February Gone- wooosh!

 

Can someone please tell me how it is March already?!

The year is certainly moving along. 

February was busy and full of good fun. 

We replaced our dishwasher with a new Bosch series 6 and we are very happy. 😁 The one that came with the house was a lesser brand model and it was starting to make “noises”. The one we had been wanting was on sale and we were about to have guests visiting. Not wanting to risk it breaking at the most inopportune time, we just bought it. 

Kathy, our first visitor arrived on the 8th and had never been to NZ. We enjoyed showing her around Wellington. We took her to some of our favorite places to eat, as well as enjoyed some nice meals as home. Eric BBQed steaks one night. And the fish n chips were a big hit! We also took her to Te Papa, Zealandia and the Weta Workshop Tour. 

 

Sheila, Eric’s sister, flew in and joined us towards the end of Kathy’s visit. We enjoyed visiting together and entertaining the “cat overlords”.

We took a drive up the coast, although the weather was not great, it was not bucketing down rain either. We stopped for lunch at a place we randomly found called Fisherman’s Table. It was like stepping back in time - the decor was quite remarkable. lol

And we got the opportunity to introduce them both to “pavlova”.

I have never been a fan of pavlova. But to be fair, I don’t think I’ve ever had a proper one. Still not sure what that is, but the one served at Fisherman’s Table was the best version I have had yet. If you don’t know what this is check it out here- widely contended as a kiwi dessert. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavlova

Kathy left and the weather turned a bit. We had a crazy storm ! 

The winds and debris were bad enough that everyone worked from home on Monday, which was extra nice since it was a challenge to sleep Sunday night. 

The storm took out a small tree next to our house, that to be honest we probably needed to remove anyway. And ripped one of our roof tiles off. We would have thought the roof piece came from one of the edges, but no, it was a random piece in the middle. 

We were also quite fortunate that we were able to even reach a roofer on Monday and that he was able to come by on Tuesday to re-attach it. 

We learned that the roof tiles interlock and are only attached with flathead nails. That was how they did it back in 1988. Now they are secured differently. With stronger bolts. Otherwise, he said the roof was in good shape which we were happy to hear. Now we are considering whether to have him back to re-bolt the rest of the tiles - something to ponder. If you are in Wellington and reading this, a big shout out to Craig at First Roofing!

Our neighbor had a large tree branch come down, but luckily it did not hit anything. 

We had planned a day trip to Patuna Chasm, but that was canceled due to the storm. 

We still found things to do - we saw two of the many Fringe shows going on this month. The Fijian Flying Circus was quite entertaining.

We went to an art gallery show opening that featured many of our talented friends and their work. It included our fairy castle created by our dear friend Kim Beaton. And did another tour at Weta Workshop. 

It was a great time hanging together and we are looking forward to catching up again later in the year. 

Other highlights were some nice sunny days, pretty sunsets, some celebrations with friends, and we really enjoyed the 6 episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. 

With guests gone, we are now busy preparing the house for window replacements. (Cats helping) We are upgrading to double glazing and looking forward to the comforts ahead. Wish us luck. The house should be mildly chaotic for the month of March!

Stay tuned…