Summer time

Summer is here and the flowers have come out to play. Just the other day, we were greeted with some surprise additions in the garden.

Blooming Lily

What used to be a green bush blossomed into purple flowers out of nowhere.

Flowers that appeared "out of the purple"

The Pōhutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa) aka the NZ Christmas tree has timely started producing brilliant red flowers. And no, they are not rambutan trees. It's one of New Zealand's many native trees under threat from possum attack, and has been marked for conservation.

NZ Christmas tree

We had friends and fellow cycling enthusiasts, Juliana and Tim visit from Gisborne during the weekend. We knew Juliana and Tim through LoveCyclingSG. It was like a mini LCSG experience - Eat, Ride, Photo.

We took a short ride to Raumati Beach Village for lunch at Banana Leaf, newly opened Malaysian restaurant. They do one of the more authentic satays in Wellington.

Yes, we were guilty of the classic "finish eating then take picture" move....   

Lunch @ Banana Leaf

After lunch, we headed down towards the beach for the killer group shot. Superman: Man of Steel premiered early. Tim had his superman moment when he ripped his shirt off to reveal his LCSG roots.

"Bo Jio!" jested Gwyn.

To the right, LoveCyclingSG in NZ

The weather was awesome. We tried to sneak in a bit of Kapiti island into the shot under the glaring sun.

It was good fun and great catching up with Juliana and Tim. I'm sure we'll ride again soon. Maybe in Gisborne? :)

 

To the left: The evergreen pose

We rolled along towards the train station where we bade farewell. On our way back, Gwyn and I had an up close and personal encounter with a fellow stallion. We stopped along the road, stretched our hands over the wired fence and said hi. 

From one to another, the horse seemed to be interested in our steel framed stallions. We don't blame him, the Bromptons do attract quite a fair bit of attention.

Up close and personal

Eyes on the stallion.

Summer is beautiful and Christmas is approaching. As the clock counts down to Christmas, we just can't wait for the holiday season! There's lots to do and I reckon more riding and blogging should be on the list.

Till then, to all our readers, keep calm and ride on!