The Cherry & other trees

Before I kick off about the cherry etc., here's a pic of the route I rode with Bruce. You may need to enlarge it, tho.

Apologisis 4 the mucho delay in blogging, too.
Never seen to have enough time in the Library these days.


Pic 2 is a little lake just south of Twizel. The willows at the front were actually a lot oranger to the naked eye, but hey, maybe it was just my eyes?








I'd parked up at the roadside, & as I was returning to the car, a camper went by with Crazy About Rugby written on the back. Well I just Had to get a pic, so I leapt in the car & took the next one once I'd caught up a bit. It's a bit blurred. Sorry ;-)

The next is a lake on SH83, & I was looking for orange willows again. The one in the middle is getting there, but it was a glorious spot & I really felt like getting wet, but needed to get SW for my ride in the Waitaki hills.

The lake in the background is a reservoir - Aviemore, & the big rock caught my eye. Well I could hardly miss it: It was huge. I tried several viewpoints, but wanted to get white snow, blue sky, green greenery & black rock, so ended up with these 2.

Here's me framing with trees again!. You can't see very well, but there's snow on them thar hils.



And it's still Lake Aviemore on the SH83

I passed this cherry & thought "I should stop for a pic", & then "There'll be another 1"
6 miles on & no sign of another cherry, so I did a u-ey & went back.
I was virtually lying on the verge for the 1st as I was trying to hide the telephone wires. Not a bad job! You can hardly see them :-)

I wasn't so successful with this one, tho, but I wanted that lovely turquoise water in. Shame some of the grass still has its winter brown.

I Was lying on the verge for this one. Trying to miss the wires again!

I like the 1st 1 best

Shortly after this I got to Kurow & went into the winery I'd seen a sign for miles back! I tried a few & ended up treating myself to a Gewurtz :-)) At the time of writing, I still haven't drunk it. I'm saving it to share with someone who enjoys Gewurtz - it's an odd taste if you're a Chardonnay addict.

Time was short so I pressed on & found the stables in the middle of a field - literally!
I introduced myself to Pete & the nags, Suzy & Denzel (who was awesomely cute - see pics in next blog), & arranged for a 2 hr ride.

OAO

Ohau & Nude Bathing

Ha ha. Attention grabbing title, or what?


All this blog's about Sept 20th from about 8am to 10pmish - busy day in some respects.


The 1st pic was taken from the road off SH8 leading to Lake Ohau & the ski field. The road up the mountain you can see is the one I was on to take pics 6 & 7. Not much apparent snow, but I managed to keep busy all day.


Still no luck with photographing Keas, though. No sign at all at Ohau, even when I got carrot cake - see below :-)
Pic 2's not brill, but down those valleys lie the Big hills.




Pic 3 is a bit of a close-up of them, & pic 4 is me trying to be artistic again!


Shame you can't properly see the lovely spring green of the trees - willows, I think?

The big flat lump in the middle of pic 5 is Aoraki. Weird how it looks completely different down this valley. Mind you, Bruce said much the same thing about Mt Somers (the lump, not the village)

6 & 7 are taken from the road you can see in 1. The road back out to SH8 is on the flat brownish bit.

The next's before 9am. I was the 3rd person on the slopes & had skied down by 0900!. Karl from Liverpool had sorted me out with skis & was a rugby fan. We agreed the all-round awful kicking performances were due to the balls & not wind (or else Johny would have had no excuse for being crap in the covered Otago stadium, would he?)

Next shows the off-piste run above the chair (there's only 1 chair here). As at Hutt, I didn't fancy a trek up hill to ski something that may not be that nice. A decision proved correct later in the day when I watched 3 English come down & all complained about the snow.
I went down to the right off the chair & did Easy Off (a green - see below) for a warm up & then headed off left on the blues around Wedding Knob (Kiwi SOH again ;-p ), Powder Bank (not powder!) & Sun Run (very sunny & therefore already getting sticky by 10.30)

I continued the morning with a few runs down Lower Sutton, which, while also in the sun, had been less skied (it's a black), & was more fun than the Sun Run.

About 11.30 I decided I'd have an early lunch & did the Boulevard back to the cafe.
Having ordered the usual brew plus a bacon, brie & chicken sarnie I decided to elongate the break by stripping off a bit & joining Elton for a sunbathe. He told me it was the last week Ohau would be open. Hardly surprising given the heat!
While we were chatting, 1 of the instructors came by too - Clair from Edmonton, & we had a bit of a chat about Canada's performance in the RWC so far.

