Paremata Paradise

The weekend before last, Andy and I went up the coast to Paremata to house and dog-sit for our friends Dave and Josie. Paremata is about a half-hour drive north of Wellington, situated on the gorgeous Pauatahanui Inlet. If you continue along past Paremata, you’ll come to the Kapiti Coast. Here it is on a map.

It felt more like a mini vacation than housesitting, so it worked out for both us and our friends. Higgs was especially excited, since Dave and Josie’s American Bulldog, Effie, is his best friend.

We both took the Friday off, so we had a three-day weekend to enjoy Paremata and the warm summer weather. We spent most of Friday hanging around the house, so on Saturday we decided to drive up the coast for a meal at my favorite “restaurant” of all time, Wendy’s. They don’t have many in New Zealand, so I convinced Andy to take me to the one about twenty minutes north of Paremata. My birthday was only a couple days away, after all. I don’t frequent many fast food joints here, but once in a while, you just crave some artery clogging goodness. On the way back, we took the winding Paekakariki Road for great views of the coast.

That’s Kapiti Island on the horizon.

This is the road we just drove up to get to the lookout (I’m glad Andy was behind the wheel)…

We continued along the serpentine Paekakariki Road down into the valley and pulled in to the Pauatahanui Wetlands to check out the trails there.

It was really beautiful and peaceful down there on the marshy shores of the Pauatahanui Inlet.

I really like the house peeking out over the bush here.

Andy tried to camouflage himself while I stopped to take pictures. Nice ‘stache.

We continued on toward one of the hides for observing birds, but couldn’t quite make it all the way, as the tide was encroaching. When we stepped on parts of the floating boardwalk, water rose up and threatened to soak our feet. You can see what it looks like here, and that’s without our weight on it.

We turned back when the going got impossibly soggy.

Andy spotted a crab scrambling along the boardwalk, so we gave him his very own photoshoot.

Not wanting to traumatize him for life, we set Mr. Krabs free and went on our way.

Andy and I headed towards another hide to see if we’d catch sight of any interesting birds. We didn’t end up spotting much of anything, but the view was still lovely.

Here’s another great view from Dave and Josie’s the next morning.

I caught Higgs and Effie during one of their many play sessions. Effie is very easy on him, but he fights dirty.

Straight for the neck!

They tired each other out every day, which was nice, and who doesn’t love watching a good dog tussle? Endless free entertainment.

More on the wonderful Paremata coming soon!