Weekend in Wellington

Recently we made a trip to New Zealand's capital city of Wellington. Highlights included a Wellington Hurricanes rugby game at Westpac stadium, a cable car ride, finding a candy store with Goldfish (American cheese crackers) while touring Cuba Street, buying "bill fish" (marlin) from a boat along the wharf while at the farmer's market, and the Te Papa museum. Te Papa was amazing. Beings as the weather was miserable, Saturday we spent nearly the entire day and even came back for more on Sunday.  We were able to connect with UM student and IT program graduate Tim Friendson. Several years ago, I had the pleasure of serving as Tim's academic advisor. He's on an exchange at Massey's Wellington campus and will be graduating from UM with a degree in Media Arts later this month.

  

Tramping in the Ruahine Forest Park

The Ruahine Forest Park is a short drive from our home in Palmerston North. My friend and colleague, Jens, invited us to join him and his girls Xiomara and Keira on an overnight excursion to the Alice Nash Hut this past weekend.

From the trail head, it was a 30 minute hike through the lush bush to this DOC cabin. Our hike took place during a pleasant rainstorm in the late afternoon. One highlight was the impressive arched wooden bridge spanning a deep canyon.

Once at the hut, we settled in for a dinner of Mexican-American bean burritos with all the fixings. "Yum." The hut was full tonight with a friendly group of hunters and another family with three other kids of similar age to Keira, Xiomara, and Maddy. With autumn upon us, darkness arrived at an early hour. The torches (flashlights) were fired up early this evening. Jens was masterful in bringing together this group of precocious individuals through a suspenseful card game of "Murder". The smiles and laughter were contagious to all.

The next morning we left the hut and took the short drive to the nearby glow worm cave. The cave was much larger than I had expected. It had a small stream cutting through it and some glow worm activity was visible even during the daylight hours.

Our family had a great time. Thanks Jens, Xiomara, and Keira for inviting us to join you on this special adventure.

A Day on the Rangitikei

My beautiful bride Linda and I headed out for half-day of fishing on the Rangitikei River, a short drive north from "Palmy". Highway 54 is a winding stretch of secondary road over the hill separating the Manawatu plain to the Rangitikei valley. Atop the hill, we found great view of the giant volcanoes (Ruapehu and Tongariro) found in the central plateau. This beautiful river was set aglow today beneath the sparkling blue skies and autumn colors. The season has changed here on the North Island and the non-native trees are awash in color. Low river flows exposed mushroom-like rocks in the canyon as we walked along the cut bank cliffs and sheep invested paddocks. Fishing was slowed early, but picked up about the time we needed to leave and return home. I can report landing one nice rainbow in the 3-4 pound category, along with numerous smaller fish. How fortunate we are...