Family

They’re here!!  Picked up David early on Saturday afternoon and then Alex and Nikau later on in the evening.  So wonderful to see them all.  After a casual day on Sunday we hit the slopes this morning;  Alex and Nikau to have a lesson, David to watch (dicky knees).  It was good being back on the slopes after 12 days absence and what a difference to Cadrona.  Snow is now really only on piste.  A lot of cloud today and it was quite murky.  Rob and I got a few good runs in at Captains before we headed back to Base to catch up with the learners.

No photo of Alex yet but here is one of the cool dude on his first run down the Skiwi school slope.  Snow gets really slushy early on so we headed back down the hill to have a celebratory drink at Cadrona Hotel.  Awesome day.

 

 

Dinner at Lakeview – good times

Heading back to Cadrona tomorrow morning for Alex and Nikau to have their second lesson.  Hoping to get them whizzing down the hill in no time and to be able to stop at the bottom!

Milford Sound, Southland

Seeing as I have finally mastered the embedding of my own maps from google thought I would start this post with a map of the Milford Road we travelled 2 days ago.  The road has lots of beech forest  on both sides of the road, making seeing a trial – thankfully not too many tourists when we rode but have to imagine that this is not the norm for this road.

Woke on Wednesday morning to another foggy start.  I think this is the norm for this time of year.  We did a brief detour to Manapouri but as the power station is not open (hasn’t been in use for over 15 months – what’s going on there??) we decided not to spend the $460 to do a cruise around Doubtful Sound.  Seen one Sound, seen them all?  Probably not and I hope this isn’t something we come to regret later on.  Anyway decided to head down the road and find the coast.  Travelled through some very sorry little towns.  Rural NZ is not in a good way.  Tuatapere?  Really?  Derelict houses and businesses to the point where I was getting angry that there has been so little care to support rural communities over a long period of time.

Opekuri is a one street village and these are the main buildings on it.  While it is photographic it also tells us a sad tale of neglect and of hope lost.

Headed a few kms down the road to Monkey Island – the place where the Takitimu is said to have beached and a popular campervan stop.  The wind was freezing and while we had initially decided to stay there the cold breeze, straight of the southern ocean proved too much and we eventually headed to Riverton.

Told you I had it sorted but actually we went via Tuatapere, another desolate story although not as bad as Opekuri.

Above photos are of our brief stay at Monkey Island.  You can walk out to it at low tide and gather mussels. Funnily enough, I was not inclined to climb into that water..

On to today.  We rode to Bluff (yes I have to do another map!)

Easy road and fairly uneventful.  Had a great lunch of blue cod and chips at Bluff beside the port, meandered around the Watchman’s Tower at Stirling Point, didn’t get the photo of us at the road signs because it was a bit further over the hill, and rode back to Invercargill to visit the Hammer Hardware to see the Burt Munro exhibition.  What a surprise that was!

It was amazing.  We must have spent nearly 2 hours there, talking to Neville Hayes and viewing his brilliant collection of classic motorbikes and cars.  Saw the green car from ‘The Fastest Indian”  movie as well as the real bikes and memorabilia.  This is well worth a visit if you are down this way.  Wanted to go out to Oreti Beach but we ran out of time.  Thinking about coming back for the annual Burt Munro Challenge in November.  The following photos tell their own story…

and now for the real thing…

Kingston to Milford Sound

Have had a brilliant day biking the Milford Sound Road.  Returned to Te Anau on the smell of an oily rag and thankfully bumped my way into the Caltex on our return.  No traffic to speak of, good sunshine, what else could you ask for?

This was after a fun day yesterday when we travelled from Wanaka, via Cromwell, to Te Anau.  Pulled my bike out at Kingston (major breath-taking beauty place), went to get petrol from the McKeown Station just up the road to find my card wouldn’t work there.  Decided I had enough petrol to get the 66kms down to Mossburn.  Fuel light was bleeping as I drove into the Challenge station at after sailing down a fairly uneventful road only to find the station doesn’t stock premium fuel.  Little panic attack but had no choice but to turn around and head to Lumsden 18kms away.  Limped into yet another McKeown Station (grrr).  Again card didn’t work.  The friendly police officer was not so friendly there and left before I could figure out what to do.  Thank goodness, Lumsden has some friendly open-minded residents and a nice man paid for  my fuel while I raced to a little dairy 100m down the road to get some cash to give to him.  Back on the road, rushed to Te Anau.  Don’t know how many buses I passed but it was certainly more than 20, all coming from Te Anau.

