Tawa to Plimmerton

Riding to the Gear Homestead Café has become a bit of a destination for us on a fine day. It’s about 9 km from the start of Te Ara Tawa, which makes it a nice there-and-back ride.

Lunch at the Gear Homestead Café (photo by John)

Wellington South Coast

On Thursday 30 October we went for a ride on the Wellington South Coast. It was a lovely day, but there was a northerly blowing.

We rode from Lyall Bay to Owhiro Bay. There was a great view of the South Island, with the snow on Tapuaenuku, the highest peak of the Seaward Kaikouras, standing out.

Great view of the South Island from near Island Bay (photo by John

A flock of seagulls at the outlet of the Owhiro Stream (photo by John)

At Owhiro Bay, we carried on towards the end of the road, where the path to Red Rocks begins. The path looked a lot more civilised than it did a year-and-a-bit ago, when a southerly storm had ‘rearranged’ the coast. Still, I was not game to go cycling on it – not this time anyway. But I was intrigued to see how neatly the shadows showed up the steps of the old quarry.

The old Owhiro Bay quarry

We turned around and at Island Bay, we diverted into The Parade, heading towards the local shops. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about with regard to the City Council’s plans to install cycle lanes. There is a cycle lane on the outside of parked cars on both sides of the road. I gather that there are plans to move it to be between the footpath and the parked cars. And some local residents have objected.

The Wellington Cycling Advocates Network has been very active in liaising with the City Council to get the best results for cyclists and for the community in the area. Their recent submission to the Council makes interesting reading.

On the corner of Reef Street and The Parade is a building with a mural on it. It depicts a scene of Island Bay with its fishing boats. The building once housed a restaurant, but is now a gallery owned by artist Michael McCormack, and I guess he painted the mural. We didn’t go inside, but I think we should have. I like the work that’s on his website.

Michael McCormack Studio Gallery, on the corner of Reef Street and The Parade (photo by John)

We stopped to have lunch at the Blue Belle Café – so-so coffee, but very nice roast vege salad – then walked our bikes along the footpath to the end of the shopping area, before turning around for the return journey. There is no cycle lane in the shopping area (I think that this is what some of the above-mentioned fuss is about).

Lunch at the Blue Belle Café (photo by John)

The cycle lane runs along most of The Parade between the shops and the beach (photo by John)

Back along the waterfront, John took a photo of the repairs being made to the road at Princess Bay, which was damaged by last year’s June storm. Approaching it, I marvelled at how high above the beach it was, and yet that storm caused such damage. The breakers must have been absolutely mountainous!

Repairs to the road at Princess Bay (photo by John)

We got back to the car, having biked 18 km. On the way home, we stopped at Burke’s Cycles, where John wanted to get some new free-wheel cassettes. He had replaced the chains on our bikes, and during this ride it turned out that the smallest sprocket skipped under load, as it was also worn. Not surprising, since the bikes have done more than 2,300 km by now. Since then, he has also replaced the rear brake pads, as they, too, are worn. Very handy to have your own in-house bike mechanic! And John actually enjoys having projects like this to work on.

While we were there, John had a long chat with Simon, the guy who sold him our folding bikes, about electric bikes. He told us they are the up-and-coming trend. They sell at least one or two electrically assisted bikes every week. There is a folding electric bike in the shop, and Simon suggested we could have a try of it around their back yard. Very nice! It would make all the difference on those Wellington hills. Nice price too, though. And rather heavy – it would be a mission to heave them into our little car! But we think such bikes may be in our (near?) future …

Petone to Days Bay

Question: How do the weather gods know that 28 February is the official end of summer in New Zealand?

Here we were, getting to 28 February, and thinking that summer had arrived at last, then wham! late in the day we were hit with a sudden drop in temperature and cold rain! A couple of days respite, and then a southerly storm! Rain, thunder and lightning, and cold! Two days ago it was so cold that it warranted having the heater on in the evening, and an extra blanket on the bed. And it’s only March! It felt like we’d skipped autumn and gone straight into winter.

