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

Yes, the archery was fun, even though we sucked a lot. See, we’re used to shooting on level ground, at more or less 30 yards, because that’s what shooting in the backyard was like. I was taught to keep my stance level, with everything parallel, weight evenly distributed, etc. Now I want to go away and practice shooting fish in a barrel with my right foot propped up on a box.

All the variety was very very fun. Now I’d really like to try it with my own glove and not in the teeth of a Southerly.

In other news, one of the NZ Breweries is Speights, and they make a 5 Malt Ale called “Old Dark” that is quite nice. What’s possibly even nicer — and certainly even worse for you — is that some company out of Nelson is making ice cream out of it. Out of the malt, anyway. Old Dark Ice Cream. Why is it so tasty ? It’s a whopping 28.5% milkfat, that’s why. And the next two ingredients on the list — I should more properly say “the other two”, after the cream and before the malt — are egg yolks and sugar. That’s it. Yum.

The weather would not stop us from having fun this weekend.

Saturday we did a bit of scouting up around Tawa and Porirua. We were mainly searching for the various home-improvement stores in the region which we will no doubt be visiting far too often once we get the house. It was pissing-to-pouring rain much of the afternoon, but that did not stop us from scuttling into and out of half a dozen different places.

Sunday the rain continued, but we decided to make our way up the Kapiti coast to visit the archery club that meets just north of Paraparaumu. That was a lot of fun. Even with the cold wind and pouring raing about 15 -20 people showed up for archery. Most of them had modern bows, from fiberglass recurves up to the aluminium cam-driven modern hunting bows. They were very curious about the horse bows Tam and I had. There was a great deal of amazement that such light thin-limbed bows could actually have a 40-50# draw weight! Its very amusing to think that a “primitive” bow made from traditional materials (primarily bamboo) could impress all of these archers with the latest modern equipment.

The archery range consisted of 28 targets, each with the outline of a different animal. You had up to three arrows, though as soon as you got a hit you stopped shooting. The rings corresponded to heart/lung/body, and hitting with the first arrow was worth the most points. It took nearly 2.5 hours to make our way through the course, and some of the shots were quite difficult. Shooting between trees, uphill, downhill, on slopes, across valleys, you name it! Range varied from about 8 meters to about 50-55 meters. It was fun, and I think Tam and I will probably be going back on future Sundays. Normally they would have finished the day with a BBQ, but with the rain that was cancelled. Thankfully the rain stopped about 30 minutes into the shoot. The howling wind made some of the shots extra tricky, but that was all part of the fun.

Now that the work week has resumed we have of course gone back to a pattern of beautiful blue skies. I am sure the next frontal system will be here by the weekend, though, to give us the traditional rain.

Two months until the new house. We continue to plan for the modifications we would like to make. I think all of us, cats included, will be very happy to get into the new house. I am very curious to see how the cats respond to farm animals. They have never seen anything as large as a cow or horse before. I hope we get to witness their first encounter.