  Having never been up it before it was quite an experience.  We saw our elevator companions  jump off the building and land safely, and had a great view of Auckland Harbour and CBD.  And just because we come from Wellington here is a few interesting facts… The tower is designed to withstand winds up to 200 km/h (but was closed in November 2006 when it began to sway under 150 km/h winds) and resist earthquakes (it is expected to survive unscathed an 7.0 earthquake centered 40 kilometres). Sharon and Aaron picked us up from the airport and after tidying up it was time to get ready for work.

Port Douglas

We've just spent a week in Port Douglas.  We did wonder about the sense of having a holiday before the wedding but it has proved to be the best thing out.  I spent most of my time fighting a virus and then Harry caught it, so it was a reasonably quite holiday on the North Queensland coast.  First of all the weather - it is a bit rich for Wellingtonians to say it was windy - but it was.  Cooled the temperatures down a bit as it wasn't quite the high 20's we were hoping for - still teeshirt and shorts weather so we can't complain.  Only one day of rain - when we aptly visited the rain forest so all pretty good. There's some pretty good views from the Captain Cook Highway and on the way up to the Tablelands, Daintree Forest and Kurunda.  Climbing above the coast and rain forests into the dry grasslands above.

We loved the nature...picture a golden sandy beach lined with coconut palms (a few coconuts lying on the ground), a few bougainvillea and hibiscus - though not as much colour as we thought - thinking about it rain forests do have a natural 'green' look about them similar to the kiwi native forests.  The colour is in the garden and the wildlife.

In Port Douglas there is an apartment complex, with the bathroom cupboards open to full view of the streets - it's true - we can see the medicines residents were taking, find out whether they were tidy, work out the most popular face wash ... wonder what the architect was thinking.

The birdlife really is amazing.  Lots of noise early morning (who needs an alarm?), early evening with bats flying around and signs on the road to watch out for cassawary.   We decided the signs are a bit like 'kiwi' and 'little blue penguins' crossing the road signs - have you ever seen one - nope. A few wild indigenous turkeys were all we saw. We ended up visiting an animal reserve/refuge centre to catch some of the bird life.

On our trip up to Cape Tribulation (across on the car ferry) we stopped at a sandy beach.  What a find.  Beach art - the artists hidden below the surface probably little crabs 6or periwinkles making their homes in the wet sand and warm water - swimming pool temperature.

Our first walk around Port Douglas started with an evening walk along the beach - dark with the tide in, possibly not the best time to explore.  Still it was fun heading for the village along the sandy shore with the lights obscured by trees and coconut palms.  We stayed about 1 km out of Port Douglas, in a apartment, so breakfast was cereal and fresh fruit and lunch was salady stuff in wraps.  Dinner was out - Italian, Pub, Seafood - some restaurants didn't have much choice for vegetarians but others were very good, and we had some lovely pastas and salads.  One night we had fish and chips and couldn't find anywhere to eat them so settled for a park bench under a tree.  It was pretty dark and we listened to the band playing across the road, while eating salad with our fingers (didn't find the plastic forks until after our meal - it was dark remember).  So, we went back the next day and took a photo of the bench and the tree...

We drove up to Daintree Rain forest one day, and took the car across on the little car ferry.  Did a few boardwalks through the trees and mangrove swamps (Rainforest, Wetlands, Grasslands are all pretty close really) and went for a boat trip to spot a crocodile in its natural inhabitants.  Saw a baby - a couple of inches long, a teenager (couple of feet), and big Daddy (3 metres).

There is some pretty big industry up here - besides sugar cane, tea and coffee growing, there is ice cream (flavours from the natural seeds like wattle) and the local Atherton dairy cows, wineries and lots of fresh fruit etc, so we didn't starve.  We drove up to Kuranda one day - I have memories of my visit 30 or so years ago.  We must have caught the train from Cairns as we soon discovered that this little tourist spot didn't offer a train trip through the forest unless we went back to Cairns.  The place is very touristy now, with lots of cheap clothing and coffee shops.  The little church St Saviours offered a peaceful respite - and have a look at the stain glass window photo.  Not far from Kuranda is the Baron Falls which would have been spectacular in the rainy season.

Another day we drove to the Tablelands.  Experienced coffee and icecream makers are up here. There are lots of dairy cows here, termite mounds, tea plantations and mango and pineapples.

Another day we went to Atherton table lands - which was a bit of a non adventure.  I was not feeling wonderful and so didn't really enjoy the driving - but the fig trees (that take over other trees) was quite spectacular.