Kingston, southern end of Lake Wakatipu. Can just see the now defunct Kingston Flyer steam engine in background.

Following photos are of Milford Sound from different points:

And these ones were taken at The Chasm, just back up the road from the Sound.  Rob had a problem with pesky keas which meant he didn’t actually walk to the falls.

Stopped on the way back after coming through the Homer tunnel (which is very dark by the way) behind a tour of bikers on BMWs. By the time we stopped to take this photo my fuel gauge was sending alarm signals and we still had 60 kms to go.  Whew, got back okay. Love my little bike.

 

Glenorchy

We might be injured but we can still drive!  Took little Impreza on this fantastic road – we had a really great couple of hours at this little ‘end of the world village’.  Glenorchy is at the top of the Wakatipu Lake and has as its backdrop Mt Hercules and associated mountains.  Spectacular and quintessentially New Zealand Glenorchy lives up to its rep.  If possible we will get back on the bikes, once Rob’s back is playing ball.

Photos above are of Wakatipu from just South of Wilson Bay.  #1 is looking back to the Remarkables, while 2nd and 3rd are looking across at Walter Peak Station.  Travelling up this road gives you a good appreciation of the isolation and serenity of Walter Peak Station.  Paddocks have greened up bringing some relief to the brown of this mountains.

View up to Mt Hercules, Routeburn track country.

Had the pleasure of watching a Japanese couple having wedding photos taken in this beautiful spot. A good day.

Friends, lawn clippings & Spring

Had an entertaining afternoon yesterday watching Rob and our neighbours and friends in camp life, the Swneys, take charge of a temperamental lawnmower.  Our sites are now looking pristine.  This was after spending a couple of hours testing my knee out skiing.  Pleased to say knee handled on piste (dead centre of the trails for fear of catching an edge!) very well and is feeling good today.

There is nobody at Cadrona and the snow is 100% perfect.  Can’t fathom the reason for the absence of skiers/boarders but it may be that everyone is now in spring/summer mode. Aussie school holidays next week so there may be a change to numbers. It is certainly warm enough back at camp 15 – 16ºC most days.  Anyway we had about 12 – 15 good runs in a couple of hours; straight onto the chairs – joy!

The lawnmowing was epic.  Paul will make a terrible urbanite as he proceeded to mow all the neighbouring sites with precision – until a puff of smoke caused consternation and the mower was hurriedly returned.

Had a superb dinner courtesy of Michelle and …… life is good.  Having a day off today as we are looking after tender bodies; my knee and Rob’s back.  Is this the beginning of the end we ask ourselves or are our bodies going to repair and fling us back into activity?  Following photo of the truck after the lawnmowing saga and my new Subaru – joke, cough, splutter – Michelle’s new Subaru.  Pretty red. Lawnmowing not evident here as Rob really did just do our little site.

Can’t wait until Alexandra May, Party Pants and Davey arrive on the 24th!

 

It had to happen

Injured – unbelievable!  On the most innocuous of slopes and going little faster than my granny on a zimmerframe, I came to twist my knee and got ski-dooed from Captains Cafe to the physio centre at Base.  Johnny, a beautiful young man gave me a Hot chocolaate while waiting at the cafe.  I was able to walk down from the said disaster zone and knew my knee was not major but currently sore as anything!  Efficient and friendly at the Base camp and managed to hobble to the car Rob had driven up from Valley View.!  Embarrassing.

Blue Green

Woke up this morning to a beautiful vivid, crisp day after yesterday’s heavy grey rain.  Most of the snow has now been washed off so we are starting to make plans for the next few weeks while also hoping that a huge amount of snow does fall.  After today’s temp of 16º C however, it is unlikely to happen.

Good walk along the lake today with lots of other people who were doing the same thing.  Photos below shows the quickening rise of spring.

 

And, because you can never enough of this beautiful area here are some more taken of the lake around mid-morning.

Problems with our water-pump have returned so have had to order a new part.  Hopefully this will get the pump going properly again.  Also, haven’t yet had anyone ring us about the Sub which is sitting forlornly up the road with a ‘For Sale’ sign on it.  Thinking seriously about getting some sort of work to take us to Christmas.  (Also just received an email from Sonya at work asking about my intentions for next year  – yikes!)

Enjoying the afternoon sun is one of our favourite pass times.  It was too hot and the glare on my screen too great on that side of the table for me.