My perfect weekend: Laurel Stowell

Laurel Stowell tries tukutuku weaving at Te Ao Hou Marae as part of a Chronicle series last summer. Photo / NZME

In this new segment we ask locals to describe how they would spend an ideal weekend in the region.

This week we hear from Laurel Stowell who has just retired after two decades as a journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle.

I want to have a weekend with plenty of space in it, maybe one or two social things, but there has to be a bit of room for something unexpected and maybe a bit of housework and gardening.

Friday night is always takeaways and crap TV, usually it's Somme Parade Takeaways, fish and chips or pizza.

Where I live we have drinks on a Friday night as well. I live in a sort of co-housing area in Dehli Ave, and I'm trying to make it a regular thing.

We usually have a can of beer, open a packet of chippies and talk for an hour or so and then go home.

I like to have at least one outing in the weekend. One of the best ones recently was a community planting day in the Castlecliff dunes. That was a real buzz because heaps of people came.

I like to go for a walk or a tramp. One of my latest goals for a tramp is I really want to go back to the Tauakira Trig.

It's actually one of the highest points you can see when looking towards Ruapehu from Whanganui.

It's quite steep and there's bush at the top, a radio station and amazing views.

I also like to walk around in parts of town that are new to me. As long as I have an outing of some kind.

It could also be a swim actually, like out at Mosquito Point or Castlecliff Beach.

Saturday night is a good night to cook something special. Maybe a big curry or something roasted in the oven.

There's a really nice jazz programme on the concert radio from five to seven that's really good weekend cooking music.

On Sundays, Richard [husband] likes to make a special bircher muesli breakfast. Especially if there's lots of fruit.

At the moment there are lots of passionfruit and apples in our garden so he uses those.

I like to finish Sunday night sitting outside with a cup of tea and surveying the whole landscape.

We're on the edge of Aramoho so we've got a really great outlook, and the sun skims the top of the hill.