Tale of two cars

At a networking event today I was offered a ride home by Paul, a friend of mine. As we were near the waterfront and it would be about a 40 minute walk up to the house I accepted. Here is Paul behind the wheel of his car.

When I accepted I did not realize that Paul was driving his Lotus today. I thought he would be driving his SUV. So being the opportunist I am I asked if Paul if he would let me get a picture of me in the car, something for the blog I said. I called home at a light and asked Dennis to grab the camera and meet me outside in five minutes. What I did not realize that we would be going up the windy wadestown hill at 100km/hour so we were there in about one minute. This car is fast, very fast, it hugs the road quite well. And Paul is a retired professional race car driver so he knows how to go fast!

After the quick ride up the hill Dennis was no where to be seen, so I called out for him, called the house again, still no Dennis. I finally got out of the car to go looking, and lo and behold I found Dennis behind the wheel of yet another rare car in Wellington.

Notice the wheel is on the left side of the car, a US import! I am sure that my dad can fill you in the year, make and model. I unfortunately am not that good at those things. What happened is that Dennis went outside and the owner of the red car offered to take a picture of him in the car. Well not to be outdone Paul asked Dennis if he would like a ride in the Lotus.

They whipped around the block once or twice, I could hear them the whole time as they flew through the windy hills of our neighborhood.

As an aside, the Lotus is street legal in NZ. Paul had it custom built with headlights and turn signals. NZ does not require a windshield wipers etc. You can see the Warrant of Fitness sticker under Dennis' face in the picture above.

NZ never ceases to amaze me, where else will you be able to drive in a race car on the road? Where else will you run into someone who owns a street legal race car and simply offer you a ride? Great place hey?

Foxes, Mud and Water

Over the weekend we went to a church camp. Forest Lakes camp in Otaki, as there may be one or two of you who do not know NZ geography that well please let me explain. Otaki is along the west coast of NZ, about an hour north of Wellington. If that is not enough information click on the map on the far left, we market it (or will shortly for those who are very quick on following our updates.)

What always amazes me about New Zealand is how the average kiwi is willing to live on the edge compared to what I grew up with in America. In the past you have heard us talk about the 'flying fox.' A lovely contraption that you can find in almost every play park around the country. Well this camp was the same. They had a very very long flying fox. It required two people to operate it communicating via walkie talkie! The run was about a 500 yards (1/4 mile) and it went through a small woods, and out over the lake to an island connected via a short bridge.

There were two seats for the contraption, the adult at the recieving end would take the seat apart, give it to the child who would run it back to the start for the next kid to have their turn. The adults would talk via walkie talkie to time the release of the next kid. Amazing!

They did have a seat belt for those who rode the fox. I am not sure it would have done any good if they let go just dragged the rider through the water. I will let you judge for yourself by this next picture a closeup the contraption with a very unlikely rider!

There were quite a few ladies who rode the flying fox. Only one guy did so. Just for the record I want it to be known there is a weight limitation of 200lb. The only reason why I did not go on the flying fox, and I am sticking to that story!


There were plenty of other things to keep us busy while we were there. I think Dennis favorite was the mud slide. Apparently this is a normal thing at camps. A big water slide that empties into a pit of mud. A very big water slide I may add. I couldn't see the top from the pit but way up there somewhere was a line of kids just waiting for their turn to splash the adults at the bottom.








I suppose I should have turned that picture 90 degrees but I guess you get the idea.

Dennis just loved the time with the children from church. Even with how small the church is it is amazing how many people we do not know in the church, we were able to make a few more friends and in general had a good time.

Wadestown Fair

Today we went to the Wadestown Fair down by the library, about half a kilometer away. There is a fairly large field behind the library where locals setup booths to extract money from their neighbors.

There are lots of fairs in Wellington. Seems every week in the summer you can find a fair or two to attend. Last weekend it was the Marsdon School fair in Karori (which was much bigger by the way.) Most of the fairs are fund raisers for schools. The Wadestown fair was different. It was more like a communal garage sale.

We purchased books, girl guide cookies, a card game for Dennis, and a plant (thyme.) Nibbled on spring rolls made by a couple who immigrated here to Wadestown from Thailand and in general had a good time. In 90 minutes Dennis managed to spend all our money on putting, water balloons, bouncy castles, and a water slide.

I brought the camera however it broke after just one picture. I did manage to get it working again after we got back home (Thank god for google!) but wish I could have gotten a picture of Dennis on the slide or Chris haggling with one of the book mongers. This is the top half of the fair, you can just see the bay in the picture low point between the trees.

Doritos!

I take back everything bad I may have ever said about my Mother-In-Law. Today she arrived with two bags of Nacho Cheese Droitos. They had been opened up by the air-plane pressure differental, had been crushed by her suitcase, and sampled by the NZ Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry but they are Doritos and, more importantly, my Doritos!

Carried Away

Today at the Marsdon School Fair I got carried away and spent $50! It is for a good cause, funding the premier Girl's College (read high school) in Wellington.

Ten of it was with Pip, a friend of Chris. I purchased nine bars of Avon soap she was selling. Then there were two bottles, one each of Lemon and Lime, Lavender Green's Cordials. (www.lavendersgreen.co.nz) I managed to talk the ladies behind the booth into a few samples before I bought them. I suppose they got the last laugh by selling me two bottles!! Another $20 gone just like that.

I went searching for Chris and eventually ended up in the Fabric room. Yes this was a big fair, it had devoted a whole room to the sale of fabric. Looking through the bolts I found a 10'x5' roll of grey linen. I just love my one linen shirt, and miss the one I had lost. So I bought the bolt of linen for $20. Not sure how I will turn it into a shirt but I will figure that out eventually!

It was a fun day. Dennis had a ball on the bouncy castle and buying toys. We will do it again next week as there is another fair in Wadestown!