We in Wellington came off relatively lightly, though the winds gusted to more than 100km/hr, disrupting flights and ferry sailings, and rough seas dumped piles of debris on southern coasts.

However, that was nothing compared to what Christchurch had to endure. Huge winds during the first southerly blast caused devastation with toppled and broken trees and widespread power cuts. The second onslaught brought relentless rain and heartbreaking floods – for the third time! – in low-lying areas. Especially in an area which “dropped” up to half a metre as a result of the Christchurch earthquakes in 2010 and 2011, and which just fills up with water every time it rains. I do feel for the people of Christchurch – they have had to deal with so much in the last three-and-a-half years, since the September 2010 earthquake.

And then today, it was all over – for now – and we had a beautiful day (as did Christchurch). So lovely, in fact, that we thought we’d better go for a ride before the next autumnal weather bomb.

We rode from Petone to Days Bay. We parked, as usual, at the motorway end of Petone’s Esplanade. The south-facing beach showed the effects of the latest storm, with piles of seaweed and the odd trunk of driftwood scattered about.

Petone beach with the evidence of this week’s storm (photo by John)

We rode without stopping to the end of the Esplanade, through the Hikoikoi Reserve, and across the bridge towards Seaview. As we were riding along, we noticed quite a few seagulls squatting disconsolately on the seawall. Just plain exhausted from trying to survive the storm, we thought. None were worried about our riding past at quite close quarters, none flew away. At the end of Seaview, John took a photo of a seagull sitting on a picnic table. He was able to get fairly close to the bird, and it did not budge.

A tired seagull, resting at Seaview (photo by John)

After Seaview we carried on towards Pt Howard and Lowry Bay. This was as far as we had biked on another occasion. We thought then, that the shoulder was too narrow for us to attempt riding there. But hey, we (I mean, I) have made progress, and I'm becoming a little bolder with every ride. And it was fine. We had to cross the road a couple of times, as the shoulder became zilch.

I was not too comfortable when the road was reduced to a single lane at the roadworks that are in progress on that road. Added to that was the fact that it was just after 3pm, so the road was full of cars and buses collecting kids from Wellesley College. We were glad of our rear-view mirrors!

They are resurfacing the road, and it looks as if they might be adding a wider shoulder, for the benefit of cyclists and walkers - I hope. Great, if that is the case. Some stretches of the road had reasonable space for cyclists, others didn't and could do with improving.

In a few places the shoulder for cyclists is quite wide and smooth. Let’s hope that, eventually, it will become like this all the way to Eastbourne (photo by John)

At Days Bay, we stopped for a coffee at the Chocolate Dayz Café (photo by John)

At the entrance to Days Bay, on the seaward side of the road, there is a boardwalk for a footpath. When we arrived at Days Bay, we were riding on the other side of the road so we didn't notice it. Now, on our way back, John stopped on the boardwalk to take a photo of the debris that had been tossed onto it by the recent storm.

Storm debris on and beside the boardwalk at the entrance to Days Bay (photo by John)

Meanwhile I rode ahead of him, on the road, and took a picture of him riding along the boardwalk, and of the sign warning pedestrians of possible wave hazard in storm conditions. I would think that no one in their right mind would walk along here in the midst of a storm. I did not notice the symbol prohibiting bicycles on the boardwalk until I downloaded my photos. Oh oops! Ah well, no harm done, I’m sure … Or maybe it's just that the boardwalk can only be biked in one direction, as there was no such sign at the other end. We will check next time we go there.

No danger of wave hazards today

The return trip to Petone was uneventful, and we didn’t stop until we got back to the car. We had ridden 23 kms. Very satisfying for what was going to be “just a short ride”.

Paremata to Karehana Bay

Yesterday, Monday 6 January, was described by “the media” as the most depressing day of the year because for most people, it signaled the return to work after the Christmas/New Year break. I must say that I felt sorry for those who were particularly brassed off that the sun had finally come out, on the very day they had to go back to work, when for most of the holiday break, Wellington’s weather had been frustratingly wet and windy, even stormy.

