Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Travel Memories Tuesday: Batu Caves, Malaysia

Any day where I get to see a monkey eating a banana is a really excellent day - although it was less excellent when he started to eye up my bag of peanuts (he was TOTALLY going to steal them).  Here's to many more monkey related adventures in the not too distant future!

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Pencarrow Lighthouse

Last Saturday Rich and I decided to do something I have wanted to do for the longest time - visit the Pencarrow Lighthouse.

To get to the lighthouse we had to take the bus to the final stop in Eastbourne and then walk 8km to the lighthouse itself. I know bus shelters aren't usually that interesting, but I really liked this one. 
We also saw the memorial for the Wahine Disaster near the start of the walk - I had no idea it was there. It's amazing that after seven years I still find some many interesting things in and around my little city.

It was then time to begin the LONG walk to the lighthouse, it was a beautiful day - but it was SUPER windy walking there. 








 We spotted a few sheep on the way - I guess they were wild sheep? They really weren't worried about us. 
It wasn't too long until we made it to to lighthouse - but we still had a hill to climb before we made it to the top to see the lighthouse. 






 Finally - here it is! Normally you can't actually go inside of the lighthouse, but because we visited on an open day we were actually allowed inside and could climb to the top.
The views from inside the lighthouse are pretty amazing - you can see so much!




I had to talk a selfie at the top of the top of the light house of course - I was worried I was going to lose my camera when I was up there though. It was so windy. 
Before long it was time to walk the 8km back to the bus stop - but thankfully the wind dropped off a bit in the afternoon.


We took a slightly different route home and walked past yet another light house, I'm pretty sure this one is still used though. It also had solar panels - how cool is that?

I hope you all have been having a great weekend, this weekend is no as active as last weekend. But I do have a few more hikes planned over the next few weeks whilst the weather is good.


Wednesday, January 22, 2014

New Years Holiday Fun Times!

This is going to be a photo heavy post! I hope you guys don't mind - but I have so many things to share. Over New Years Rich and I stayed in a bach (that's North Island New Zealand speak for a holiday home) with a bunch of old University friends.

We stayed in Martinborough -which is know for it's wineries and fancy foods! I don't drink, so the wineries are for me - I was just happy to hang out with some of my oldest and best friends.

I just love the street names in Martinborough - we stayed on Cologne Street and whilst Rich and I were out for a walk we came across New York Street.


We had some beautiful weather and as you can see Martinborough is a pretty little town. I love the old buildings.







I'm pretty lame - so I thought this sign outside the deli was pretty amazing.
Here's out table all set up for New Years eve dinner - we had a huge BBQ dinner, it was awesome.
My friend Conor cooked BBQ bananas for dessert and our friend Boggy melted down a block of chocolate for chocolate sauce. It was a good time!
One day we all headed off to Carterton to check out Stonehenge Aotearoa - some people's cars were fancier than others....
Stonehenge was the kind of awesomely cheesy tourist attraction I LOVE - I'm not sure everyone was as impressed as I was. But it was really $8 well spent!
















After Stonehenge was stopped off in Greytown for afternoon tea, as it New Years day not much was open. But this amazing and cute cafe was! It was super girly, the do High Tea, ice cream and all kinds of other sweet treats. Plus its adorable which is always important.






On the day we were due to head back to Wellington we went to check out this field, initially we thought it was lavender. But its some other kind of flower - which makes for great photos!



Eventually we all returned to Wellington, for more fun times hanging out! It was pretty much the best.


I was pretty sad to say goodbye to my friends from Auckland and Melbourne, its not often we all get to hang out anymore. But we will all catch up again for a wedding in March. I can't wait until then!