Day 13 - Kiwis are sleeping and swimming pools

We set out today to the Riccarton Bush Market for what I had been promised - a custard croissant. Ever since I heard the pie guru exclaim over the Custard Croissant, I have wanted one, and that was a week ago. We cycled in for about 20 min,  arrived and looked around for the beer tent. Which amazingly, was not to be found. We found our friends, and set about finding out what is good. I purchased a cupcake (since the custard croissants were not there), and a fish pie, and we had a nice social time watching some Western Swing dancers who were promoting their dance school. Pity that they didn't put any effort into looking the part. With ripped jeans and a t-shirt too small for the lady they danced on the grass, while the wind blew their flyers away.

We'd not been to this part of town and discovered that they had a kiwi sanctuary which is fabulous! It is however a bit of a pointless exercise to allow public access because sadly, kiwis only come alive and start to do things when the sun goes down. Which means that if you ever want to see a kiwi, well the gate are locked at 6:30pm and that makes me stamp my feet in frustration. Coz how cool would it be if people could see a real kiwi up close and personal. This would definitely give the kiwi an advantage. Poor fellas with no flight ability.  We took a long walk about 20mins through the Kahikatea trees and then came out. We decided to go to the mall and look for the swimming pool for our Hawaiian party. We were at the mall really quickly, and walked straight to the shops to find the pool. We are actually considering buying one that we can actually reuse. Laps will be slightly pointless though!  We browsed for a bit looking for a hawaiian shirt and instead came home with some much needed props for the Rugby World Cup. I got a sparkly gold hat and some green pompoms for my Green and Gold team - The Springboks!

Then we hopped back on the bikes and rode home! It was a lovely day out and good exercise. Shorter distances like today's meager 8 km are starting to not actually feel like enough. But I feel good and will probably do some running tomorrow, if I can resist hopping on a bike tomorrow.

This week is Conservation Week, so I have today, visited a kiwi sanctuary, and also rode my bike instead of ride the car. Good hey? What have you done for conservation?

http://www.doc.govt.nz/about-doc/news/newsletters/canterbury-doc/archive/canterbury-doc-august-2009/riccarton-bush-home-to-weta-and-kiwi/

Time accrued : 13 hours + 1hour = 14 hours! :)

x
N.

Picture from: http://www.dullneon.com/randomnotes/2011/08/kiwi-kiwi.html