Cricket and a penguin

 We began the year with a visit to Levin for our friend Hayden’s birthday, which we celebrated with a barbeque and boardgames. In the morning, we went to the A&P show in town, which is a kind of showcase of farm animals, machinery and crafts. Here are some of the prize piglets:

The winning entries in the baking competition:

And the results of the wellington boot decorating competition:

The next weekend, we caught the ferry over to Somes Island in Wellington harbour. The island was previously a quarantine zone for sick immigrants and was also used to house prisoners of war. It’s probably about half a mile across, so it only takes a couple of hours to walk around, but it was nice to feel like we were out of the city while still getting fantastic views of it. We even saw a penguin on the way back.

Next up was the fair in Martinborough, a little town that was a 90 minute drive out of Wellington. While we ended up buying some handmade mugs, we just enjoyed soaking up the atmosphere. When we finished having a look around, we headed over to a winery for lunch. Ash got into the spirit of it and ordered a tasting tray – suffice it to say that there’s a lot more alcohol in one of these than a beer tasting tray! She made me try some wine, but as you can see from my expression wine is still wasted on me.

The following Wednesday was Waitangi day, a public holiday that commemorates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between the British government and the Moari chiefs. This treaty is considered the founding document of New Zealand. As having a day off in the middle of the week is a bit awkward, we decided we would stay in town, so we bought tickets for the New Zealand vs India twenty20 cricket match. I’ve never been to a cricket match before but I had a great time.

Nest up was the Makara mountain bike park with my friend Adrien. Visiting a proper mountain-biking area was another first for me and I’ll definitely be checking out some of the other rides around Wellington. I rounded off the day at the Chinese New Year celebrations in town, where I caught a performance by an acrobatic troupe and watched the fireworks on the waterfront.