Labour Weekend Sunshine

So Labour weekend is the last long weekend we have here in New Zealand before the Christmas break *cries* I'm not too sad thought as I have a few days off work for annual leave before the end of the year for various things.

We were extrodinarily lucky with the weather on Labour weekend though - we had pretty much three sunny days in a row (IN OCTOBER? WHAT?). Anyways here is some of what I got up to during the long weekend.

Rich and I went for a walk in Central Park, along the way we met a man who looked like a guru who told us to "love each other from the inside out and never fight".

I also went for a walk along the waterfront an Oriental Parade with my friend Shell - it was even warm enough to get ice cream!

Rich and I went to the Tennyson Street Fair, the highlight of the fair was the petting zoo - complete with bunnies!

I had the chance to catch up with Ria and we went to the Contraception exhibition at Te Papa - which made us pretty happy its now 2015.

These amazing costumes were on display that belonged to Carmen - perhaps there is going to be a display of Carmen's costumes in the future? I hope so because it would be the best.

We also decided to check out the gardens outside Te Papa seen as it was a beautiful day - even though it was windy. Obviously.

Then we finished up the day with Dwali celebrations that were happening in the city, there were a lot of kids doing traditional dances which was pretty adorable. Also there were people selling all kinds of treasures, but we were both very restrained and didn't buy anything!

So I feel like my blog is WAY behind these days, I have a bunch of other posts in the work. But I think for now I have a date with my sewing machine xo

Solo Date: Tennyson Street Fair and Waterfront Walk

Rich is crazy busy this weekend, finishing up his last paper of the semester (hurrah!) so I've been hanging out by myself most of the weekend.  I decided yesterday I really wanted to check out the Tennyson Street Fair an I guess I could of text a friend or two to find someone to come along with me, but then I thought, actually sometimes it's kind of nice to spend time by yourself. So I decided to go solo and it was still pretty fun.

Tennyson Street is an inner city Wellington street and when I read about the fair I decided it sounded like it would be really fun to go. I'm so happy spring is here and summer is just around the corner so the season of fairs and festivals is upon us!

I was pretty excited to see when I walked into the fair that there was a whole space dedicated to animals! It's not something you often see at city fairs - but I was so excited to see some furry friends in the city. 

 This wee shetland pony was strapped into a cart - I guess maybe to give kiddies rides?

So there were two ridiculously fluffy chickens (or perhaps bantams), two bunnies and two guinea pigs all hanging out together. I have never seen fluffy chickens like these guys before, they were pretty awesome!

Here's the bunny being feed by one of the local kiddies who managed to find some grass from somewhere? I'm not sure quite where as this area is pretty much full of apartments.

 More adorable bunny and chicken times.

There was also a donkey in the city - he's much smaller than my mum's donkey Sultan, but he was pretty friendly.

Finally an alpaca or is it a llama? How do you tell the difference? I didn't try to pet him as I've heard that alpaca/llama can spit at you. I actually don't know if that is true, or some kind of old wives tale. Either way I'm not taking the chance. There was also a cute goat hanging out with the alpaca/llama, but I didn't get a picture as he was surrounded by kids - turns out goats are pretty popular animals.

The had all the usual fair goodies on sale - candy floss, candy apples and the like. There was also a church stall that had amazing baked goodies. I bought Rich a cake pop to help him along with his study.

There were loads of stalls selling cute things - I really liked these swirly sticks, they looked so pretty in the sun. If I didn't live in an apartment I would have bought one! 

One of the stalls had a bubble machine - you can see the bubbles float past this old building and sign for the fair.

I love the street art of the city - its one of the reasons I love living in town so much (that and the fact everything is so close).

There was a band playing the blues at the end of the street - I'm not sure what they were called but they were pretty awesome. They were singing a song about first world blues and tough issues like paying $2.50 for bottled water and not being able to buy the latest iphone. 

 As you can all see it was a stunner of a day - look at those blue skies!

Before I left to go to the fair I asked Rich if he wanted anything and his response was something for lunch - so I took home some hari krishna food, its just not a festival without delicious hari krishna food. 

I took home the curries and rice to have lunch with Rich and ask it was such a nice day I decided to head to the waterfront for a walk in the sunshine.

I decided to stop and sit in the sun with a gelato - chocolate and cherry flavours.

They bring this piano out to the waterfront on sunny days - too bad Rich wasn't with me, he can actually play piano!

A few more photos of our pretty city in the sunshine!

There is a fence along the bridge on the waterfront where people put padlocks - to secure true love perhaps?

Finally a newish mural that's now on a building across the road from Te Papa - its by BMD and I love all the sharks - especially the three eyed shark.

The mural actually has a serious side, its to help raise awareness of and hopefully contribute to an end to shark finning in New Zealand waters. Greenpeace is currently running a major campaign to ban shark finning in our waters and if you're a Kiwi sign up and see how you can help stop it happening here. I'm not against eating delicious fish, but this is a brutal and also wasteful practice and I really don't think it should be happening here.

I hope that you've all had a lovely weekend - I'm off to finish up Halloween themed dress number two!