43: Surfing Titahi Bay: Always Unimpressive, But Marginally Good on Rare Occasions Such As This

As you've seen from previous posts, we've been getting clobbered to death with some rough wintertime weather. Well finally a change of tune. Today was one of those rare days where the fury of mother nature subsided just long enough for the surf and wind direction to come together. Titahi Bay is not known for its awe-inspiring surf by any stretch of the imagination, but today was quite fun. I'm still on the upswing in recovering from my knee injury back in December, so this was just right for getting out and testing out the ol' left paw. It eventually got crowded (by New Zealand standards) and there was even a bit of vibe in the water. All in all, no major complaints...except for some goatboaters.

I also ran into Luke, an Aussie friend that Bobby and I had met on previous occasions out in the Wairarapa. He'd also been off the surfing radar for some time due to a repeat blow out of his knee. He had done in his ACL some time back but then reinjured it and had to get yet another ACL reconstruction. We surfed together for a bit and then decided to do a joint surf mission to Paekakariki in hopes of getting some good surf with no one around. Strong winds with too much south in it spoiled it, so we decided to give it a miss.

The following photos were snapped just before I paddled out. Nothing epic, but fun nevertheless. Click on each photo for a larger image.

39: Colonial Knob Hike (Elsdon, Porirua)

I woke up this morning to a beautiful New Zealand winter day. Pristine conditions with clear blue skies and and crisp winds blowing from the northwest. This past week was particularly heavy in the work department, so after finishing up some projects at home, I decided to venture out and take a hike (tramp in kiwi terminology) to the summit of Colonial Knob. I'd heard about it and read a few things on it, and amazingly for the past 9 months that I've been living here in Titahi Bay, I somehow managed to evade this mountain literally in my back yard (not on purpose, though). As with nearly everything I do, I always have a digital camera on hand to capture the action. Most of my friends live in Wellington and with the price of fuel these days at $2.12 per litre (or $6.70 USD per gallon), it's hard to attract any exercise buddies up this way. Click on each photo for larger view.

37: Lifting the Weight of the World....Or Maybe Just Mana Island

While I confess Titahi Bay seldom turns on the goods in the surf department, I can't complain about the natural beauty it has on offer on a regular basis. There were microscopic knee to waist high remnant of a windswell and not enough to entice me into the water. Instead I took a run up to the top of the hill this evening and, like usual, I brought my camera to capture some of those special moments.

36: A Glorious Winter Day

Greetings all,What can I say? After a few cold, windy, wet days, the clouds parted and we were left with this beautiful day. It was the clearest I've ever seen the South Island. Just impeccable. I ran up to the top of Colonial Knob and here were the photos I took. Simply incredible. The sunset photo was taken several days ago, but spectacular nevertheless. Click on each photo to see the large image. Enjoy.

33: Titahi Bay Walk: A Three-hour Tour

I seem to have a habit of going out for what I think will be a leisurely walk around Titahi Bay, just to get some fresh air and clear my mind. But then the competitive/curious part of my brain takes over and commandeers my leisurely walk, often making me keep hiking "just to see what's around the bend." Today turned out to be another nice day, so I figured I'd take a walk around the bay and hike to the top of the north end of Titahi Bay. I decided to keep walking around the perimeter of Whitireia Park since the usually brisk wind was rather light. Next thing I know, I found myself half-way to Mana on the other side of Aotea Lagoon. By that stage, I was past the point of no return, so decided to just keep on going. In all, my hour-long walk spontaneously converted into a three-hour hike. Great exercise and great photos to show for it.

Place your cursor over each photo for a description. Click on the photo for a larger image.

32: Titahi Bay (part III): Yet Another Glorious Day

I awoke to yet another glorious day of perfect sunshine and perfect temperatures and just couldn't bear the thought of being indoors. I've been working far too hard lately so decided to cool my jets a bit and explore the southern end of Titahi Bay. Turns out there's a little trail down to the beach and from there you can walk along pretty much all the way to Wellington if you felt so inclined. Due to the impeccably clear weather, you can see the South Island situated in the background off in the distance.

31: Titahi Bay (Part II): Uniting the Maple Leaves and Yanks in Perfect Harmony

New Zealand: Uniting Canadians and Americans for Who Knows How Long
My Friday walk just didn't seem to do this place justice. I needed to get out and share it with friends, so a few well-placed phone calls soon found me in the company of my beloved Canadian friend Jessica (go Maple Leaves!) and her two friends Vicky and Chrysa visiting from Montreal, and Scott my fellow American. Given the friendly brother/sister-like rivalry between the Yanks and Maple Leaves, it was a great opportunity to break down the barriers and bring our nations a little closer together (even if the Canadian dollar IS actually stronger than the greenback). Then again, when you're living on a tiny little green rock off the coast of Antarctica, the differences tend to dissolve into nothing.

Rama for Prime Minister
After our sunset walk, we agreed to take a drive and find some eats. Titahi Bay on a Saturday night is pretty quiet, so we took a drive down the road to Johnsonville and stumbled upon Rama's Malaysian/Indian restaurant. Turns out they just opened a week ago and the owner was keen on making a favourable impression on his new guests. He came out and personally greeted us, and even sent a complimentary bowl of chicken curry to our table.

Thanks for the Great Memories
We were so moved by our experience that we felt it simply wouldn't be enough to just pay and leave. We decided to round up the chefs and servers from the kitchen and have them pose for a photo with our now unified team of Maple Leaves and Yanks. In all a great walk and great dinner.

Other photos from the afternoon (click on each photo for a larger image).

30: Titahi Bay Panorama

Greetings all,
Well, I have since moved on to another level of progression here in New Zealand. I was living in town for most of 2007 due to my work and school obligations being on campus. However, with the recent ethics committee approval of my PhD project, the study will now be focused up the road in Porirua. I will be running subjects through the City Fitness health club in Porirua so I decided to move about 5 minutes away to the panoramic beach community of Titahi Bay. Take one look at the photos and it's not hard to see why I made the jump. I am also working out of City Fitness, so it's a two for one. My life is now effectively centralised in one location, which will cut down tremendously on petrol costs. By the way, by comparison, it's still cheap in the US, even at $3.50 a gallon

For information on each photo, simply place your cursor on top of the photo. Click on each photo for a larger size