A brand new day

Woke up this morning when Laura left for work at 6.45am. Pulled back the curtain, crawled back into bed and lay watching the sun rise over the hills and sea opposite. It was nice feeling the first rays of the day hitting my face.

It's another blue sky day here - I think I'm lucky to have two in a row. The cicadas have started chirping and the usual breeze is there but there's no white horses at sea yet so maybe it's not quite as blowy as yesterday. Wellington is the windiest city in the southern hemisphere - the average annual wind speed is 22kph. Yesterday was not a good hair day. Wellington has been built on the land side of a little bay so although I'm technically now looking out at the sea, it appears from here to be more like a lake - I can't see the open sea but am surrounded by beautiful hills. You would have thought that might have made it more sheltered but it doesn't seem to work that way here.

So, today's schedule is as follows: Laura arrives back from work about 10am and we aim to hit the road about 11. We're headed for a little village called Martinborough, about an hour from here, that was established by an Irish settler.  He designed the main square so that it forms the shape of the Union Jack. We're booked into the Murdoch James winery for lunch at 1pm then we check into our little cottage before heading out for some tastings and to buy some provisions for the evening. It sounds like it'll be a lovely day and nice to explore some of the surrounding area. Tomorrow (possibly hungover I'm thinking?) we continue on to Laura's farm and the forecast is good - 24 degrees - so hoping to get a dip in her parents' pool while we're there.

It's so nice to see Laura again. Although it's been a while, she's such easy company and a generous and thoughtful host. I've had a good balance of time on my own to adjust and explore without feeling too lonely and now I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with her on our road trip and seeing where she grew up. We've had some laughs, some deeper, philosophical conversations, some comparing of grief and bereavement notes, and a big Corporate Edge status update, so some of you should have felt your ears burning.

Right, the sun is well over the hill now so that suggests I should get showered and packed and see if there's time to head up and down a gazillion steps to get to the waterfront for a stroll before Laura gets back. Or maybe I'll just sit on the decking and read my book in the sunshine. Less sweaty.