This week has flown by again! There seems to be a new pattern emerging here!
Things I am loving this week:
- Night walks at Zealandia
- Fitness classes
- Getting vaccinated 😉
- Thermomix
Last weekend was my first wedding anniversary.
James and I have been married ONE WHOLE YEAR! It really doesn’t feel like it though…but then on the other hand it feels like we’ve been married forever. For my wedding present, James gifted me (and himself, obviously) a guided night walk at Zealandia. I gifted him a framed print that I designed myself, with both our vows and the date.
Zealandia by night was amazing. We had food in Wellington beforehand and the walk was a really nice way to walk off the meal!
On the tour, we were lead through the ecosanctury by our guide…well actually there were three! There was a lady who was guiding her very first tour, and she lead the group for most of the 2.5 hours. Another more seasoned guide took over for the last half an hour. Then there was one of the night security wardens.
We saw kiwi! There were two kiwi sightings. Both times they got REALLY close and just bumbled around at our feet. It was amazing.
What is Zealandia? In the words of their website:
ZEALANDIA is the world’s first fully-fenced urban ecosanctuary, with an extraordinary 500-year vision to restore a Wellington valley’s forest and freshwater ecosystems as closely as possible to their pre-human state. The 225 hectare (500+ acre) ecosanctuary is a groundbreaking conservation project that has reintroduced 18 species of native wildlife back into the area, some of which were previously absent from mainland New Zealand for over 100 years.
http://www.visitzealandia.com (2021)
Zealandia is an ecosanctury right in the middle of Wellington. It’s surrounded by a predator proof fence that makes sure that the animals enclosed are safe. The fence is high enough that cat’s can’t jump up over it, and digging predators can’t dig down under it.
It’s really very clever!
The ecosanctury itself is set around an old reservoir, with lots of paths to walk along and little nooks and crannies to peer into and see some of New Zealand’s rarest animals.
The whole point of the place is to get back to the way Wellington (and New-Zealand) was over 700 years ago. Before humans arrived in New Zealand the animals (and the plant life) didn’t really have any reason to need natural defences. There were no predators and everything existed together, evolving to be one of the most isolated and unique places in the world. However, the arrival of humans in various stages over the history of the country, also brought the arrival of predators, both animal and plant based, and this led to decimation of New Zealands native and endemic species.
Another quote from the Zealandia website puts it into perspective:
Since human arrival, at least 51 bird species, three frog species, three lizard species, one freshwater fish species, one bat species, four plant species, and a number of invertebrate species have become extinct.
http://www.visitzealandia.com (2021)
This week I have also been continuing to go to my new fitness classes. That is the Pole Fitness classes. You’ll recall that James bought me a three session taster pass for my birthday, well I’ve been to two classes now and this was even more fun than last week!
It was SPIN pole!
Oh yes, you read that correctly…so not only do you need to be able to do the moves on the pole and hold on tight, but the pole also spins.
The class began with a basic warm up. This consisted of stretches and a LOT of arm/shoulder exercises. After this was some sort of shimmy-with-the-pole type exercise (I’m not sure what you’d call it). Following the warm up the instructor talked us through a series of moves on the pole:
- Climbing the pole
- Spinning around the pole in a pirouette
- Sitting on the pole in a ‘mermaid’ and then getting closer to the pole and leaning out to control speed
- Inverts (going upside down)
This week James and I also got vaccinated. We were due our second Covid jab, and on Tuesday we went to go do that over lunch. Romantic.
It was very quick and easy and we went back home to work there for the rest of the day.
This jab didn’t affect me TOO much, but it did give me some noticeable side affects. These were really similar to the flu jab that I get every year, so I wasn’t too worried. It was just like my body was really low of energy and I was just a bit uninterested in everything for a few days.
As I have posted recently, a close fried of mine has recently become a Thermomix consultant. I have really enjoyed the conversations with her about it, as well as a demo on Tuesday.
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