Stonehenge: Summer Solstice 2012

I finally got to go to the solstice.

I drove down on the Tuesday after doing a morning at work. I only stopped twice: once for a petro/loo/brew stop on the M5, & then on the A303 at a cherry stall.

I'd seen a programme on the telly about the A303 & how it afforded a good first glimpse. He wasn't wrong. Once on the A344 I pulled up & took a few pics over & through the fencing. I was glad it was a good day & the weather showed it at it's best.

I noticed a lot of people 'doing the tour' were outside of an area fencing in the stones. I wasn't sure how close I'd be able to get the night following, but they were pretty impressive in the afternoon sunshine.

After a wander up & down to get these pics, I got back in & headed for Shrewton down the road west.

Here are some Shrewton trees. Shame one is sideways, but I can't figure out how to turn it on blogger.

The Manor House at Shrewton was full of cats. Not terrifically hygienic, but hey! I survived ;-)




I wanted to take the apricot kitten home, but when I came back from my trip to Salisbury on the Wednesday, someone else had taken her. Perhaps a good job, given Kuni's aversion to new folk in the house!

The apricot with Pteppic-like ears

See what I mean about hygiene!

I  had a wander round the village after tea & found a Zumba class for Thursday morning!

After a long day & a long drive I hit the sack ~ complete with cat ;-p

I was up early to go & see Salisbury, taking the direct route down the A360, a picture of a nice little weir & trees.


I managed to find free parking for the day just out of the town centre, & did a bit of charity shop shopping. 
It appears there is a better class of charity shop down there ;-)

I also checked out the restaurants for the meal with Kim & Opkar later.



The Cathedral is lovely & has an awesome font. It's like an infinity swimming pool. 



There were some great trees there, too.

This is one of the cottages in Cathedral Sq.

I bought myself some goodies & a drink & sat down with a book in the little park near the car.

I got company after a while, but he/she didin't fancy the bit of banana I threw.
As you can see from the foot, he/she was quite close.


I wasn't meeting Kim & Opkar until after tea, so I took the scenic rout home around 4, washed & changed & back down for a lovely meal in sight of the spire.
I tried to persuade them to join me for the Solstice, but they had no wets with them, & rain was forecast.


Once back at Shrewton, on advice of the owners, I left the car & hitched in, getting picked up by 4 guys in a Transit.
The car park was already pretty full - by about 9.30pm, & not taking the car proved to be a good idea.

I'd packed a bottle in my little ruckie - wrapped in my wets, & managed to get it thru 'customs' at the gate. They had sniffer dogs, but they took no notice of me.


By the time I'd wandered past all the food & drink stalls it was much darker, & over by the stones there was a lot of music.




Inside the circle it was heaving & I did a couple of revolutions, getting nearer & nearer the middle.

Eventually I was there, & found a stone to climb on so I could see. There was a girl already up there ~ Sarah

I hung out with her for a bit, & then, at about half 12, went to find somewhere to lay my head.

Eventually I lay down in the lee of a fallen stone ~ having donned my quilted waterproof pants & an extra hoodie. I'd packed a waterproof picnic blanket which I wrapped round me & settled down for a few hours sleep in the rain.

Unfortunately, nothing was very waterproof at all, & by 0230 I gave up trying to sleep in the rain (nice idea, tho, eh?), & went for a wander.

This is me between 2 of the stones at about 0245

There were some peeps spinning light wands, & even with just 'night landscape' on, the camera managed a reasonable job :-)

Big stones!

As dawn wasn't too far off, I made a quick loo stop & got a hot drink (very expensive coffee in a small plastic cup), before heading out east to where Arthur Pendragon was officiating.
There were a few hand-fasts, some singing and poetry, and some new appointments of officials before Arthur got down to welcoming the new day / year.

Apologies for the blurry pics, but my hands were freezing (even tho it was midsummer's night) &  I was shivering a bit, & it was actually still pretty dark/not light at this point, despite it there being an apparently blue sky!

Once Arthur had done his stuff, I exited near the east end & walked west up a deserted A344 towards Shrewton. 

Just after the junction with the A360, a bloke from Warminster answered my thumb & dropped me off at Shrewton at about 10 to 6.


I put my head down for a few hours (Complete with cat!), then headed off to the village Zumba class. It was pretty staid, but woke me up a bit, at least.