However, we were feeling lucky, as we were able to go for a bike ride, instead of having to worry about clearing hundreds of emails or putting up with a difficult boss. My decision to take “early retirement” was the one of the best decisions of my life!

We went for just a short bike ride (10 kms), from Paremata to Karehana Bay, and back. John has been full of a cold all week (thank you, horrible Wellington weather!), so he was not feeling up to doing great biking heroics. But he did want to take a better picture of our bikes for my (or rather our) “technical” blog post. He wanted one with a more attractive background.

As we drove into Paremata across the bridge, John reckoned he saw a shark, or a dolphin, basking midstream at the entrance to the inlet, near the bridge. I didn’t believe it, so we stopped at the Ngati Toa Domain, and biked back to the bridge to take a look. We didn’t see anything that looked like either a shark or a dolphin, and the people playing in or near the water didn’t seem to be worried or excited by anything. So I suspect that what he saw was just a bit of debris, as there was a lot of it floating about after the last few days’ gales.

We were surprised, when we parked at the domain, at the huge number of Downer’s (infrastructure construction company) vehicles parked there. Was this the place they parked the vehicles during the Christmas break? We asked a chap in an orange hi-viz vest, and found out that it had been a safety training session for staff. When we came back from looking for the “shark”, dozens of similarly clad people were pouring out of the nearby hall.

Last Thursday and Friday, there was yet another storm (we’ve had a few over the past year!), which resulted in high seas pounding the shore and debris being blown about.

John thought that we might not be able to go on the path that runs between the shore and the railway line, as it was still windy, and he thought that waves might still be crashing onto the path, but it was OK.

The track between the water and the railway line was not being swamped by waves (photo by John)

Normally placid Plimmerton Beach had quite a surf running, and as the tide was still high, it slapped up against the seawall. But not nearly as much as it had during the height of the storm. Compare the photo below with photo No 6, on this link (Wellington wind jan 3 2014).

On Monday, the remains of Friday’s storm were still slapping against the Plimmerton seawall
(photo by John)

Surf rolling onto Plimmerton Beach (photo by John)

As we rode along the foreshore of Karehana Bay, there was quite a bit of gravel and driftwood debris that had been thrown up over the seawall, onto the pavement. Piles of seaweed had been dumped against the base of the wall and lots more seaweed was still floating about in the waves.

Piles of seaweed at Karehana Bay

It was an uneventful, though quite windy, ride to the end of the road. There John tried to take photos of the bikes with the sea as a background, but the wind was so strong, the bikes were shuddering on their stands.

The way back to Plimmerton was smooth and enjoyable, with the wind now behind us. We stopped at the “Big Salami Café” for a coffee. While there, we heard the shrill of the siren being sounded at the Fire Station at Karehana. As the local fire brigade is manned by volunteers, it was a few minutes before the fire engine came screaming past. We could hear it coming before it rounded the corner, so I had my camera ready.

The fire engine rushes past the café

Petone and Hutt River Trail x2

I’m getting a bit behind with the write-ups of our rides. I have two rides to write up, and as they were pretty similar, I shall write them up in the same post.

On Wednesday 13 November, we rode along the Petone foreshore, and up onto the Hutt River Trail, up to a little way beyond the Avalon Bridge. When we looked at the weather forecast, it said the southerly would die down. So we thought we could ride to Pencarrow, which is beautiful, especially after a southerly.

However, as our house is sheltered from the southerly, we never know what it’s doing “out there”. When we got onto the motorway going towards Eastbourne, and saw how choppy the harbour was, we changed our minds. We didn’t fancy heading into a stiff southerly.

We parked at the motorway end of the Petone foreshore and rode along, crossed the bridge over the Hutt River at the other end, and headed up the Hutt River Trail. We stopped on the bridge to take a photo of some dredging that was going on downstream of the bridge.

