October Sun

It's got to the time of year when the kids (and other brave nutters) decide to bare their legs in shorts again. I am not one of these people. It has to be at least in the early 20s for me to consider exposing my white tree trunks.

The girls insisted on wearing their short shorts to Queen Elizabeth Park this weekend to walk the dog. They were bribed by the promise of lunch out.

They have both reached the age where we are beginning to have to use bribery to get them to spend any time with us. I guess it was inevitable, and I can remember being the same with my parents. Nothing they did was ever right or cool enough. I am now habitually uncool.

It was a gorgeous day and this park never disappoints. There are always beautiful views and the light here is always bright and highlights the colours in the landscape.

The girls have been walking in this park since we first moved to NZ (almost 10 years ago now!). I am extremely grateful that they still come with us and appear to enjoy each others company and (hopefully) ours! :)

Here comes the sun :)

Its still a bit chilly but the sun is gradually coming back and warming us up again. So this weekend we headed back to Tane's track just outside Upper Hutt and had our first picnic of the spring.

I am sure I have a photo of this waterfall from 9 years ago when we first did this walk. The girls were a lot shorter then.

This walk is just as beautiful as I remember it - only we completed it a lot quicker than previously. I think the girls legs are a lot longer this time!

Ted enjoyed it. It's one of the few walks that dogs are allowed on as there are no kiwis in this area. The notices about the use of 1080 in the area are rather worrying. This is a poison used to wipe out pests such as rats and possums. You just have to make sure that your dog don't eat any of the bait as it is fatal to dogs as well as pests.

Tanes Track and Cream Teas

It's a tough time of year. We have two weeks to go until the Easter holidays and it has been a very long term. I'm tired, the other half is tired and the kids are apparently exhausted. Getting them away from their tablets and television on a Saturday morning is proving very tricky.

So this Saturday we decided to head out towards the Hutt Valley and visit Tanes track which forms part of the Rimutuka Rail Trail. It is always beautiful out that way and despite the greyish sky it was still as stunning as ever.

It is a lovely track, winding through lush native bush. Its one of the rare areas where dogs are allowed to run off the lead and Ted makes the most of this freedom!

Someone has painted and hidden stones in various places along the walk. We spent a lot of time searching for these. It added extra interest and fun along the walk.

These stones were clearly a labour of love and were beautifully decorated.

After a walk refreshing walk in the woods we headed to a fantastic little cafe offering cream teas for lunch. 

I can thoroughly recommend the place. My other half had a very interesting chat to the owner whilst he put together the freshly made scones and cream. The little house and barn had been their since the 1860's and he had photos of the original occupants. They took 5 months to travel from England and ended up living in this beautiful location. They must have been very satisfied with their new lives!

Dog walks in the sun

During the week I get up, before the sun does, to take the dog for a walk.

So its nice at the weekend to be able to take the dog out whilst the suns shining. This weekend I took my camera with me to take a few pictures.

It was clearly going to be another hot sunny day - the sun just hadn't quite had enough time to burn off the clouds above this valley.

These guys were making a hell of a racket along the beach this morning. Don't know what they were discussing but it was clearly controversial.

Grey and misty walks

We took Ted for a walk in Queen Elizabeth Park today. We have had bright sunny weather for the past two days and then as soon as the weekend arrived the cloud and mist descended.

It did lead to some rather cool colours in the sky today. Everything turned an ominous grey green colour and so I took my camera along and tried to capture the eerie atmosphere.

The tops of the hills remained shrouded in mist all morning. 

I love the colours and textures on these hills. They look almost furry in this photo.

Couldn't even see Kapiti Island this morning.

The girls and I decided that goblins and fairies inhabit this tree. It just has that magical look about it.

 

The many joys of dog walking.

I had forgotten how much fun dog walking is. Its strange that you can get so much joy from watching a small puppy run at break neck speed from one side of the inlet to the other. Or watching the puppy bury his nose into the sand and jump on all fours whenever we go on the beach just because he enjoys the sensation of sand between his paws and up his nose. He is also rather intimidated by the way the sea washes back and forwards and refuses to get his feet wet, but will happily jump in the deepest muddiest puddle he can find elsewhere.

The weather has improved since my last rather depressive last post, so we have been taking advantage of the winter sun and been taking our enthusiastic puppy on lots of walks.

I am trying to be the responsible dog owner and carry around the obligatory little plastic bags to pick up the numerous and seemingly very frequent deposits the dog makes. Can't say I enjoy that part of dog ownership! We also stick to the rules requiring you to have the dog "under control at all times", hence Ted is still on the extendible lead at the moment.

I thought I had trained him sufficiently to let him off the lead earlier in the week. This resulted in a panicked chase scene as he decided a passing jogger was more interesting than me and my bag of treats, and promptly decided to follow her home instead at great speed. Luckily my eldest daughter gave chase and the kindly jogger stopped and held onto the dog until we were able to catch up.

So until a lot of further training has occurred Ted will remain on the lead.

During our first few weeks of dog ownership in NZ we have discovered a few differences between here and the UK. You have a few more restrictions on where you can take your furry friends for walks. Due to the fragile generally feathered nature of the local wildlife most reserves and country parks require dogs to be on the lead at all times. Also any areas where there are likely to be livestock have similar restrictions. We haven't found that this is too restrictive so far and Ted has had plenty of opportunities to run free and hopefully get tired out.

The other unusual requirement is registering the dog with the local council. Earlier this week I had to pay our council one hundred and fifty five dollars for the priviledge of owning Ted. I recieved a small numbered disc for Ted to wear on his collar and the knowledge that if he gets lost or into trouble the council will know where to find me and be able to charge me for his misdemeaners. Apart from that I am not really sure what exactly I paid for. I assume its all to encourage responsible dog ownership. I shall look into this in more depth and report back!

Ted

When we arrived in New Zealand over four years ago now, we had to leave behind our much loved Spaniel Pip. It was a very difficult thing to do, but a very easy decision. We felt we couldn't put her through the journey. Over 24 hours in a crate on her own in the cargo hold of a plane would have been a very dramatic experience. And one that I am not sure she would have ever recovered from. We could not do that to her.

There was also the cost of course. Thousands of pounds as opposed to hundreds. Not something we could have afforded. So Pip went to live on a farm in France. This sounds like something you tell the kids when a much loved dog has to be put down. In this case however it's true! My Mum and Dad lived in France at the time and re homed her for us.

So now four and a bit years later, as we have finally got our own home again, we have got a new member of the family. This is Ted, a Spoodle (cross between a Cocker Spaniel and a Mini Poodle) who is only 3 months old and joined our family last Sunday. He was spotted in our local pet shop and was too cute to ignore.

He is just the right size for the girls.

Cold winter colours have returned to the Inlet.

 

A Saturday morning looks like late afternoon thanks to a low winter sun.

Wintry reflections.

I always think that dogs are great at making a house become a home. And not just because they have a tendancy to pee on the carpet :)