Immediately afterwards I drove right over Salisbury Plain, following the white horse signs on my atlas, & suddenly found myself at Silbury Hill.
So I parked up & had a wander round, having remembered a prog on the telly about it being a man-made mound, & the excavations they did inside to try & find out what it was for.

As I had at Moeraki etc., I took pics of the info.
Unfortunately they're not very readable.

Maybe they would be if copied & pasted? ? ?

Anyway, anyone who's interested can google.

After about 1/2 hr I made my way to Avebury, & the pic is of Kennet Avenue with joins Avebury with the Sanctuary, a couple of miles away. There is also a big mid-summer celebration at Avebury, & all the roads leading in were coned-off. 

As I was pretty hungry I found a gateway into a field & parked up there while I ate I got some pics. Duly fed, it was back in the car to Marlborough where (according to colleague, Gill) there was a good cake shop :-q. More charity shops & a couple of cake shops later, I headed home for some proper food & more cats. Plus, as you can see - Sudoku too.

As I was due in work that afternoon, the next morning (Friday) I was on the road for 8ish, & went via Bath during rush hour ~ bad move :-(  However,the rest was fine, & me & my little blue car pulled into Warbreck House drive at just before 1215. Not bad for about 250 miles.

Not proofed this as off to Zumba in 10 min, so

OAO & apologies for typos

Polo. Possibly the most fun I've had fully dressed

In April 2012 I got a Groupon for a Polo Day down at JF Polo Academy in Cheshire, so on the 29th I donned the jodhs, & set off just after 8 from sunny Blackpool.
By the time I hit the M56 it was piddling, & by the time I found the stables in Gt Barrow, raining pretty hard.
There was no sign of life, so I called the mobno I'd been given by Groupon. The posh sounding bloke (at this late stage [Oct 14!] I can't recall his name) said he'd sent an E the previous evening to say it was postponed as the field was waterlogged. 
You don't say!  There was a puddle so big in one bit you could've trained dolphins in it :-/
So, after a brief stop for some goodies, I went back to Blackpool.

It had been reconvened for the following Sunday, so off I went again, this time it was a lovely May morning all the way.
There were 3 of us with a Groupon, but the chap only had a 1/2 day voucher. There was another girl whose family was there. Apparently it was a birthday present.
Posh Bloke asked us about our experience, & sorted me out with a hat. As usual I was given an adult one, & when I explained about needing a kiddy one coz of my kiddy sized head, I got the smallest 1 they had. I also got offered a pair of long boots as I was only in jodhpur boots, but I declined.
Initially we had to show PB our skills & I got a bay mare. She was fine at walk, but very stiff at trot & always felt disunited at canter (for those readers who don't get that bit, google 'disunited canter'). Not a comfy ride :-(  Apparently she had arthritis & was always stiff at first. I felt a bit sorry for her, actually.
Stirrups were pretty short, & we had to ride in half-seat all the time (google half-seat ;-q ). The reins were always in the left, too. Pretty obvious that one ;-p
btw - there are no left-handed polo players.
We were taught to stop & go using the legs, seat & reins, & turn by neck-reining. This wasn't a prob for me having done a Lot of gymkhana comps as a kid. Plus, I'd spent a week on a ranch in Colorado a few years back. A real ranch, not a dude one.
We also got taught how to ride-off. This is (sort-of) the equivalent of tackling in rugby, but doesn't involve anyone hitting the deck (hopefully ;-p ). Basically, you use your legs & reins to make your pony travel in a diagonal line, & use the inner knee to shove the opposing pony over so you can get at the ball. As with tackling, good fun :-D
After about an 40 min of riding we had a break, & I got a new pony. He was much better & really knew his stuff :-)

Once PB had checked us all out as safe, we put the nags back & went to learn how to hit the ball with our mallet. To do this we sat on a wooden horse - it had a saddle on, but no head or neck. I was last to go which meant I had a slight advantage having watched the other 2.  PB seemed pretty impressed with my follow through. I think all those years of karate & kobubo helped ~ striking through the target & all that? He also said girls picked it up better than boys. Apparently they are more relaxed & don't try to rely on strength to whack it. Anyway, having tried it sitting on a lump of wood, we got aboard again & had a go mounted.
Wot a larf ;-)
Fortunately, Pony knew what I was trying to do & was very patient with me.
Then it was lunch & the bloke left.