Interestingly, it was not done by a dedicated dredge, but by a digger working from a flat barge, tethered to a small tugboat. Perhaps it was removing silt that had been brought down the river by the last flood, a couple of weeks earlier. I suppose this part of the river must be fairly shallow so they may be deepening it to reduce flooding upstream.

The digger dredging silt from the lower reaches of the Hutt River (photo by John)

Having ridden along here a few times now, we didn’t make many photo stops, but we did go down one of the rough tracks that leads down to the river’s edge at one stage.

A nice shot of the stony river’s edge (photo by John)

Surprisingly, the river was fairly low. A stark contrast with the flooding that occurred only a fortnight before. There had been very heavy rain and winds on 31 October, and the river rose to flood the riverbank carpark in Lower Hutt. The cycle track runs between the river and the carpark, and it must be a good 20 or 30 meters from the track to the normal water’s edge, and a drop of several metres from the track to the water. It seems incredible that this usually placid river could have risen so far, so quickly. The video on this Dominion Post report shows the river at its worst.

Trees on the opposite bank were knocked over by the force of the flood (photo by John)

In several other places along the cycle trail, patches of dried-up silt were evidence of the water having been over the top of the track.

We rode as far as a few kilometres beyond the Kennedy-Good Bridge, where we turned around. On the way back I wanted to take some pictures of the flowering cabbage trees that I had seen in the Hikoikoi Reserve near Petone. But we didn’t come back through the reserve. Oh, well, another time maybe. In the meantime I took a photo of the flaxes that are now flowering alongside the foreshore track.

Flowering flaxes

When we got back to the car, the harbour was still pretty choppy, so we were pleased we hadn’t gone to Pencarrow.

The harbour was still pretty choppy (photo by John)

After the ride, we went into Petone, and while John went to browse in his favourite hardware store, I paid a visit to the Dutch Shop, and was glad to see they had a plentiful supply of chocolate letters. This is a Dutch St Nicholas (Sinterklaas) tradition, whereby people are given their name’s initial in chocolate for the feast of Sinterklaas on 5 December.

I have not kept up the Dutch tradition of celebrating St Nicholas with my family, but I have tried to give my children chocolate letters for Christmas, when I have been able to get them. Of course, my kids are now grown up, but everyone still likes chocolate for Christmas, right?

When we went to have a coffee in Café Figg, we found that next door was a new shop called Scott Outlet, which sold cycling (and running and ski) clothing. I had been looking to buy a pair of padded bike pants that I could wear under my regular pedal-pusher trousers. I haven’t got the figure to ride around in lycra! I was heartened to see that the lady in the shop was similarly proportioned to me, and I felt much more comfortable asking her for what I needed, than I had been in proper bike shops, which are mostly geared to mountain bikers, full of testosterone! She was very helpful, and found me exactly what I wanted. Yay!

Scott Outlet, 194 Jackson Street, Petone (photo by John)

My new padded bike pants! (photo by John)

Now, for ride number two: Yesterday, 20 November, was a gloriously beautiful day, very summery. Wellington reached a 23 degree maximum, which I think is just about the ideal temperature. We went for a similar ride to last week’s, but this time skipping Petone, and starting from Seaview. We parked at the far end of Seaview, near the marina, and rode up the Hutt River trail.

John took this photo because he liked the curve and undulations of the track. This area was under water in the last flood, shown by the remains of silt at the edges of the track.

We stayed on the track closest to the river on the way up the valley. There was a bit of a headwind, and the gravel was making progress somewhat slow. But I was glad of my padded pants when riding on gravel!

We rode as far as the Stokes Valley roundabout, then turned around and came back on the sealed track, much of it on top of the stopbank.

Near here, across the river, is the quarry at the bottom of the Haywards Hill Road. This quarry was the site of some of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings sets, “Helm’s Deep” and “Minas Tirith”. Sadly the very elaborate sets have all been removed, and all that can be seen now is the scarred hillside of the quarry. Other places along the Hutt River have been used for these films too. For more information about the LOTR locations, check out Ian Brodie’s book “The Lord of the Rings Location Guidebook”.

