Spring time walk - Te Ahumairangi & Moneta Dress - version one

Spring is here! Which means the weather often, shall we say "unreliable" beautiful one day and raining and cold the next. It's kind of a lucky dip. But that said in  general it is a lot WARMER so Rich and I have decided to get back into doing more walking/hiking around the city - kicking off with a walk to the top of Te Ahumairangi.

I wore the first Moneta dress on the hike, because you know I'm endlessly practical with my clothing choices. I am not 100% happy with this dress as I didn't measure the pattern pieces and the bodice is shorter than I would like, so the dress is more of a baby doll style. I have to say, the 12 year old version of me would have gone nuts over this dress (in 1992) and would have wanted to wear it with opaque tights and cherry red Doc Martins.

However, this dress is insanely comfortable! So it's perfect for hiking (if you're a weirdo like me who finds trousers uncomfortable). I got this fabric for free too from Sandra at a recent Wellington Sewing Bloggers Network meet up. It's the most perfect fabric for a "hiking"  dress. I think my eyes are actually shut in this photo - the sun was super BRIGHT!

I have actually worn this dress to work once as well - the baby doll look isn't that great for work, but I just wore a cardi over it and I think it looked fine.

Hope you guys all had a great weekend - next weekend we are going to the Brooklyn wind turbine (weather permitting of course).

Walking By Myself Part One: Te Ahumairangi Hill

Here's the story, before Rich and I traveled overseas we used to do lots of day walks and hikes. But since we've returned home we haven't done this as much, I think one of the main reasons is Rich is studying for his Masters degree and working full time so he doesn't have a lot of spare time.

So I have decided that I want to get back into walking more - it won't be the same without Rich of course. But it will still be fun and of course good for me to get outdoors and out of the central city occasionally.

I decided to start off simple with a walk to the summit of Te Ahumairangi Hill, you can start this walk in Thorndon, the entry point is very near the botanical gardens.

Before you even start you have to walk up this rather steep street - Wellington has ALL THE HILLS!

Here's a wee map - Te Ahumairangi Hill is the starting point for a lot of other walks, so I might try and do one of these next weekend.

Then it was time to walk, walk, walk and take in some of the views along the way.

 I made it to the lookout and celebrated with an apple and a cheesy self portrait!

A few more photos from the lookout at the summit.

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend so far xoxox