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| Coppelia Departs the Dock |
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| Bill watches from the shade of Ruby |
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| Squint and you can see boats |
Thursday, 20 February 2014
The Final Re-start
Lovely day in Napier beautiful sunshine boiling the clouds off and temporarily the wind this morning only a slight 30 minute delay while the breeze settled in and they were off.
Rob and Sally as usual were fairly unfussed and got down to the boat about 10:30 to quickly drop the lines and head on out. They aren't quite as nonchalant as I make out, Sally sucked all the internet out of my phone doing the weather back at the house before they left. I had to workout how to buy more data when you can't log on to Vodafone when I got back so I could write this blog.
Napier Wine Tour
Skipping the winery tour is not an option for any SSANZ aficionado, it is a tradition well worth participating in, with the cut and thrust of competing crews and supporters trying to cause as much carnage to opposition crew preparations as possible. This years was bit more tame than our previous two trips on the bus, probably because Tim and Rodney weren't around to egg us on. We did take a few precautions like some water crackers and cheese with us (yes I'm aware eating's cheating, but this yacht racing not cricket).
We visited Moana Park, Brookfields and for a change The Filter Room. Needless to say we took as many free samples as we could of anything and everything. The bus even delivered us directly to the thirsty whale for addition imbibing under the sun umbrellas on their deck at the end of the tour.
No photos as we know the rules "what happens on tour stays on tour".
We had to do some car shuffling to get us back to our home base, but we were all intact and managed to only drink three further bottles of the stuff we bought while having a barbie for dinner.
We visited Moana Park, Brookfields and for a change The Filter Room. Needless to say we took as many free samples as we could of anything and everything. The bus even delivered us directly to the thirsty whale for addition imbibing under the sun umbrellas on their deck at the end of the tour.
No photos as we know the rules "what happens on tour stays on tour".
We had to do some car shuffling to get us back to our home base, but we were all intact and managed to only drink three further bottles of the stuff we bought while having a barbie for dinner.
Wednesday, 19 February 2014
Going to Napier
No trip from Wellington back up the country is complete without a stop at the Tui brewery. On my first trip through a few years ago there were no gorgeous woman and only two grumpy frumpy old broilers who seemed rather uninterested in selling the poor stock of merchandise on offer. Oh how things have changed.
Seven brewed at the brewery beers on tap, food, tours inside the brewery, and a yeah right billboard to make your own slogan on.
Seven brewed at the brewery beers on tap, food, tours inside the brewery, and a yeah right billboard to make your own slogan on.
My day off in Wellington
Saturday, 15 February 2014
the magic fairy
Yesterday we made a tactical call to withdraw from the pub crawl. There was a large rock concert down at the waterfront and getting a bad hangover the day before race start was probably always going to be a bad idea.
We decided instead to go on a coast trip to Seatoun to visit the fairy shop to buy a few hexes to put on some of the competition. Most of Wellington was out at the beach as it was a sunny day with a gentle breeze of a mere 20 knots or so. We avoiding the people in deck chairs and bean bags outside the chocolate fish cafe and made it to Seatoun to find the fairy shop long gone and even worse the fish and chip shop closed until 4pm. A quick back track to the Worser bay yacht club to have a chat with a few of the sailors staggering back in from club sailing ensured. We had to however make an early escape as Chris Skinner who is staying with us for the stopover got side tracked by some skiff sailors with a row of beers lined up ready for some serious tall story telling.
Back to the fish and chips shop, we joined the queue of 8 odd people waiting patiently for the doors to open. the chips were excellent as was my potatoe fritter and fish which we ate at the park down the road watching kite surfers zig zag backwards and forwards.
Prize giving, stainless steel buckets with bottles of rum in them were handed out to the division winners. These got consumed just outside the club by the dingy lockers to avoid licensing issues. There were a few messy looking sailors come home time, especially those that stayed on after the pub crawl round town.
Apparently true love is breakfast in bed of avocado and tomatoes on toast.