The Haywards Hill Quarry was used as a set location for the Lord of the Rings films (photo by John)

The track on the stopbank consists of concrete slabs, but it is not in the best of conditions – the slabs don’t join up smoothly, so it is pretty bumpy. There are also quite a few potholes, some mended, others not.

The track on top of the stopbank, near Avalon (photo by John)

When we got to Avalon Park, near the Kennedy-Good Bridge, we rode down the bank off the stopbank, to ride in the park. We thought we would take a rest on a seat under a tree, but the seat was surrounded by ducks sitting on the grass, with their heads tucked under their wings, and we didn’t want to disturb them. Besides, the seat had too many bird droppings on it, and the grass was probably covered in duck mess as well. So we gave that a miss, and carried on.

The duck pond at Avalon Park. No ducks to be seen – they were all resting in the shade of the trees (photo by John)

On our way back to the car, John took a picture of the track along Seaview Road, for the record. We took pictures of this track when it had been severely damaged by the southerly storm in June. The photo shows the new track, now that it has been repaired, and the eroded edge has been rebuilt.

The repaired foot/ cyclepath at Seaview (photo by John)

When we got back to the car we had done 28 kms. John suggested we ride past the marina to Point Howard “to make it a round 30kms”. It actually brought our total up to 31 kms.

The Seaview Marina

I was pretty chuffed that we had done 31 kms. We sure had worked up a good appetite – it seemed like a long time since breakfast – so we went to Days Bay to have lunch at the Chocolate Dayz Café.

Across the harbour, we could see that there were two very large cruise ships visiting Wellington. We suspected that some of the large number of people drifting in and out of the café while we were having lunch, may have been tourists off these ships, who had come across on the Days Bay ferry.

The beach at Days Bay. If you enlarge this photo by clicking on it, you can just make out the two large cruise ships in Wellington (photo by John)

On last week’s ride we did 22 kms, and on this last one 31 kms. That now brings my total to 827 kms since mid-March – say about 100kms a month? Quite pleasing, I think.

Wellington South Coast - again

And another lovely day for cycling on Saturday! A fine day, with a light southerly breeze. Where to go this time? We tossed up between Pencarrow, or Hutt River or Wellington South Coast. The latter won.

On our way to Owhiro Bay, we drove past Carlucci Land, a park with weird and wonderful sculptures made from all manner of old machinery and metal junk. I’ve been meaning to go and have a look in there for years, but somehow it was never the right time – it is in the shade in the afternoon. We didn’t want to stop on the way to our ride, but thought we might on our way back. But again, it was too late by the time we headed home, so it will have to wait for another day – soon, I hope.

We parked the car at the end of the road, near the Owhiro Quarry, and the beginning of the track to Red Rocks. We were surprised at how many cars were there. It’s quite a large parking area and we got the last spot. The gate to the Red Rocks road was open, and quite a few 4WD cars were driving through.

We got the last car park near the Owhiro Quarry

From a distance, the track looked in much better condition than when we visited here after the 20 June storm. So we thought we would try riding it, and see how far we could get. Not terribly far, as it happened. It was still very rough, and the gravel was quite deep, so rather unstable. So we turned around and did the easy thing – riding on the foot/cycle path towards Island Bay.

The Red Rocks track was rough and the gravel deep and unstable

I am so glad we’ve got ourselves into this cycling-exploring lark. We get to see so much more from a bike than from a car. And I really appreciate the beauty of the Wellington coast more than ever.

Rocks near Owhiro Bay beach (photo by John)

Although it was not very windy, there was a bit of a swell ... (photo by John)

… and quite a surf – maybe a rip? – at Houghton Bay Beach (photo by John)

At Island Bay there is a building sitting on a rocky outcrop, called the Bait House. It houses the Island Bay Marine Education Centre, and an aquarium. I have never been inside, as fishes are not exactly my thing. Next to it is a large rusting cauldron – a former whaling pot – and nearby there is also a large anchor. This area was badly “re-arranged” by the 20 June storm, but all looked very calm and tidy today.

