Travel Tuesday - Kapiti Koasting

OFF THE BAT - HUGE GIVEAWAY ON WEDNESDAY! This time at a fab home decor store. Watch this space! I said WATCH IT!

I WAS going to make this an Olympic-based post because I still have many stories to tell (including the time I met real-life Lenny and Carl from the Simpsons walking down the street. Chief Wiggum, Mrs. Krabapple, they were all there too. No, I wasn't high). I also wanted to do a fashiony-post on all the different Red + White Canadian outfits I wore, but I think that will come next week.

Even though right NOW the Paralympics are on in the city. The Opening Ceremonies were lovely and there is something so inspiring about watching these athletes play (they put my disability into perspective, THAT'S FOR SURE) but sadly the city just isn't embracing it as much as they normal Olympics. I think it's cuz we are still a bit burnt-out. I know I am!

So on to the New Zealand Travel Post for Travel Tuesdays:






This pic is a joke for all you Kiwis...all I need now is Lion Red :)

Anyway, I felt like I was neglecting New Zealand a bit, so I've decided to share some fun times and photographs from the last weekend we spent there. I visted my sister and her family who live on the Kapiti Coast, just north of Wellington and stayed with them until we had to fly back home :(

My sister and her husband Hamish are filmmakers...she dabbles in different stuff now, but Hamish is pretty much Peter Jackson's right-hand man (grip-wise). They both worked as grips on his first films (Meet the Feebles, Brain Dead, Heavenly Creatures, etc), and Hamish is still with him all the way up to The Lovely Bones.

Hamish is also an artist and he adorns all of their common areas with peices of his stunning and unusual sculptures.









You might have heard me post about Linda and Hamish before, here. Everytime I have visited them, they've always lived in a different place (filming does that)- Seatoun (just outside of Wellington city, where PJ lives), Punakaiki on the South Island (two different places in that wee hamlet), Paekakariki (also on the Kapiti Coast) but they've finally settled down. On the Kapiti Coast again (it is wonderfully free and only 40 min north of Wellington) but in the perpetually sunny town of Otaki.

As usual they live right on (or across) from the beach, but the Otaki Sun didn't really shine for us on our last days in New Zealand. No matter, it was still a stunning end to our trip and a great way to just CHILL THE F OUT.

It was great seeing my nephews Tor and Bjorn...my goodness...they've grown! Such polite and wildly creative young men, it was a shock since I hadn't seen them for 5 years!

Bjorn taught us how to ride their segway. As someone with balancing problems, let me tell you, that face I am making is genuine.





Hamish and Linda took us out for a ride on their ATV on the beach. The light coming through the clouds was just gorgeous. We were a little high though, which added to the danger (totally thought I was going to fall off the thing).















We ate lots of good food, including a rich Jaimie Oliver lamb stew recipe, Pavlova with homemade white chocolate sauce and local fish and chips.








Mike and I went on a windy beach walk ourselves and even though I have been swimming in that water before, I was a bit surprised to find a stinging Bluebottle Jellyfish washed up on the shore, as well as some dried out blowfish.












The rest of the time we just lounged around, drank beer, talked, smoked, hung out with the dogs.







Needless to say it was sad when I had to wave goodbye to my family!



We were dropped off in Wellington with a few hours to kill before our flight back to Auckland (and then back to Vancouver SAD FACE), so we had a scrumptious Mexican lunch at a breezy outdoor restaurant on Courtney Place called Coyotes, before I dragged Mike to the always free, always cool Te Papa museum.





This was my fourth time there and it never gets old, especially when checking out the exhibits...





Or hanging out in their faux bush walk outside.






SIGH. Good times!

Remember to check back here tomorrow afternoon to enter the swell giveaway! You'll LOVE it :)

Speaking of, STYLE SYMMETRY is having a fab giveaway for a kimono belt. Check it out HERE!