This week was about getting back to normal, restoring the healthy diet, back to work, save for the holiday in May, all sorts of other mundane things.
Of course, its also the tail end of summer too, moving towards autumn, so the nights are getting a little colder and the sunshine a little cooler.
As well as moving indoors to spin bikes, I have also had sunshine enough to go out singles rowing and strolling on Oreti Beach. 🙂
I took out a single earlier in the week, along with the GoPro. I am growing to love the sunshine and solitude of a single sculls on the river, although when the tide is out, the severe slope on the beach makes getting out somewhat tricker!
After work later in the week, I drove to Oreti Beach to just sit for a while, and take time out. I usually do this in the park, but I love the soothing sounds of the sea.
This weekend has not been that flash. Lets just say, the water tank is good and full again and the garden doesn’t need watering! we were seriously struggling for something to do due to the rain (which is a testament to how much our life now revolves around the great outdoors). On Saturday we decided to brave the weather and go to the Southland A&P show anyway. We did get to have a good look around but sadly the weather worsened making watching the outdoors events almost impossible, so in the end we gave up and went for the shelter of the car.
To get in the dry, we took a walk around the museum at Queens Park: somewhere I have been before, but not for a while. They are currently constructing a display for Anzac day, so we will have to go back once they are finished (as well as some other odd stuff – like this ‘wearable art’. It doesn’t look that wearable to me!)
There was still a large part of the afternoon to spare, so we decided to drive to the stadium to see if anything was going on that we could watch for free. We were very confused on arrival, the car park was heaving and there were stewards directing traffic. We had clearly missed something important! When we parked up and went inside it was immediately obvious: Southern Steel Netball were playing!! Having never watched pro netball (and knowing how huge it is here) we decided to go in and take a look. A little more expensive than the rugby at $35 a head but it was a first, so why on earth not. Plus, we havent been inside the new stadium when a game was on: Southland sure loves their Netball, there weren’t many seats free!
Wow, how fast! As I struggled to drag the rules of a game I hated at school out of my brain (with the help of google!) we quickly grasped the basics, and wow, what an exciting game, I had no idea! What an odd coincidence that we should show up at the stadium then, specially since it had a very odd 4:10pm start time!
Sunday it continued to rain, which didn’t impress me, but it didn’t last all day. So we ended the day with a nice bike ride on the new mountain bikes from the house down towards Otatara, where we picked up the cycle trail that took us back along the river and home again.
Made a nice end to an otherwise wet weekend!
Melanie Magowan 