After lunch I went across to the blacks off the High Traverse & the next pic shows where the traverse ends & drops off piste onto the various gullies & bowls - all in sight of the cafe, so no hiding if you wipe out!
I did Tom's Drop 1st - a couple of times (see next pic) before moving over to do Escalator. I did 7 runs down the various skiable bits during the afternoon.

Having done wiggles down a bowl 2 or 3 times, I took a few pics

They're not very good wiggles, but at least they're mine. Apart from a couple (man on board, woman on skis) going down once, I didn't see anyone else skiing these slopes all afternoon!
There had ben a bloke at the bottom of the chair all morning (in the shade), who was up top after lunch. This is him tuned into his IPod! Good job no-one needed help off the chair!

These wiggles aren't mine. It's the off-piste run from earlier having been wiggled on. The person at the top is the last of the English to set off down it - female.

I was hoping a kea or few would be interested in a bit of scran, but, like I said above, no sign of any round here. Perhaps too hot? There were loads in the snow at Porters.
BTW - it was delicious :-))

A pic of my afternoon tea with my wiggles in the background.

Then the shot of the day, I think? Aoraki from the south west. I think it looks even more of a lump from this angle.

I think you can just see the end of Lake Ohau through the tree, as well?

Although it was well after 3, the water was still enough to reflect the mountains. You normally only see still water first thing in the mornings.

The next pic I uploaded was taken while driving down. A campervan passed me while I took the last pic, & I thought I'd give you an idea of what it was like on the very dusty road down! However,I managed to delete it while tidying up. Again :-(

This is the last shot of Aoraki. Not sure what the pointy one next to the tree is?

Then we come to the nude bathing!
Once down, I drove the 17 K to Omarama (Oh marama, not Oh ma rah ma, Chris at Twizel said), & booked myself in for a hot tub. It was just before 5 when I got in & gone 7 when I got out. I wasn't too wrinkly & prune-like, though - hehe

The reason I was in so long was because I wanted pics of the stars as I'd chosen to soak rather than go to St John's observatory & see the stars from there.
That's a plan for my next visit.

Anyway, that's my foot, looking back in a Ohauish direction.

The next 2 are my head from a similat angle. I took a few of the 1st before I managed one that wasn't indecent ;-p It makes my chin look weird, though. Brucie springs to mind!

The next 2 were about 40min later when the setting sun's shadows made nice effects on the hills.

I hung around for ages waiting for the sun to go down & the stars to come out, & then played around with the setting on the camera & the number of seconds exposure. As I discovered, it was very hard to hold it still for 15 secs while almost floating in a hot tub (you may be able to make out the shadow of the chimney?). I decided to get out & put it on the step once I'd set it for 30, then 60 secs. Eventually I managed a pic, which when viewed on my big telly actually shows some stars :-)
Not bad for a luddite leaning technodunce!

Unfortunately, these pics are too small, so you'll have to take my word for it :-)

Satisfied I'd got a star or 2, I got out, dressed & went back to Twizel. I had fruit for tea, as I wanted to go across to Speights again. As there was a game on, it was considerably busier. No sign of the Irish guy, though.

Can't remember if I'd managed to get last Sat's ride route uploaded. If not, here it is. If so, here it is again! And thanks again to Bruce. And, Liz - don't forget our plan to ride with Bruce next time I'm out :-)

So having watched the 2 1/4 finals from silly o'clock on a Saturday morning, I'm off now

OAO

Mackenzie Country

Leaving Big Tree about 1/4 past 4, I headed out towards Mayfield & Geraldine, wanting to use a different route than the one I'd used to Staveley.

This one included a straight bit of road 13k long - wow ! ! !

I stopped in Geraldine for gas & directions to Rivendell Lodge, having realised Joan's E mails didn't include the address - oops.
The older lady at the petrol station looked in the phone book with no luck, then the young girl had the nous to go online & found it was on Stanton Road in Kimbell. She was even able to tell me it was on the left after the pub!

I told you everyone was helpfull here :-))

The road out of Geraldine - SH79 was a lovely drive as the sun set, & had I not been in a hurry to get to Kimbell I'd've stopped for pics.

As promised, Stanton Rd was about 100y past the pub, & Joan came out to greet me.

The first 2 pics - taken the following morning show Rivendell Lodge & bits of the garden.

Joan is a big LOR fan, but said she only thought Gimli's character to have been well cast, but that Sean did a good job with Sam. She thought Elijah looked too young for Frodo & seemed quite upset that they made so much of Arwen's role & missed Tom Bombadill.

Maybe he'll be in The Hobbit?

The guest rooms are named after places in the book: Lorien, Edoras (mine), Rauros & Nimrais, & the bed made me feel like the Princess & the Pea - without the pea, though!

