Weekend Walking: Island Bay to Lyall Bay

The weekend before Christmas Rich and I decided to visit the Island Bay Marine Centre - however, when we arrived it had already closed for 2013 and I was so sad. I really wanted to see all the sea creatures!

I may be smiling - but I'm dying on the inside, as I just really wanted to see an Octopus. 

Seen as there were not octopus to be seen, we decided to walk from Island Bay to Lyall Bay seen as we had already taken the bus out there it seemed like a shame to head back home.

We spotted some jellyfish - not swimming in the water, they had washed up on shore.

We saw this carefully balanced stick on the beach - its amazing it stayed up there, even with the wind.

We also saw this on the beach - some kind of witchcraft? I have most likely watched too many horror movies I think.

The ocean was pretty rough this day - although we did see a few brave souls out swimming and snorkeling.

Before long we were in Lyall Bay hanging out with this guy...

....and we also took the chance to check out some of the kite surfers on the beach.

Hope you guys all had a great Christmas, we are back in Wellington at the moment, but in a few days will head off again to Martinborough for New Years. See you soon xoxo

Lyall Bay to Wellington Walk & op-shopping fun

Yesterday Rich and I went to have a drink and bite to eat with our friends Paul and Nankz in Lyall Bay. We decided that we would walk home from Lyall Bay along the waterfront seen as it was a beautiful day - even though it was extremely windy! The walk ended up taking us two hours and some parts were quite tough due to the high wind.











We walked through Kilbirnie on the way home which is home to my favourite op shop - Opportunity for Animals. We stopped off for a quick visit and I picked up a few goodies.

I got this crazy maxi skirt for $4 - I am unsure if it will stay a maxi or if I'll shorten it to knee length. But I think the pattern is pretty rad and as an added bonus its a home made skirt, which I think makes it even more special.

I also found this big bag of lace for a grand total of $2 which I was pretty happy with it - its so nice to have little bits of lace like this to finish off projects. I think a lot of it is vintage as well.

Here's a close up of some of my favourite pieces of lace from the bag - I especially like the blue patterned lace.

Speaking of op-shopping, I wanted to share this photo with you all - it was taken before Christmas. I was pretty excited to find this Barbie game, it looks about as old as I am and its very much of the "Girls can do anything" generation I am part of - pretty sad to see that idea isn't so popular with young girls currently, most likely something to do with the non-stop stream of pink toy/clothing companies feed them.

I opened the game and looked at it and it seemed the basic theme of the game was for Barbie to decide upon her career path. Unfortunately Public Servant wasn't an option for Barbie. But I was glad to see that Doctor and Pilot were included as career choices as well as model and actress.

I was very tempted to buy it - but living in a one bedroom apartment, I really don't have room for "extras" such as this. Which may be for the best actually - if we had a lot of room things could quickly get out of control.

Did you all have a nice weekend? Any rad op-shop finds recently?

Sunday Walk - Lyall Bay to Island Bay

Last Sunday was a stunning day in Wellington, so we decided to walk from Lyall Bay and Island Bay to get some sunshine and fresh air.


I love this Easter Island statute at Lyall Bay - it was a gift to New Zealand from Chile.
Here's a few photos I took during the walk, it's kind of hard to believe that the weekend before this one we had snow!








When we arrived at Island Bay we found that there was a little aquarium there that neither of us even knew existed! So we stopped off for a look - it was pretty good value as it only cost $1 to visit. My favourite was the octopus - I love the way they move - its like they are from a different world.

Finally here's a few shots I took in Island Bay - the sky was getting a little darker by this stage but it was still a stunner of a day!