mrsjono

Rui's parents will be visiting in two months time and we have been busy thinking where to show them around in Wellington. I thought it would be a good idea to bring them up the cable car and walk down the Botanic Gardens. We haven't been there ourselves so we decided to do a recce by walking through the gardens and up to the top of the cable car and returning the same way on foot. It was the tulip season and lots of other flowers have also bloomed in spring, plenty of macro photo opportunities.





I like to come up with silly imaginary conversations between animals of the same species based on their behaviour or body lanuage. For instance, I would like to think the dog on the right is telling its friend something like "Look, I told you to stay still but you refused, now she has to lock you down with her legs and you can't even move! Serve you right."


Duck food is provided at the pond for visitors to feed the ducks. We didn't see any around though, must have all gone inside the ducks tummies.


There is a lookout from the Treehouse Visitor Centre but access to the top was closed on the day of visit.


I spent a long time watching and waiting to take a shot of this monarch butterfly.


The change in season from winter to spring is quite drastic; everything was dead, cold and depressing in winter but when spring arrives, everything literally springs to life again just like these butterflies going around the flowers.


Looking good with my beanie


A man resting under a big tree


Decent views of Wellington harbour at the top of the cable car


This is the iconic view and symbol of Wellington that often appears in postcards


That's a huge house with three chimneys and multi-million dollar sea views


More flowers on the way back down


A lovely afternoon spent photographing pretty flowers

I didn't know about the Brighton Bathing Boxes when we visited Melbourne last year until I saw them in holiday photos of Facebook friends. Such colourful boat sheds can also be found in Porirua, New Zealand. Historically these boat sheds were built for fishermen, these days they are used by families to enjoy the beach in summer. They are rarely on sale because they are usually passed down through the generations or sold to friends. Some of these sheds are fully furnished with bedroom, bathroom and kitchen facilities. We visited Titahi Bay towards the end of winter so none of them looked like they were occupied on that day.




Two sheds near the red yellow one changed hands in March 2019


Another row of colourful sheds


These four with same design in different colours might belong to the same owner


Oh the ramp has collapsed no wonder the shed is up for sale lol





Gorgeous day at Titahi Bay

We wanted to watch the All Blacks live in action so when the Bledisloe Cup final was in Wellington, we purchased the tickets ($129 pp) to the match. Turns out we couldn't see much from where we were sitting (view was mostly blocked by big woolly hats of people sitting in front of us) and without commentary, it felt quite weird watching the game in silence. Further, we don't fully understand the rules of the game so we don't really know what we're watching. I conclude we're better off watching rugby from the screen at home!


Back to Westpac again this time as spectators


The AB squad - I had no idea who's who lol


The most memorable part for me was actually listening to the crowd sing 'God Defend New Zealand' with fervour and passion.

This newly opened track kept appearing on my Facebook so we decided to give it a go when the weather was finally more settled in spring. The Escarpment Track covers 9km of the hills along SH1 and the Kapiti rail line with lots of steep steps, narrow pathways and two long swing bridges. It's quite an easy walk taking us slightly over two hours.


I seldom come across a track that offers views of the road and rail traffic along the ocean.


There are a few seats along the way but no shelter so expect strong winds as it's along the coast.


Walking into the ocean


Kapiti Island



One of the two swing bridges


that offer spectacular views of the Kapiti coast



The trail gradually descends onto the railway tracks and it was a quick 10 min train ride back to Paekakariki where our car is parked.


A good summary on what to expect of the track at Pukerua Bay station

One of the most meaningful and rewarding volunteer experience I have been through was helping former refugees resettle into their new homes. This role requires a lot more commitment than other volunteer assignments; it runs for a few months until the family has more or less settled down in their new community. After filling in a form and going through a group interview, volunteers are required to go through formal training. There were 7 sessions, 6 of them were on weekday (Tuesday) evenings from 6.30pm-9pm at St James Anglican Church in Woburn, Lower Hutt. The only weekend session was about refugee culture and I was interviewed by Radio New Zealand on that day. Alas they cut away the part I spoke most confidently and kept the part I didn't answer very well haha. My 22 seconds of fame from 01:26 onwards.


