A day without a camera - almost

Back at Liz's in Wellington, & on her laptop praying I have more success than last time!

I uploaded a load of pics at the library in Oamaru, so maybe the machine won't do a wobbler this time?

Thursday 15th was the day I said 'Bye' to the peeps I'd met in Southland.

The staff from Tuatara, Nathaniel, Rachel & Jackie. Thanks.

The staff from Bunkers, Liz & Heath. Awesome pillows, Guys :-))

The locals & travellers at Bunkers & Stewart Island, Andrew, Andrew & Alex (the cute one!), Kevin, Peter, Jackie, Mark, Naomi & Jackie, Ulva, Megan, Scott & Gulmira, Sharon, the Steve's, another Kevin, Keith, Levi, Ray & Chrissie, & several peeps whose names I can't decipher from my scrawled notes! (I should've been a GP ;-p )

BTW - No idea why the blank space happened? Poss the Shirley gremlin struck again?

The taxi was waiting when I got downstairs, &, as it was a domestic flight, there was no lengthy security at the airport.

It was a cute propeller plane again, & I had a great view of both outlets of the Rakaia. One's a normal estuary & the other's a massive delta-type thing. Impressive.

I was to take photos of it from land the following day, but I didn't know that then. I didn't even know it was the Rakaia: I looked it up on the map when I got the car.

Back on earth I was early for the car, as I'd not realised how speedy it was getting bags & away on a domestic flight.

Consequently, I was on the 'Old West Coast Highway" (SH73) by 9.45.

(Elliot's just arrived & demanding attention!)

Remembering the straight roads through Canterbury from last time, I clocked each one, & the section at Kirwee was >10K !!

The google map I'd done back home told me 1 road was called Curve Rd.

I suppose it was: It was a gentle curve between the Waimakiriri Gorge Rd on the Scenic Highway to the West Coast Rd on 73.

I was in Springfield before 11, & checked in & had a brew (comfy bed & free brews for 20$ per night :-) Sorted. Only prob was I had to make a trek across the yard for the loo & shower)

One of the Brit members of staff also lent me her adapter, so I left the camera battery on charge in the pub.

I was already dressed to ski, but watched a bit of a game on the telly before setting off to Porters, which Gmap informed me was only a few min away.

Wrong.
There was >5K of bends on SH73 at 1 point, so no chance of doing any sort of speed, and it actually took me nearly an hour by the time I'd done the 12K on a dirt road up the hill.

And it had started to sleet.

After I'd got a 1/2 day pass & the planks, I grabbed some lunch & a leaflet for riding in the Rubicon Valley. A serendipitous event given how the day developed!

By the time I got the planks on it was actually snowing a bit & it was lovely to ski on. The lift map for Porters is not very helpful as to the ups & downs, & the vis was pretty poor in the increasing snow, but the snow was very forgiving

:-))

I went up 2 drags & down 2 runs, & on arriving at the bottom of the T1 drag, the girl in charge asked me if I'd come up in a car, & if I had chains.

Yes & No

She told me the snow was settling, they'd had 2cm on 10 min, & I should get on down the hill ASAP!

Bang went my chance to ski Porters :-((

I took the pass & skis back & got a full refund, though, which was some consolation.

The car was covered in snow, & I was pretty apprehensive about driving down the hill.

Rightly so, as it happened, as after about 5 min of bends & straights, the car slid its R front wheel into a ditch.

Fortunately it was the uphill side.

As there was no sign of anyone following me down to give me a push, I tried to drive out & just spun. Reversing worked better, & I managed to extricate myself. BIG phew!

The rest of the 12K went without further incident, though my heart was beating faster than it had went I'd jumped into the Shotover canyon. Talk about hairy ! ! ! !

Back on SH73 the snowploughs were already out - they're efficient here (unlike Blackpool), but by the time I was halfway back to Springfield the sun was peeping, so I pulled over & called Rubicon Valley Treks. They had a ride going out, so I found my way there & met bossman, Chris, & a Japanese girl, Keiko - who had never touched a horse before, & seemed to be staying at the farm.

Chris got her up & gave her a quick whizz round the field, so she knew how the steering worked & where the brakes were. I think her horse was called Arrow?

Mine was Monty, & Chris told me he'd been a racehorse. I thought he looked a tad small & ill bred, but didn't comment. When it came to hat fitting time, I told Chris I'd need the smallest 1 he had. He obviously didn't listen & the 1 he handed me went over my eyes. He looked dubious when he gave me a kid's 1, but it fitted a treat ;-p

We set off along the road but soon turned into a field where Chris told me I could 'take Monty for a run', as long as I kept clear of Keiko.

Run was exactly it, as I discovered Monty's preferred gait was to pace.

For those not in the know, this is where a horse uses both left legs & then both right legs together, as opposed to a trot, where the legs work in diagonal pairs. A horse is usually trained to pace for racing purposes, & it's not a natural gait.

And it's goddam awful to ride on.

Eventually I coaxed him into a canter, & he dropped back into a trot after it, thank goodness - I was well jarred & boneshaken ;-p

When I asked Chris, he said Monty'd been a winner in both trotting and pacing races, which was unusual.

Chris also said he didn't like women (Monty, not Chris), which would explain the look on his face when I'd tacked him up.
Anyway, there were a couple of other chances for a canter, but Monty was happy to be dis-united as well as pace, so was frequently very uncomfortable.
Towards the end of the 2 hr ride we came off the hills above the Waimakiriri, which was very wide at this point. Of course I'd no idea what it was, & Chris called it the Whymac when I asked. I only found out its proper name later when I got a map out to see where we'd ridden.

Monty had got pretty hot, so we walked the last 40 min or so, & turned everyone out afterwards (that's horsespeak for 'put them in the field')
Keiko seemed to have had fun, & I heard Chris tell her it was time to feed the lamb, which would have been sweet.

Then I went back to Springfield to clean off all the horse hair & smell, & found my camera all charged so I went out & took these pics.

1 = Springfield Hotel & the RWC flags from across the road

2 & 3 are pics of the mountains towards Porters just before sunset.

4 is a newly shorn sheep who was interested in me taking 2 & 3!

I figured I should take a pic of sheep, as they outnumber humans here by well over 100 to 1

Anyway, time to see if this will publish this time: Fingers crossed

OAO