Old whaling pot next to The Bait House – Island Bay Marine Education Centre

Taputeranga Island is quite close to the shore. In the distance is the South Island, with recent snow on the Kaikouras

Someone had carefully balanced this piece of driftwood on the rocks (photo by John)

Approaching Lyall Bay, we were able to divert from the foot/cycle path, by going on a gravel track that skirted the water more closely.

Heading towards Lyall Bay (photo by John)

We continued around the bays till we got to Lyall Bay. There were a lot of people on the beach, children digging in the sand, and people playing with their dogs on part of the beach that was signposted as "Woof Woof Ruff Dog Exercise Area". All the debris that had been deposited on the beach by the June storm, was no longer there, and I wondered where it had all gone. Did people collect some of it to mulch their gardens, or was it collected by the council and dumped? Or probably - much more likely - it just got carried back out to sea.

At the airport end of the bay, there were a few surfers and paddle boarders riding the waves.

Surfers in the Lyall Bay surf. The Interisland ferry on the horizon (photo by John)

A caravan called “Ekim”, selling burgers of all descriptions, seemed to be doing good business, as there were quite a few people sitting on the benches near it, waiting for their orders. I asked if they did coffee, but the reply was “no, but we can do you a coffee milkshake”.

Ekim burgers galore! (photo by John)

So we had some coffee milkshakes, and a pottle of chunky chips. I hadn’t had a coffee milkshake for years. I used to make them regularly when my children were at school. They’d have milo milkshakes, and I’d have a coffee milkshake, when they came home from school. I must say my milkshakes – made with ice-cream – were nicer than the ones we had from Ekim, which had rather too much “thickener” in them. But their chips were very nice. And their burgers looked spectacular – but we didn’t have one.

We enjoyed watching the surfers while we had our shakes and chips, and John played “fetch the stick” with a dog that deposited a stick at his feet. The dog sat on the sand amongst the rocks, and waited patiently for John to take up the challenge. Unfortunately with the onshore wind, the stick did not fly very far, and soon both John and the dog gave up on the game.

Surf's up! (photo by John)

After our snack interlude, we rode back to Owhiro Bay without stopping. It took us just half an hour. We’d had a lovely afternoon’s riding. We did just over 17 kms.

Hutt River Trail and art exhibitions

It seems like ages since we last went for a ride. It was nearly three weeks. We’ve had to battle colds – both of the health variety, and of the weather kind. John caught the lurgy I started with at the time of our last ride. And just as we were thinking we’d had a marvelously mild winter, and spring was here, winter let out one more last hoorah, and came up with a very cold snap. We huddled by the fire for a few days with our books and laptops and boxes of tissues – John and our rather geriatric cat Tim vying for the best spot.

But today was bright and sunny, although there was a bit of a breeze. I wanted to go and see an exhibition in Lower Hutt, so we thought we'd kill two birds with one stone (figuratively speaking, of course) by deciding to ride along the Hutt River Trail again. My favourite stretch – between the Silverstream twin bridges and Upper Hutt.

As we were getting the bikes out of the car, a train rumbled overhead on the rail bridge, followed almost immediately by another train, going in the opposite direction.

We've done this trail several times now, but it is always a little different from the previous time. Spring has definitely sprung, with tender new growth on the willows, flowering kowhai trees and the pungent smell of onion weed. The river looks different too. It is interesting to see how the water continually shapes and rearranges the gravel and stones in the riverbed.

The river continually changes (photo by John)

The last time we were there, I commented on the fact that some trees had apparently been damaged in a storm, and the area was being cleared. Today, we saw that it had been re-planted with sticks of willow, in neat rows about two meters apart, at an angle to the river. All part of the flood defenses, I think. These sticks will eventually sprout into bushy willows that will slow the scouring effects of the water and hold the soil in flood events.

These sticks will grow into willows as flood protection

Further up the river, there are other areas where the willows have already grown, and it looks like each “stick” sprouts three, four or more stems.

