Graduation

Yesterday saw me attend the graduation of my flatmate Nicole at the Michael Fowler Centre in town. It was a great venue and on the whole a great ceremony (the only down side being the length - 2.5 hours!). I was saying to her friend Karen that graduations aren't occasions you get many chances to go to (usually just your own and your children's) so it was nice to witness this rite of passage an extra time. It's wonderful that these traditions continue and I think New Zealand have stuck to the traditions more so than the UK universities (or certainly Aberdeen). It's good to have a sense you are part of something that has been going on for years, to me it gives more sentiment to your achievement and in this case that's not a bad thing. Anyhoo, I now present the ceremony in pictures.

Prior to the ceremony there was a jazz trio playing

The ceremony was opened with a brass quintet playing a fabulously british piece full of pomp and circumstance (though it wasn't Elgar)

This was followed by the procession of staff

Then a Maori greeting (Te Whakatau)

Then a chorus of Gaudeamus after which the Chancellor gave a speech

And then the certificates were handed out. Here's Nicole receiving hers

After the ceremony we took a few photos for posterity and here are a couple.

We finished the celebrations with a glass of bubbly at Lido from where I ran to catch the bus and Nicole went to meet one of her classmates for dinner. The End.

Is anybody out there?

Playing about...

After taking about ten years to realise how much I enjoy taking photographs I got some books out of the library this week and was thus inspired to try snapping a few shots of patterns in nature (from a book of the same name). I only managed to take a couple before my camera died but this is my favourite and I'm quite proud of it. The green and blue really compliment each other I think and it also looks a little surreal.

Today was an utterly gorgeous day here in Wellington. The sun was shining down, the air was clear and all the views were magnificent. I started my day at 10.30am when I headed off to my reflexology appointment. It’s the first time I’ve ever had it and by george it won’t be the last. It was an amazing experience and I still (4 hours later) feel as relaxed as anything (anything that is exceedingly relaxed that is) : ). Seeing as it was such a gorgeous day I asked my reflexologist (Mary) if she knew any walkways nearby, particularly one that would take me to the south coast and a view of.....the South Island!!! The view from our pad was spectacular this morning as the Kaikouras (the mountains across the way) were topped with snow but the pictures weren’t doing them justice so I hoped to find a better snapping point. I must say here and now that although I found a better view of them for myself, the pictures are not nearly to my satisfaction in conveying the wonder of what my eyes beheld (forewarned is forearmed so they say).

Anyhoo, I get ahead of myself. I shall now display a few snapshots from the Southern Walkway route and I hope you like them. This first one is looking back over the harbour towards the Rimutakas from the first view point and I personally am loving the colour of the tree in the foreground. It was here that I first came across Adam, a gentleman I talked to for a while both at this spot and further on up the road. Very nice he was, and full of information about the area and all sorts of things. It's so nice to meet friendly kiwi folk who are happy to impart local knowledge and history. It comes from their pride of where they live I suppose.

And here I am with Lyall Bay and Moa Point behind me. My house is in the little cluster to my right.

Next up we are looking over Island bay towards the Kaikouras

And here's another one of me that Adam kindly took - I was hoping it would feature more of South Island in but you can't be picky when someone's doing you a favour...

Next up we look back towards Wellington CBD....

And here you are looking over Lyall Bay and Kilbirnie towards the harbour

And this is looking across Lyall Bay towards the Orongorongas and the moon

And this is a little railway people have built to take their shopping up the steep hill to their house. The little carriage is at the top

These next ones are from my walk back along the beach....

And as you'd expect such a day couldn't finish up without a good old sunset so here it is.....

I'd said to mum and dad that it went dark about 5.15 at the moment but actually it's closer to half past. Not a big difference but enough. And only a month to go until the shortest day so hopefully I shall never have to leave work in the dark....
Right! I'm off to make me tea as I'm out bowling with Rhys and Cat tonight. There may be pics of that tomorrow. xx

Be gentle Annie

Good day to you. Here in the land of the long white cloud it is Sunday afternoon and there are many long (grey) clouds to be seen. Myself and Nicole had decided on a walk this weekend and luckily we decided to head out yesterday despite the forecast saying today would be better. So set off we did under blue skies out along Highway 2, past the Hutt, past Kaitoke,

up over the Rimutakas and down into Wairarapa wine country (behind me).

We stopped for some ice cream in Greytown where I chose a delicious boysenberry flavour. Here I am in Stella Bull Park amongst the autumnal leaves.

We carried on up the highway and then took the turn off for Mt Holdsworth which led to the start of the Gentle Annie track. We didn't actually arrive there until 3 which left us limited time to walk but the decision was made just to go as far along the track as possible and hopefully get to see some views. After about 50 mins of walking up the (not so gentle) track we - especially I - were starting to get concerned about making it back down in the light so we asked some returning trampers how far it was to any sort of view. We were told that it was about the same distance again so if we carried on for 20 minutes and didn't get to it then they recommended turning back. So onwards we marched and after further discussion decided to keep going until half 4 giving us an hour to get back in the light. It was starting to look doubtful, but Nicole was determined and eventually a break in the trees came and we reached the lookout. I must say I'm glad we did as I would have been very disappointed to walk all that way up hill and see nothing. Here below are a couple of shots of the view.

And a last shot of the successful explorers.

In the end it only took us 30 minutes to get back down again so we made it in the light and even sauntered the last bit taking in the scents of the forest. I can't describe the sensation of taking a deep breath in the forest here. It's magical. Anyhoo, enough of that. Here endeth this post. I shall now go and put some more wood on the fire and watch some Glee or perhaps continue Nicole's education into Dr Who.

Welli, Welli, Welli...

I'm feeling a bit put to shame by all mum and dad's blogging activity especially as they're on the road but then I reckon that gives them more to talk about! What can I tell you? I'm very excited that I managed to download the 2nd episode of the new doctor who which I have just finished watching. Excellent stuff I must say - I guffawed loudly at 2 points in particular and got emotional at other points which is what I've come to expect from DW. Bravo. My flatmate Nicole, bless her, thought Dr Who was about a medical type doctor and when I explained what it was actually about she said - ah so nothing like ER then! I think the jury's still out on whether she liked it or not - we'll see what happens after the next few episodes.
Other than that excitement, life is not giving me much to report of note. We've been blessed with more good weather the last two days meaning two more lunch time trips to meander the Botanic Gardens and bask in the sun and scents of the earth. Here is a couple of pics of paths I found myself upon:

And some views of the city...

The second one is more for the benefit of previous Wellington residents - perhaps you can spy the Embassy amongst the buildings or the quarry face on Mt Vic where we did such scenes as 'He leaves because he must' and 'Young hobbits do not belong in war Master Meriadoc'...I promise you they're both there.

And last but not least a random photo for good measure taken this evening on my twilight walk round the point. It was a gloriously calm evening and the night was just calling to me when I stepped off the bus (plus Nicole was practising her belly dancing routine so I thought I'd give her space!).

It's now ten o'clock of the evening here so I'll be toddling off to bed shortly. I think we're planning on getting in a walk this weekend somewhere out of the city so hopefully there'll be some nice pics of that. Also we agreed a night on the town was in order so maybe Friday night will be the night for a trip to One Red Dog or the Hummingbird. Or both. xx