Walking

The last few evenings to attempt to counteract the excess of food we have been stuffing down, Peter and I have been going out walking. I don't know if the walking has been working but the views are great.

Chilling, chilling, chilling and more chilling

An amazing view, don't you think. Wouldn't it be great to just spend the weekend sitting looking at it. That's exactly what I have been doing this weekend. Peter had to attend a conference in Taupo and some friends of ours lent us their holiday home for the weekend.
Above is the view from the bedroom, I could really get used to waking up to this every morning.
On the estate around the house there were lots of amazing walks down to the lake shore.
There was even a small friendly dog called Rusty to accompany us on our walk.

We meandered along the side of the lake.

Through the native trees.

With even more glimpses of the lake.

Peered into small caves.

Then sat in the evenings watching the sunset drinking a glass of wine.

All my stresses just flowed away, I was so relaxed.

So relaxed that while I was waiting for Peter to finish his conference, I sat in the bar of the hotel drinking wine and doing nothing. Two things I have never done. I have never ever gone into a bar by myself. And I never ever sit and do nothing. I was really impressed with myself that I could manage the sitting still and actually enjoy it.

Lunch time walk in Napier

When I walk to the shops from work, at lunch time, I pass these steps. I wondered where they led too. Thought you might like to see too.

They led up to this path past some lovely Napier Hill villas.

To this amazing view of the County Hotel and out to Cape Kidnappers and Te Mata Peak.

Or back down the path through the Norfolk Pines to the Pacific.

Spotted a daisy shape on the trim of one of the beautiful villas.

There were more steps to attract my attention, these ones lead up to somebodies garage, a bit of a dead end.
I was tempted to keep exploring, but I don't have a watch and was worried I would get lost and be late back to work. I thought the best idea was to head down the hill.

Very much attracted by these lovely pink flowers.

And there I was back in the centre of town.

Getting back to work was a short walk past the cathedral, more about that building later.

Looking back up that hill towards the houses I had walked in front off, you can not tell the path and steps are there at all.

Round the corner past the museum.

Across the road to the park with the interesting sign. Is passive recreation like passive smoking. If you just hang about in the park are you affected by others recreation?

Lingered for a while among the daisies.

Enjoying an ice lolly, imagining I look like the girl in the Kapati ice cream ad. You can watch it here.
Then noticing myself in the window of the War Memorial Conference Centre - and remembering I am not a young, slim, floaty girl - but actually a short, dumpy, middle aged, unfloaty woman.

And finally back across the street, past the actual war memorial,

round to the steps - a hop, skip and jump back to work all within my lunch hour.

A Sunday afternoon stroll in the park

This Sunday afternoon I went for a stroll in the park, well not really a stroll more of a duathalon, with a team of my work collegues.
As this was meant to be a fun family event, we decided that it would be a good idea to dress up. I was very certain we would not be winning the race, infact I was pretty certain that we would be last. None of us had done any training, well hardly any training. So we decided to go very all out on our costumes.
Our team was made up of three software developers, it was suggested that we should be the bugs and dress as spiders! We thought for a while and came up with the Ladybugs, after we walked into the shop and the first wings we found were red spotty ones.
Don't you think we all look amazing. The duathalon was a 5km walk by Linda on the right, 23km bike ride by Vicki in the middle and another 5km walk by me.
Just thought you would like to see the reverse side so you could see the full costume. We made the tutu's ourselves from quite a few meters of tule, some buttons, ribbons and a feather boa. We were ready to strut our funky stuff.
Linda, first up, arriving back at the end of her lap at high speed, looking as fresh as a daisy.

Vicki looked amazing speeding along on her bike wings flapping in the breeze.

Linda and Vicki joined me for the big finish and we all walked over the finishing line together, 33 minutes faster than we had anticipated. Strangely enough we were not last, there was still another walker a minute behind me.

There was a bit of competition from some dodgy looking pirates for the best dressed prize.

They did not stand a chance, the Intersoft Ladybugs were the best dressed team. Our prize was a bottle of Hawkes Bay wine each, yummy.

It must have been a lucky day for me I also won a mug tree with a set of six mugs. Excuse me while I go and check my lottery ticket, just in case.

On my walk this evening I found more Agapanthis

It has taken a long time to get back to walking since I broke my ankle. I decided this evening I would go for a stroll around the block. It felt really good, despite the fact that I had slipped on a step earlier and my big toe is swollen to twice its size, pictures to follow later.

On my stroll I found some more agapanthis, white this time.