Sunday Drive

Spring
There are so many signs that spring might already be here after the shortest winter of my life!




Car
And with spring comes new beginings, such as our new-to-us car.  I never thought you could love an object as much as I love our car.  It is straight from Japan, and has a crazy contraption inside that speaks to us in Japanese. I currently call it my laugh medicine, because I crack up everytime I hear the voice and imagine what it might be saying.   We hypothesize that it could be any of the following:  toll booth money reader, music player, navigational aid, or alarm system.  I'll have to call in a Japanese speaking friend once I no longer crack up laughing when it speaks - its just too great to have a free laugh creater, but once the effect wears off I'd be keen to know what it is



Market

With out brand new-to-us car, we were able to sleep in an extra hour before heading down to the market for our weekly fruits and veggies.

This is the herb table, all herbs are $1 and you get quality over 
quantity.  Today we boughtbaby baby basil.







Moore Wilson's
We also drove over to Moore Wilson's, which is a grocer, fish market, home goods, and warehouse store all in one. I always enjoy it, then later regret going for how much I spend. The prices don't seem that amazing, but then again we found the best sausage so far here today, so all was not lost.






Hiking
With our car, we were also able to sneak in a hike with friends.  We started at this soccer field, that is complete with signs saying "do not climb fence, dangerous animals"



this is because the zoo is right behind the fence. The Baboons can literally watch kids playing cricket and soccer if they want.


From there we explored the hill you can see from our friends' house.


On the hike we had great views of Island Bay,

Cook Straight

Lyall Bay and the end of the WLG runway


Our favourite cafe at Lyall Bay


and the view towards the hutt valley, with evan's bay in the foreground (the other end of the runway)

and the city

Evening stroll...

Today we finally decided to do something with our day... but we had waited until nearly 4 to get out the door which left us with precious little daylight. In spite of this we set off for Makara Mt Bike park and here is some of what we saw:









I occasionally hear kiwis comment on how lovely the American Yellow School Buses are, but I have to saw that there is a certain appeal in a path like this leading you to school:

As much joy as this stream would bring me as my front yard, my worrywart side would fret about flooding....


Below is the first glimpse of the Mt Bike park we'd be meaning to check out for ages.

There were incredible views of throughout the park. To your left you could see nothing but green and sky, to the right were all the houses on the ridge with a few lights on here and there.

And one day we'll have proper hiking shoes again. Until then I'll just smile at our muddy dress shoes by the door