Lunch was a mega BBQ with massive burgers & yummy sausages. Salad, juice, tea & choccy biscs were also on offer. Having not ridden since NZ (with Suzy, Dylan & Pete in September 11), I was pretty knacked after all that half-seat work, but several burgers/sausages did the trick & revived me. btw - the wooden horse's bottom is on the left of this pic.

Next up was more practice at hitting the ball while moving, & I slowly got better & faster. My new pony seemed to be a mind reader, & was turning as I was thinking about it, but I guess that was his job! He was also very good at following the ball I had just hit, & picked it out of any others in the vicinity. Clever chap :-)  

A few other peeps had mounted up over lunch & were tapping the ball all over the field, so once me & the girl were reasonably accurate at trot, PB suggested a 3-on-3 game.

During the game, Pony came into his own again & chased down the ball with little encouragement on my part, & we even managed to score a goal.

However, that wasn't a good as it sounds as the 'real' polo players were running rings round us 2 novices & I'm pretty sure they let me score???
I also lost my stirrups at one point when Pony went haring after the ball & did an emergency stop before turning left on a pin head & bombing it back in the other direction ~ oops!

Me trying to hit it backwards!

 

 .

All too soon it was 4 o'clock & time to stop.
I'd taken a carrot, so I shared it with Pony after I'd un-tacked him and given him a shower with the hose. They were all pretty sweaty, so I helped with a few others, too.
Then it was back in the car & up the road.
I fairly whizzed home, so I wasn't sat still that long. Even so, I stiffened up a Lot & I could barely get out of the car. The following morning I felt like I'd been run over by a rhino - several times :-/ but managed to get into work.
All in all a great day, & one to keep on the back burner for another time :-D
OAO

And so back to Auckland & beyond

As I said before, Robbie took me to the bus station after our lunch & soon I was in Auckland. After all the wide-openness of everywhere else I'd been ~ even Wellington, I didn't like it & couldn't wait to get out into the suburbs.

The bus took me out to Parnell & it was short walk down a residential street to the City Garden Lodge. I dumped my kit & went out to find where I'd eat & watch the game vs England. Parnell was one of those suburbs where just about all the shops etc were on the main route thru, so it didn't take me long.
Once back at the hostel, peeps were getting painted up for the game, & as you can see, it was a mixed group :-) You can also see I was still a redhead!

Most of the guys in the pic had tickets & set off for the stadium shortly after, & I went looking for dinner. I ended up with a takeaway, but also decided on a pub for later.

This is a pic of the hostel from the drive. The benches on the left were where the group pic was taken.

And this is the cute hostel cat. He looked like he had Seal-Point blood, & like a lot of Siamese, he was quite noisy :-)

Sadly Scotland lost very narrowly to England, & ended 3rd in their group. That meant they never made the 1/4s.
The pub was full of Kiwis supporting Scotland & they made me very welcome. There were a few other 'tourists' there, too, but only one Englishman. He must have felt very alone ;-p

As I had an early start for the airport, I didn't hang about after the game, & walked home having see Scotland play in all 4 of their group games ~ 3 live & 1 nearly live :-D


Next morning I was up before 6 & at the airport for my connection to Sydney by shortly before 8. This bloke fell asleep almost immediately ;-p, but was very friendly when he woke. His name was Rob, I think?

Coming into land I got a couple of photos of Australia!

Maybe I'll get more one day!?
I had a few hours to kill before my flight to Heathrow, so I wandered around the Duty Free, sampling the perfumes & hand cream, & treated myself to a couple of bottles. I remember one was a Shirraz Vioignier blend. No idea at this late stage what the other was.
Bizarrely, I still had the empty SV bottle until a couple of months ago. McPherson. I think?


So that was my 2011 Rugby World Cup visit to New Zealand. A few months after I got home I thought I should go back & visit the places I still haven't been to: the Northland and Bay of Islands, the East Coast of North Island, and the West Coast of South Island. Plus, I still hadn't swum with dolphins, I'd love to ride in more places, & I have a hankering to spend the night on Mt John & see the night sky, Southern Hemisphere style.
So, watch this space!
OAO (for now)