Each stick sprouts three or more stems (photo by John)

As we were getting close to Upper Hutt, John took a picture of a couple of mounds of stones, on one of the gravel islands in the river. I called them cairns, John said they were probably built by kids. But they have actually been there for years, so they must have been quite sturdily built. They are quite intriguing. I’d love to go and have a closer look at them, but you’d have to wade through the water to get there.

Intriguing "cairns" on a gravel island (photo by John)

When we reached Harcourt Park, we sat on our favourite seat by the pond to eat our snack, and watched the bird life. A pair of squabbling – or courting? – pukekos came rushing out of the high grass and to the water’s edge. Some ducks were sitting on the shrubby little islands. After a while a whole little family of ducks came paddling over to check us out – mum, dad and the kids. Five beautiful little brown and gold ducklings. They were followed by another drake, but dad soon saw him off. Two large grey-brown birds made repeated low swoops over the pond. We couldn’t work out what kind of birds they were. Definitely not hawks, maybe seagulls; but if so, they seemed to be rather a long way from home.

New life on the pond (photo by John)

On our way back, the track goes over a steep bit which actually climbs to a bluff overlooking the bend in the river. The view from up there is fabulous. And just look at that cloudless sky!

Hutt River, looking south (photo by John)

We’d had a bit of a headwind coming up the valley, then perversely, on our way back, we again had a headwind! But with the winding of the river, we kept changing direction too, so it wasn’t surprising that the wind hit us from different angles at different times.

As we came to a gate, for which we had to get off our bikes and negotiate the wooden zig-zaggy barrier, I said to another cyclist heading in the opposite direction, “Bit of a nuisance, these gates, aren’t they”. He agreed they were, but they were necessary to keep out the hoons on their dirt bikes (motorbikes). He pointed at the track on the other side of the river and said, “the other day I nearly got swiped off my bike by one of them. They’re complete idiots”.

Information board for walkers and cyclists (photo by John)

The distance between the bridges and Harcourt Park is exactly 10kms, so when we got back to the car we had ridden our targeted 20kms. Perfect!

Next on the programme was coffee and a scone at the Dowse Art Museum café. We had a look at the latest exhibition too. It is called New Olds – Design between Tradition and Innovation. The blurb says “Through both new materials and new ways of thinking about the function of objects, New Olds is a reflection on our changing world.” It displayed objects and furniture with a new ‘twist’. Some of it was interesting; some, I thought, was fairly 'arty-farty pointless', like chairs hanging from the ceiling. But then, I’m not an artist.

Bless, a hammock, and Afroditi, a "nest", made of thick rounded strips of polyurethane foam

Loop and Iglu, woven rattan seating and playhouse (photo by John)

After this we went to the Odlin Gallery to see the exhibition I had especially wanted to see: the Port Nicholson Weavers' Exhibition, entitled Between the Colours.

In a 'past life', I was a weaver myself, and was a member of the Port Nich Weavers. For more than twenty years I was obsessed with, fascinated by, and totally involved in weaving. In fact, I taught weaving for 18 years in community education programmes in several high schools. Then, I went back to full-time study, followed by full-time work, and time for weaving and teaching disappeared, along with the obsession.

Of course, I am still interested in seeing what my weaving friends are creating. Many of the names in the catalogue were still familiar, but there were lots of new names too. There was some interesting work there, and some impressive techniques.

Port Nicholson Weavers' Exhibition

In pride of place, right as you come into the gallery, were three exquisite tapestries by Patricia Armour. Trish was one of my very early weaving students, but I hasten to add that I cannot claim any credit for what a wonderful weaver and artist she has become. I never did any tapestry weaving. And Trish is now one of NZ’s foremost tapestry weavers, who has exhibited widely, both here and overseas.

"At rest" - a tapestry by Patricia Armour

I enjoyed seeing the exhibition, and though I was intrigued with some of the weave structures, and I reveled in the colours, I have no hankering to go back to weaving.