Our team had four people (including both of us) supporting an elderly couple (Suleiman & Hend) from Syria. We worked with another team of five volunteers who were supporting Khaled's family of five (Khaled is Suleiman's son). Our two other team members helped with hospital visits, Work & Income appointments, English classes, housing and banking matters, sourcing second hand furniture, beds, blankets, rugs, gardening equipment, bikes, etc while Rui & I helped them with the letters, grocery shopping, showed them again how to use the ATM, how to take the bus to the Saturday market, etc. We updated each other after every visit and all of us tried to make sure things in their home and in their lives are going well.


Our wonderful team mates who did most of the hard work.


Suleiman has a strong interest in gardening so we took them to a nursery in Upper Hutt


When we saw them carrying bags of heavy groceries, Rui & I decided to source for a shopping trolley for them. I posted a notice on my company's intranet and I was so surprised I managed to get one! Rui's colleague bought a brand new one, so now they have two!


To celebrate their one year anniversary in New Zealand, the volunteers organised a picnic at Days Bay. The kids had fun with football while Khaled looked pretty happy with his catch.


Syrians are very hospitable and love making food for us. This was one of the many meals they invited us to.


With the rest of the volunteers and the lovely Al Jouja families

One afternoon, we visited our family as usual and learned that they haven't been to the market on their own lately. Monia (our volunteer coordinator) had informed us the family would like to attend World Refugee Day at Karori in the evening and they had been given all the event information including the free bus timings from Waterloo station. We were not given the bus information so we asked them what time do they have to catch the bus to Waterloo but they don't seem to know. When we drove them to Khaled's house we didn't know they were bringing so much food there and they were gonna rely on us to take them to Waterloo. They thought the bus leaves at 4pm but it turned out the bus had already left at 3.30pm. We offered to take half of them on the train and make two trips to the venue but Khaled was not in favour and said just go home. Rui crossed the train platform to ask the customer service counter but they had no idea if there would be another bus going. He was smart to call Monia for help. While waiting for her to call back, Khaled repeated to go home. I could sense their disappointment and Khaled was trying to contain his frustration as he explained he was told the bus leaves at 4pm. We looked at all the food they've prepared, the whole family managed to get this far to Waterloo and we were not going to just give up like that. Thank goodness Monia returned our SOS call and said we could take taxi to the venue and Red Cross would reimburse us. Khaled agreed and I called for a cab.

We had no idea they were selling food there. They started eating and asked us to join in but we said no mainly because I'm still not used to Arabic cuisine and secondly we didn't want to jeopardise their earnings. As we watched them get into action, serving food and collecting money, we were glad that we managed to get them here. It would be quite silly for us to hang around till the end of the event so we walked outside looking for food. Settled on an Italian place and the seafood bongusto turned out to be very good.


World Refugee Day


While they were busy with their food stall,


we went out to have a nice Italian dinner at Cosa Nostra.


Judges went round tasting the food prepared by the participants. Aisha explaining the food prepared by her family.

They had sold almost everything by the time we got back. Had to stay on till Monia could leave so she could give them a ride back and we took the rest. Hamida (Khaled's daughter) was upset she couldn't go to grandparents house even though she won his brother in a few rounds of scissors paper stone. I can imagine it must be fun staying over with their grandparents over the weekend, away from the eyes of your parents meant freedom to do more things. As Khaled & Aisha got onto Monia's car, they turned around and said to me, full of gratitude: Thank you Mei. That was by far the most heartfelt and appreciative thank you I have ever received in my life. After dropping them off, we offered to make a trip back to Khaled's house just to take Hamida and when I saw her brother waiting at the door and running to his sister, I know they do enjoy each other's company despite the many sibling fights they have. Despite a very long day, it was definitely very rewarding when we saw that everyone was happy at the end of the day.