Astronomy...

On Saturday we took the Wellington Cable Car http://www.wellingtoncablecar.co.nz/ up to the Carter Observatory, as arranged last week at our housewarming party. The planetarium show, which lasted just under an hour, consisted of two parts: the first was about the effects of space travel on the human body, some of the challenges met by astronauts and how they train and prepare for them, including the “vomit comet” method of achieving weightlessness whilst still in the earth’s atmosphere; the second part was a live presentation by our friendly astronomer, guiding us around the Southern hemisphere’s night sky, including the conjunction of Venus, Mars and Saturn currently clearly visible here. All in all, a good show. We met up with the presenter afterwards and had a quick lunch in the café, before finding our way back home – the observatory and Botanical Gardens are right behind our flat, up a hill.

Other things we noticed: lots of tuis. 

We’re still quite excited to see these. This will probably wear off in time.

Nicola took her cello in to the music shop, to check the strings after the air freight journey. Fortunately they seem to have survived the journey, so a retune was all that was required.

...And Gastronomy

As part of our mission to fully discover New Zealand, I’ve been trying the local fish available in the supermarkets and wholesale outlet that we use. There are some familiar types of fish and some that are new to us: so far we’ve tried tarakihi, 

and groper. 

So far I’ve just had it plain grilled with a dash of lemon juice, but tonight I’m going to try it with some Asian herbs/spices on noodles, and see how that works.