My nose is sun burnt and my legs are tired!

Yup, you read that correctly, my nose is sunburnt. I guess that means it is officially Spring and perhaps time to start wearing sunscreen. It is Sunday night and I have just enjoyed a completely dry and mostly sunny weekend, albeit very windy. Naturally I spent the time outside on my bike and enjoying the city.

We have now explored the main mountain biking areas in Wellington and the riding is great. Today's tracks (see definition below) were similar to Edmonton, mostly rolling up and down, but with more technical downhill and longer uphills, hence the tired legs. Somehow I managed to stay on my bike which is good, less bruising that way. A lot of the other tracks in Wellington are loops with long non-technical uphills (like 20-50 minutes of up) followed by fast downhills. Like Edmonton, there are lots of trails right in city, making a lunch time or after work ride possible.

I am beginning to understand why Wellington is referred to as Windy Welli. Today I actually got blown over while riding my bike. One minute I was riding along slowly just before heading down a hill and the next minute I was on the ground.

Ted gets home on Thursday from Egypt. He has had a good trip but is looking forward to getting home, as am I. He is probably on his way either up or down Mt. Sinai right now.

Here are a few more New Zealand words and phrases.

Track - used instead of "trail", mountain bike tracks, hiking tracks, etc.
Tramp - this is what you do on the hiking tracks, meaning to hike
Knackered (sp?) - meaning really really tired, like I was at the end of today's bike ride
Good as Gold - an expression used to identify that things are all set and ready to go. For example: Boss says "Meg is everything ready for tomorrow's presentation?" I reply, "Yup, it's good as gold"

Spring Time??

Spring officially begins on September 1st, not the 21st. I am not sure why it doesn't coincide with the equinox like the change of seasons does in North America but just to prove it was the right day the rain finally stopped and it was a beautiful warm day. There is a saying around here that "you can't beat Wellington on a nice day" and I have to admit I agree. Maybe the enjoyment has something to do with the long periods of time without the sun and a lot of wind and rain, but it is pretty impressive to see the city in bright sun, surrounded by green mountains and ocean.

We have now been in our house for over two months and are beginning to settle into our new neighborhood. Each suburb in Wellington has its own town center or village. Brooklyn has a couple of pubs (one which is pretty good called the Corner Store), a coffee shop, an Indian restaurant, a Thai restaurant, a fish and chip shop (or Fush and Chups to the kiwis), a Chinese take-away place, an old theatre that still plays movies and also has a cafe (The Penthouse), a library and two dairy's (little grocery stores). The village is only a 15 minutes walk from our place so it is easy to walk down for dinner and a movie or an evening at the pub watching rugby (the All Blacks won the Tri-Nations cup and are undefeated so far this season, in case anyone was wondering).

Brooklyn is bordered by a large forest area that runs from the West edge of Brooklyn further west to the ocean and south to the ocean as well. This means we have hiking/running and biking trails pretty close to us, and some great views. Despite the reasonably consistent rain lately we have managed to get out and do some exploring. Below are some photos from some trails that are in a bike park called Makara Peak.

The view of the city from the top of Makara.


The view towards the South Island, this area has lots of wind turbines.


Another view of the South Island, you can see the snow on the mountains.


We hope you are all doing well and enjoying a nice Fall.