As I mentioned in my last post, we recently had an amazing time in the Nelson-Tasman area. We stayed at a bed and breakfast in Mapua and nature was all around. Plant and animal life is so different just a few short hours (and a ferry ride) away from Wellington, and it was awesome hanging out with tui, quails, fantails, geese, and many baby pukeko. So fluffy, so cute. Jason took these photos, most with his macro lens on digital and the first and last on his minolta.

I have been having a marvelous summer, I’ve ticked off so many things on my Summer Goals list without even meaning to, only about five things left to go! I thought I’d start my return to blogging by sharing my summer instagrams with you.

Wellington: Eating, drinking, Christmas parties, and more recently, gigs. This weekend I went to Fleet Foxes and Beirut – too much fun.

Auckland: Awesome Christmas family time, shopping and strolling in Cornwall Park. All the food.

Raumati: Holidaying in a spacious bach with lots of good people. Rain, sunshine, barbeques, fancy NYE dinner complete with cat’s ears, fluffy neighbour kittens, and I Have Never in the best fort ever.

Nelson: The ferry, a bed and breakfast with a glorious garden full of tuis and friendly cats, beer tasting, magical treehouses. Not pictured: Emma’s amazing wedding! I was too busy helping Jason take the official photos to grab any snaps.

Sorry for such photo-heaviness, I only put up about half of what I wanted to! If you’d like to follow me on instagram, search for kate_mcleod.

It’s a chilly one here in Wellington, a perfect time to post these pictures and remember what fun my friends and I had on our new years bach holiday at Waitarere, and think longingly about the fun we’ll have this coming summer.

All photos by Jason.

On new years eve we put on our glad rags (I wore a dress I bought from an op shop that very day), drank bubbles or gin, and had a fancy dinner before dancing into the night.  I’m hoping for the same again this year, and some sort of pagan picnic (barefoot frolicking! red wine! crown of foliage in our hair!) on new years day.

Breakfast at Miss Jackson, near where we sublet an apartment in St Kilda.

Walked out past the St Kilda pier to look for blue penguins (we saw one, nothing is cuter).

The rooftop bar, Curtin House.

Lemon ricotta mushrooms at Milkwood, so good.

We found the taco truck, and it was awesome.

£1000 Bend.

More to come shortly.

photo from our window by ma gurl Kim

It’s snowing all over Wellington, including at sea level! Apparently for the first time in 35 years? I’ve certainly never seen the likes of it round these parts before. The whole city is abuzz with childlike glee, but I’m also making time to whinge about getting through this week of freeze with a cold in an uninsulated house. The reason I feel a cold coming on is probably because of the time I spent yesterday scraping snow and ice off our car so I could throw snowballs at our flatmates. Worth it.

Edit: look at these photos from Wellington Zoo.

On the ferris wheel by the Yarra.

View from the window of the St Kilda apartment we’re renting.

Quina porridge (and baked eggs for Jason) at Birdman Eating.

Jason had his hair cut at Dr Follicles, which comes with a free Coopers ale.

Smith Street.

Lost and Found Market.

Can’t believe we still have about five days to go! Love it here.

My Mum came to visit and stayed in a nearby hotel with a nice view.

She delivered this guy to me!

We ate a lot. Like at Floriditas. I love Floriditas.

And we visited the new Roxy Cinema. We ate there too, but I was too hangry to get a good picture.

We’ve been to Monterey a buttload of times lately. I wrote about it for Gale Force Win this week.

The savoury french toast wins times a million.

We’re enjoying our long weekend so far. Jason gets three whole days off! We’re planning on making pop tarts and playing board games. And I got new shoes.

I took them for their first outing today, to Plentifull Deli for coffee and lunch. It’s just around the corner and I am in love with it. Everything I’ve tried from there has been top notch, and is super reasonable too.

Hope your long weekend (if you have one) is going as swimmingly as mine!

Melbourne photos via Banana Meet-Cute here and here

Jason and I are planning a trip to Melbourne in a few months time! I lived there for a few months about six (!) years ago and loved it. I’d happily live there again but visiting will also be splendid. My main memories are of getting drunk with my flatmate in a nearby Irish pub in Chinatown (we lived on La Trobe Street), where we’d both play depressing songs on the jukebox and talk about the people we were in unrequited love with that we’d left behind in New Zealand. Ha! You see, I -was- a very lovelorn lass once upon a time. I also worked in a shoe shop, shared a room and a closet with my best friend and had small adventures all over town. It really was a grand time and I can’t wait to see what’s changed and explore the little lanes and eat in all the places I couldn’t afford to last time.

Do you have any recommendations for me? Where should we eat, drink, shop, stay? Wanna be friends? What are your favourite Melbourne blogs? Some of mine are Banana Meet-Cute, Handmadelove, Meet Me At Mikes and Handmade Romance.

What I love about this week:

Having red hair again.

Cheap and cheerful Japanese with the best ex-workmates in the world.

Receiving an email from Amber about loving boys who you don’t often get to see. She is a good sort.

Being invited to TWO Royal Wedding parties. Best bit – they are on the same street!

My Mum visiting this weekend, she is awesome. Brunch at Floriditas was a highlight.

New shoes, and a new beautiful and grown up skirt.

Lovely friends checking in to see that I’m okay. I’m okay!

Farewell dinner at Monterey for flatmates who’re going to Asia for three months. I’ll miss you Kim and Brendy! Not that Brendan would ever read this, he is serious and analogue.

My friend Jo had a blue party, and it was grand. Secret bedroom dance parties? Yes. I cannot recommend you watch this video, but I love it. My interpretive dancing is certainly not up to the standards of Ms Bush.

I took no photographs, but my nails were inspired by this.

By the stylish wanderer.