Joan gave me lovely home made cakes & a brew on arrival, & because of that (& the 2 lamb shanks at Mt Hutt), I didn't feel I needed food - unusually for me ;-p

Instead I headed out to the pub to catch the end of the England/Georgia game on the telly, leaving Joan to watch the delightful Daniel in Casino Royale.

I had a nice malt, watched the match and chatted to a lady who'd just had dinner.
Apparently, she called Joan when she got home & said she thought my hair was lovely!
She must like Rangas!

Within a few min everyone but me had left, & the barman looked like he wanted to shut shop for the night, so I headed back up the SH8 to Fairlie in search of a pub to watch the Canada/France game.
Fairlie seemed fairly dead, so I popped into its gas station hoping for similar luck as Geraldine.
The girl said the best pub was the Gladstone, but there was another called Top Pub.

The Gladstone was empty & the barman about to turn out the lights when I walked in. So I turned about & walked out in search of the other pub!

This one was open - & occupied by a bunch of young folk, so I ordered a ginger beer (not wanting to risk anything by having another malt!)

The next game was about to start, so I planted myself in front of one of the screens & settled down for an hour & a half's rugger :-)
I seemed to be the only 1 watching, which was unusual, but a Maori girl kept popping by to chat & said the juke box was free so I should choose something. So, at 1/2 time & put Eminem on.
Betcha didn't know I liked Eminem, did ya!

I didn't hang about once it was game over, & drove back to Kimbell. It's well weird driving down those straight roads in the dark: The headlights of approaching traffic approach for yonks before they actually get to you!

Next morning there was a fresh baked breakfast & I met the cat who calls Rivendell Lodge home (well 1 of his homes, anyway). That's him in the 3rd pic.

Then it was load up & off towards Tekapo & Twizel.

At Fairlie, the SH79 ends as it's joined by the 8 coming in from Timaru on the east coast, so I followed it all the way to Twizel, stopping briefly in Tekapo on the way.

Today, Lake Tekapo was a great turquoise colour, too. Apparently it's not just Lake Pukaki that's that colour.

Having checked in & noted the day had gone a bit cloudy, I went on the net for a bit, & then headed off back towards Aoraki/Mt Cook. This was back up the SH79 a bit & then left onto the SH80 which runs north along Lake Pukaki & up to the Tasman Glacier road & The Hermitage.

The stream & bridges had names relating to the blokes of mountaineering fame - Fred, Jack & Will, but no idea why one was called Dead Horse as the info centre at the Hermitage didn't mention it.

Pics 4 & 5 show drops of rain on the windscreen & Lake Pukaki.

Pics 6 & 7 are Mt Cook/Aoraki from points on the SH80

The valley on the right of pic 8 leads to the Tasman Glacier, taken from the road near the airport.

The next one's the mountains on the other side of the same valley.


The statue is of Sir Edmund Hillary, & there's a big info centre at the Hermitage all about his exploits.

The weather was cloudy & I was in the shadow of a bloody great mountain, so it's not very clear, but it's him, honest!

After a wander around a bit I went into the "Snowline Lounge Bar" for a brew & had a malt as well. And some orgasmatronic chocolates.

There was a pic of the brew, the Laphroaig bottle & the chocs, next to the bar guest book (a massive one which I signed), & looking through the window to the bloody great mountain, but I accidentally deleted it tidying up the gaps in the blog - doh !

The bald headed bloke is holding a piece of paper describing what's in the chocs. He's called Allen.

While I was drinking & eating I read about the Maori legends & their names for the mountains.

Dampier is Rakiroa, Teichelmann is Rakirua, & Tasman is Rarakiroa. Mt Cook is Aoraki (obviously).

Raki means Sky Father.

All are Tapu (sacred) to the Iwi (tribe) Ngai Tahu

While I was reading they were playing Sade, which was a blast from the past.
I also read a book about England vs the All Blacks games which had some great photos.

The last pic is my final view of Aoraki that day - another sunset one (you don't say, Shirl!?)

Back at Twizel, I asked Chris (landlord) whether Ohau was still open & about going to the observatory on St John. He was telling some asians about a hot tub in Omarama while I was waiting, so I decided to save the St John trip until next time & go in the hot tub instead.

Then it was tea & Speights, but I ended up watching Criminal Minds on my telly in bed as I was the only 1 in the pub after about 10 min & the Irish barman was looking to close up. He said it would be busier for the game tomorrow. Well, that wouldn't've been difficult - hahaha

About to be logged out here at the lobrary, so until next blog

OAO