We decided instead to go on a coast trip to Seatoun to visit the fairy shop to buy a few hexes to put on some of the competition. Most of Wellington was out at the beach as it was a sunny day with a gentle breeze of a mere 20 knots or so. We avoiding the people in deck chairs and bean bags outside the chocolate fish cafe and made it to Seatoun to find the fairy shop long gone and even worse the fish and chip shop closed until 4pm. A quick back track to the Worser bay yacht club to have a chat with a few of the sailors staggering back in from club sailing ensured. We had to however make an early escape as Chris Skinner who is staying with us for the stopover got side tracked by some skiff sailors with a row of beers lined up ready for some serious tall story telling.
Back to the fish and chips shop, we joined the queue of 8 odd people waiting patiently for the doors to open. the chips were excellent as was my potatoe fritter and fish which we ate at the park down the road watching kite surfers zig zag backwards and forwards.
Prize giving, stainless steel buckets with bottles of rum in them were handed out to the division winners. These got consumed just outside the club by the dingy lockers to avoid licensing issues. There were a few messy looking sailors come home time, especially those that stayed on after the pub crawl round town.
Apparently true love is breakfast in bed of avocado and tomatoes on toast.
Friday, 14 February 2014
altitude sickness
To ensure the complete Wellington experience we have accommodation close to the top of the hill above the Brooklyn shops, there is a car park on a flat dug into the hill bellow and a four layer switchback of stairs to walk up to the house. Bill and I are getting plenty of exercise carting sailing stuff up and down to the car.
Parking in Wellington is not a pleasant experience Chaffers mariner is off oriental parade, car parking is $4 an hour if you can find a park. We did 3 laps in Ruby before successfully locating an empty one.
Lunch at the Tug boat wasn't as good as I remembered but is still better than OK on leaving we did discover they had free parks outside for patrons and the maximum 2 hour parks by the pools were only $1.50/hr. Doesn't really help when your in town all day.
Today is the walking bus brewery tour (Pub crawl) not quite sure how we are going to get in to town and back yet but will report back on adventures and beer quality tomorrow.
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| View from the dunny |
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| Looking down to check on Ruby |
Lunch at the Tug boat wasn't as good as I remembered but is still better than OK on leaving we did discover they had free parks outside for patrons and the maximum 2 hour parks by the pools were only $1.50/hr. Doesn't really help when your in town all day.
Today is the walking bus brewery tour (Pub crawl) not quite sure how we are going to get in to town and back yet but will report back on adventures and beer quality tomorrow.
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| Ruby in the big smoke |
Thursday, 13 February 2014
Wellington
Sorry for the lack of posts for the last couple of days but I've been needing a bit of recovery time after alternating between sniffing petrol fumes and baking in a dry sauna.
Ruby has a few interesting features with its fuel system, there is an old spare fuel line that ends underneath the front passenger seat, this squirts raw petrol on the ground if you overfill the tank. After almost having a fit when I discovered this while topping the petrol up I bent the pipe over to stop the leak. This has had side effects. The fuel tank vent is in the boot so now we can either cook with the windows wound up, or sniff petrol fumes when we wind the windows down not an easy choice in a non air conditioned car on a sunny day.
On the way down to Wellington we have made a couple of stops, first at Mike's brewery at whitecliffs and then then at the New Plymouth Top 10 holiday park; this has a most pleasant free heated pool.
We had to sample some of Mike's fine products and bought a couple of take homes to drink once safely in our lodgings.
Once we managed to crawl out of bed the next morning we had a check on race progress and our key pickup time for the house in Brooklyn and decided we had to proceed direct to Wellie, no pictures of Cape Egmount lighthouse.
Ruby has a few interesting features with its fuel system, there is an old spare fuel line that ends underneath the front passenger seat, this squirts raw petrol on the ground if you overfill the tank. After almost having a fit when I discovered this while topping the petrol up I bent the pipe over to stop the leak. This has had side effects. The fuel tank vent is in the boot so now we can either cook with the windows wound up, or sniff petrol fumes when we wind the windows down not an easy choice in a non air conditioned car on a sunny day.
On the way down to Wellington we have made a couple of stops, first at Mike's brewery at whitecliffs and then then at the New Plymouth Top 10 holiday park; this has a most pleasant free heated pool.
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| Mike's mighty fine larger |
Once we managed to crawl out of bed the next morning we had a check on race progress and our key pickup time for the house in Brooklyn and decided we had to proceed direct to Wellie, no pictures of Cape Egmount lighthouse.
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