s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

Woke up this morning with nothing on my to-do list apart from the vague notion of seeing if the park down at the end of Kent Terrace had a market in it on Sundays, which a sign I pass on the way to work suggests it does.

It does.

As soon as my use of vegetables becomes more sophisticated than slicing a tomato onto a sandwich, or whacking an onion into the burrito meat, I’ll be sure to frequent it. I did pick up some apples, though. Back at the apartment, it was *such* a nice day (the horrendous southerlies they were predicting for us this weekend were something of a bust — just a bit of rain last night — so it was sunny in the 50s today) that I decided to find the top of Mt. Victoria, that hill behind the apartment. I packed myself a lunch, detoured back to the market to buy a NZ$10 little backpack to carry it in, and set off.

A bit of geography: The apartment building is on Kent Terrace, one building in from the corner of Majoribanks Street, which is the street the Mongolian BBQ is on. Majoribanks has that dark Art Deco building — the Clemenger — on my side of it, the Embassy Theater on the other side, and a pedestrian entrance to the Mt. Vic section of the Town Belt at the far upper end. On the city side of Kent Terrace, Majoribanks turns into Courtenay Place, where all the nightlife is. (Aside: The Embassy is currently being renovated, because they were told they wouldn’t get to host the world premier of Return of the King if they didn’t.)

Well, it was something of an accomplishment just to get to the top of Majoribanks Street, yikes. I took a picture looking back down, but these streets never look as steep in photos as they do in person. Once I got into it, though, the park was lovely, with some spectacular views out over the city, and nice green paths in between:

At the very tippy top, there’s a 360 degree view that is just stunning. The whole city and harbor spread out around you, with the mountains in the back all around. I somehow managed to resist the urge to take a big-ass panorama all the way around. But, wow.

After eating half a cheese sandwich and a boiled egg, I made my way back down. Since it was only just 1:30, I decided on a lark to see if I could find a garden center that would sell me a plant or two for the balcony. Checked the yellow pages and found one up in Pauatahanui, currently my number one house-hunting spot. And look ! An open house ! Too expensive, but very very nice, and I’ve given my name to another realtor. The garden center sold me a funky little rhododendron that supposedly will have blue flowers, and a vinca minor to keep it company. NZ$20 for the pair. I’m pretty sure Mahoney’s would have charged me at least twice that, US, for the rhodie alone.

Then it was back down to Kaiwharawhara to the Pot Warehouse to get something to put them in (most garden plants here are sold sort of in pot-shaped plastic bags) — which of course involved a lot of moving different pots around and comparing and contrasting (good thing I was by myself, eh ?). Picked up some cat food at the mega pet store next door, and got some reassurance from the on-site vet clinician about getting Slow’s prescription filled. Will call QPS tomorrow.

Then, because I could, I drove a little way up the valley to get some riverstones from the Hutt to put in the bottoms of the pots (I wonder if that’s even legal ?).

Then back to the apartment, for three trips to haul everything upstairs, then out on the balcony to put plants in pots. (I have half a gigantic bag of dirt left — must somehow convince C&N that they want to put some pots out on their deck so I can fob it off on them…) Definitely feel like I’ve earned my supper tonight. Whew !

–35.5 days to Snog Week