Weekend Walking - Waikanae River

It's now summer and Rich is taking summer off study so its time to head out of the city and do some day trips.Our first day trip of this summer was last Sunday when we headed out to Waikanae - we decided to walk along the Waikanae River to Waikanae Beach and back (it ended up being a 12km walk altogether). 

We caught the bus from the city to Waikanae Villiage and had a quick look around and ate some pizza for lunch. I saw this in a shop window in Waikanae - I guess this isn't something you'd everywhere right?

We started our walk along the river - it was such a HOT day, so many people were in the river swimming.

It wasn't long before we came across our first bridge - I like pedestrian bridges when I'm out walking.

Then it was time for even more walking.....

We finally made it to a park where heaps of families were hanging out, having picnics and kids were playing in the playground and most importantly. There was an ice cream truck! So we had to have an ice cream!

After our treats, it was time for more walking and another bridge.

 Then before you knew it we arrived at Waikanae Beach! But we only stayed there for the few moments. We weren't planning on spending a day at the beach or anything. We just wanted to walk there for fun.

That hill you can see in the distance is Kapiti Island, its a nature reserve, I would love to visit someday soon.

Then it was time to head back to Waikanae Villiage and catch a train back to the city. We got a bit lost along the way and ended up in El Rancho - I think it was private property and we weren't meant to be there. Opps!

We saw this derelict gazebo along the track - it was quite beautiful.

I was also super excited when we came across a rabbit family - can you see them in the picture below.

Finally Rich took this photo of me on the walk - obviously I like to dress appropriately for a day of walking. 

I hope you're all having a lovely week - I'm counting down the days till Christmas break! Only four working days to go!!

Some summer fun times

This post is just a bit of this and a bit of that - just a few of the things we've been up to over the last couple of weeks of summer. Apparently summer "officially" finished yesterday, but its still lovely warm here.

A few weeks ago the "Rainbow Warrior III" was in town and Greenpeace was holding tours through the ship. We waited for half and hour to have a look on board (apparently some people in Auckland waited 3 hours for a tour so we were lucky). The ship is super fancy and has a huge mast as its a sailing ship 80% of the time.

The Wellington Fringe Festival is on at the moment and for a while there was a sort of shipping container art gallery and bar on the waterfront.

Here's a couple of the art work - the one with the piano was very interactive, you could speak into the microphone and it would play back you voice in all kinds of weird ways.

More from the Fringe Festival - this time in the form of tape art! Tape artists were working for a few days to make this display and then it was all pulled down by whoever wanted to get involved at a certain time. It was pretty rad.

Hope you've all been having a fun weekend so far xoxox

Wednesday Wardrobe Challenge and Waitangi Day

Yesterday was Waitangi Day so we had a mid-week day off work and it was EXACTLY what I needed.

In the morning Rich and I headed down to the waterfront for some of the celebrations that were taking place, unfortunately my camera is very temperamental. I took a whole bunch of photos but only a couple of them turned out. So annoying! I need to get a new camera sooner rather than later, but I always feel so intimidated when buying a new camera.

I did manage to get a great photo of the lagoon and also a photo of this awesome Kapa Haka group.

The Wednesday Wardrobe Challenge yesterday was "Blackest Black" which isn't that appropriate for summer, but it is kind of appropriate for Waitangi Day. You see, although the New Zealand flag is red, white and blue when people represent New Zealand they tend to wear black  .

I couldn't handle dressing entirely in black, that's just TOO much black for me, but I managed black shoes, tights, belt and cardi.

My hair looks terrible in this photo! Nearly time for another hair cut and colour I think. Here's a few close up pictures of my outfit that I took at home later on.

 OUTFIT DEETS:

Shoes & Tights - Glassons
Dress - Sourpuss Clothing
Belt - The Warehouse
Cardi - Hell Bunny (bought from a now defunct online store)
Necklace - Op shopped

After we had been to the waterfront to check out the Waitangi Day celebrations we went to one of our favourite restaurants for lunch - taco! It's seriously the best.

We spent most of the afternoon at home, but finished up our day by watching movies by starlight with friends in Waitangi Park. We watched a very New Zealand and very hilarious movie - Boy . I forgot to take my camera - so here's a couple of instagram photos.

If you're in New Zealand, I hope you had a great Waitangi Day.