Crisp Morning Walk

 Today's Sunday walk was at a reserve near the zoo. A place that I had not been to walk before. I have been to the zoo but not the surrounding area. Like yesterday that started icy and extremely fresh, we had the same today and it made for a spectacular scenery.

I truly appreciate the nature of the world and even after 50+ years on this world, I am still in awe of the spectacular natural beauty that we have to appreciate.

Winter is well and truly here, although the blue sky and sunshine make for the day to be lovely, once the sun warms it up, but sadly, once it goes down about 5pm it is cold again. I know we only have about another month of this before suddenly it will be heading towards spring and winter will be passed.

I actually have an overseas trip coming up in 3 weeks' time to the sunshine paradise of Rarotonga, Cook Islands, only for a week, but enough that it will get me through the cold and boast my stores of sunshine to get me through the winter and spring ahead. Sunshine is definitely my enthusiasm boast and keeps my body running.

parkrun Road Trip

 As we have 75 parkrun locations in New Zealand currently, then travelling to do a different course is always a fun thing to do, especially when you do it with friends.

Yes, we currently have 75 locations, and it is still growing. I know of about 12 others that are in the 'potential' file, it is awesome to see something so simple and easy get developed and made available to so many.

I was just going to do a local one today but got talked into joining a group driving about 90 mins away. By the end of the day, I am so glad that I did, I had a great day out with friends, lots of laughing and a great time. Plus, the fun of standing in the freezing cold 2c early morning waiting for the sun to rise high enough to warm us up.

The course had a gentle undulating to it, which was a bugger as you were climbing a gentle incline for the whole of the last 1km which is hard when you have pushed yourself. It made for a great 5km time and I felt great afterwards.

Breakfast at the local cafe was interesting, from the deconstructed French Toast to the glasses used for the drinks.

My young friend thought my 'tiki' glass was cool and interesting, but then so did I too. And the sophistication of adding sugar to the rim of my Fruit Breeze, which was just fruit syrup and sparkling water was a cool touch (if a little sticky)

My deconstructed breakfast made eating it an adventure as the flavours were not blended, you added them together as you ate them.

The green is pistachio, not wasabi! Someone at the table did have a moment of horror when they thought I was putting hot stuff on my toast!

Another craze of parkrun, if you want to get into it, is to complete challenges. Yes, we are crazy people who will chase event numbers, letters of the alphabet and other aspects of completing a parkrun on a specific date, or at a location with the name starting with a letter that we need.

One such challenge is the 'match challenge' this involves attending an event whose event number matches your event number. So, if you are completing your 87 event and the parkrun is holding their 87th event, then you have a match. I have been looking into this challenge for a few weeks now and with the limited number of locations we have in NZ and the travel that would be involved I always presumed that this one would happen either by sheer coincidence or maybe in a year to two when I could get all the stars aligned.

As mentioned, I was not planning on this roadie and had planned to go somewhere else, so it was only as they were doing the event briefing at the start in the freezing cold and mentioned the event number that I quickly checked to confirm that I was indeed completing my event of the same number 😀

One Match Challenge ticked off 👌

Now to focus on working towards other challenges, although the event today did tick several aspects of several challenges but still got work to do to achieve others, plus the joy of travel to attend a location with the requirement I need. parkrun is free they say, until you start looking at challenges and then it becomes expensive to travel around the country/world chasing challenges 😎

Winter Walking with Fog

 The Sunday walk today was to a small lake just north of the city. We have so much countryside, that agriculture lakes are all over the place and also, several trusts or donated pieces of land have been developed into reserves for the public.

This one, known locally as Lake D (yes there are ones close by called Lake B and Lake C) is about 3.1km round and has a great gravel path to follow. It is easy to wander round or run if you are inclined to do so!

Today, a typical winter morning, blue skies, cloud and fog. Cold enough that you still need a jacket and layers but beautiful enough to be breath takingly spectacular.

My friend was determined to get out her camping chair and use it, even if it was just for the last 5 minutes before we left! (it was new)

She looked like the queen sat there, viewing the lake and the world going by.

Walk finished, all accounted for and off to breakfast at a local cafe.

Music time

I love musicals. Will happily watch live theatre, and in fact, I am trying to see more, when the opportunity comes round.

Living in New Zealand, then travel to other parts of the world is expensive and timely, due to having to travel so far. Therefore, I am happy to spend my money on entertainment. 

Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of professional productions here, companies have to travel and bring sets with them, and of course, that gets expensive for them and then the tickets are expensive. Whilst we get them, we can go months with nothing showing.

So any time there is something to see, then I grab the experience and enjoy it.

Today's entertainment:

The local Operatic Society and Symphony Orchestra bringing together an afternoon of Andrew Lloyd Webber music.

Now there are plenty of his works that I enjoy, and some that I am not such a fan of! But overall, it will always be an enjoyable experience (even if it is Cats 🐈)

The afternoon of entertainment was amazing, and we have some wonderful talent local to our town.

We also have a brand-new theatre that just opened in January.

It seems very close and tall, which it is, but it still allows for a spectacular view of the stage. I was able to secure last minute seats for this performance, and they were the closest seats you could get to the stage (not that that is what I wanted) but in the circle (first level up)

Not a bad view at all. Ok, I couldn't see if someone was stood on the very edge of the stage on the left when looking at it but seeing as most performers tend to come on to the stage, then I didn't miss anything. I would even consider these seats again, depending on what it is that I am watching.

Friday Home Time

After a long week of work, a walk home in the fading sunlight, despite the temperatures getting cooler, is still enjoyable.

What makes it even better?

An ice cream

Autumn Mornings

 Today I missed the bus, so I chose to walk to work instead. I had time and I am really glad I did, otherwise, I would have not got to see the spectacular scenery of fog that was blanketing the city.

Where I live in New Zealand, we have a river, and obviously when the temperatures and cloud are all lined up, we get fog.

It doesn't last; it moves by early morning. These pictures were taken at 7.15am and even 90 mins later, it would have been mostly cleared.

I love autmn in my city, some amazing natural beauty to be seen, and it never gets old looking at it.

28 Years

 Today, at 11am, I have been in New Zealand for 28 years.

I wouldn't change any of it 💖