Mount Victoria

On Saturday, seeing as it was a lovely sunny day, we decided to climb to the top of Mt. Victoria to the Lookout, to see what we could see. This was a novelty for me, less so of one for Nicola (who had already climbed it last time she was in Wellington, 4 years ago).

The way to Mt. Victoria is through Courtenay Place and up Majoribanks (sic) Street, so off we went, clad in jacket, jumper and shirt. By the time we reached the Charles Plimmer Park, jackets had been shed, and by the time we were at the top we were in t-shirts. This is no gentle ascent! There is a bus that will take you to the top, but it helpfully only runs Monday-Friday.

We took photos halfway up the ascent, 

and when we reached the top, 

when my camera’s batteries decided to give out on me. The views from the top are quite spectacular, across Oriental Bay and south across the Cook Strait to South Island (was that it visible on the horizon? Or just a cloud bank?) and beyond to Antarctica (not visible from this distance).

We decided to take an alternative route down, and promptly got “lost” in the forest, but eventually came out near Oriental Bay, and continued down by road.

Consumer Durables

Having been healthy all morning/lunchtime, we decided to increase our collection of consumer durables in the form of a Blu-Ray player. After much research I had selected the appropriate model (i.e. one that could, with a software modification, play our UK DVDs) and we trotted off to buy it from the only store that seemed to stock it in NZ…at least, I’d checked two shopping comparison sites and they both only listed one store.

We were then faced with an issue: how to check that it was working? Inevitably, we had to buy a Blu-Ray film, so we selected Inglourious Basterds, and watched it on Saturday night. We’ll find out whether the software code for UK DVDs works when our stuff arrives here – until then, we’ll be joining Fatso, NZ’s postal rental provider.