White Christmas part 2

Late last week, Greg went up to the top of the driveway and took a few photos of the Remarkables. Because it had finally started snowing up there, and things were looking pretty and white. You'll see in the photo that it's been so warm here that the rose hedge is in full bloom.

It turns out (as you have seen from the videos) that we were wrong. That wasn't snow. This was:

Our backyard covered in snow (while it's still falling)

The cars and boat

And last but not least, our new Christmas card house.

White Christmas

Saturday night we were talked into throwing a midwinter Christmas party by our neighbours, much to our delight. Afterall, everyone loves Christmas and it does only come... twice a year.

Turkey, Ham, Roast Veges, Spinach and Cheese Cannelloni (for the vegetarians), minted peas, chocolate Gateau, Tiramisu... complete with a Christmas Tree and outside fairy lights made for a perfect night - made just a bit more perfect by the snow that turned up halfway through dinner.

It continued to fall right through until mid morning on Sunday. We'll post some photos tomorrow but here are a few videos to keep you going until then!

Routeburn Christmas

In the weekend we were invited to a mid-winter Christmas dinner. However the catch was, it was at Routeburn Falls Hut, about a 3.5 hour walk in up the famous Routeburn Track. The Routeburn Track is one of the "Great Walks" spread throughout National Parks all over the country. Over summer you have to book in advance and a maximum of 100 overnighters a day are allowed on it (3 nights for the full track). Off peak (winter), however, bookings are not required and it's a bit more of a wilderness experience. The huts only have coal and cookers supplied in summer so we really had to rough it in the 48 bunk hut with built in washing up facilities.....

As we parked our car at the Routeburn carpark, it began to snow lightly. Much to our delight, this continued pretty much the whole time we were up the valley, with the flakes getting bigger and floatier as we got higher up.

It turns out that they are called "Great Walks" for a reason. The scenery was nothing short of breath-taking!

The Routeburn river:

A dusting of snow on the peaks across the valley:

Getting higher:

And higher still (this photo taken from Routeburn Falls, looking down the Routeburn Valley):

The following morning we decided that instead of just walking down and out, we'd start off with a bit of a walk up towards the saddle (the highest point on the Routeburn Track) so that we could play in the snow. The others with us learnt the lesson Andrea learnt a few years ago: never challenge Greg to a snowball fight!

Before we hit the snow, we found the icicles:

Up near the saddle, looking over Lake Harris. The dinner party numbers had dwindled at the last minute but the 4 of us left were still keen. The other 2 in the photo are Louise (Andrea's friend and Pilates instructor/Physio) and our flatmate Mark.

Easter

The first two days of Easter we were busy around here sorting out a few things around the house and helping the neighbours with a few things. When Sunday arrived the forecast was for showers with light winds, which wasn't ideal, but we thought we'd stick with our plan to go away camping for the night down at The Catlins. Afterall, what are a few showers?

On the way down we stopped off for Greg to do a spot of sea run trout fishing. After only 10-15 minutes of casting (much to Andrea's delight) he hooked up a brown trout which gave a bit of a fight on it's way in, including some tail thrashing:

It was about an 8 lb Brown Trout:

With that box ticked, we continued on down to Curio Bay, where we've been camping a few times before. We could see the showers following us so we set up the tent in record time and sat down inside to start cooking an early dinner and to watch the showers go by outside.

Only it turns out the showers weren't really passing through. And they weren't really what we'd class as showers. Overnight we had torrential rain, hail, gale force winds and sleet. We lay in bed listening to it all (not getting a lot of sleep!) but were grateful for our good tent. We heard car doors slamming in the middle of the night and when we got up the next morning we discovered of all the tents that started the night, ours was the only one that survived it.

We opened the tent to find the weather starting to clear - well, in between torrential showers - it was a tropical 5 degrees. We had a bit of breakfast and packed up the tent.... and decided that what with the temperature being so warm, we'd go for a swim. A handful of tourists stood by the campground shop and shook their heads in disbelief, but we're pretty sure it was actually warmer in the water. Refreshing though.

And really, with a sunrise like this one, it was definitely worth it (taken from the door of the tent).

3 Seasons in 1 week....

After the summery temperatures the day Andrea climbed Ben Lomond, the following weekend she headed out with the same friends to do a bit of walking near Arrowtown, where she was greeted with the spectacular Autumn colours it's famous for:

However, Autumn didn't last long, as only 2 days later, it was most definitely winter.

This photo was taken from our deck outside our lounge looking towards Cecil Peak on Monday morning:

By the evening a bit of snow had melted on the northern faces but the Remarkables still looked spectacular right on dusk from our kitchen window:

Ben Lomond Summit

A few weeks ago, Jackie (our neighbour) decided that on the 9th of April a bunch of the girls in the street were going to climb Ben Lomond. A few days before had seen a random storm come through and dust it in snow, but Saturday the 9th dawned fine and clear, with no snow to be seen. So Jackie and Andrea headed out bright and early to the carpark where we were meant to be meeting everyone... and 1 other person (Sue) turned up.

The 3 of us started out from near lake level (about 310m above sea level) and climbed to the top of Ben Lomond (1750m above sea level) - a climb of 1440 m. For you Aucklanders, that's like climbing from sea level to the top of one tree hill... 8 times. Or Rangitoto 5 and a half times.

Greg has attempted the summit climb before with our friend Max but they were beaten back by a blizzard, so it was nice for Andrea to be the first one up! See: http://gregandandreajarvis.blogspot.com/2009/05/ben-lomond-take-2.html

As mentioned, it was a gorgeous day. This photo was taken just as we popped out of the tree line, almost half way up. Ben Lomond is the peak in the distance.

Looking back towards Cecil Peak with the morning cloud before it burnt off:

The three of us girls at the saddle (Sue on the left, Jackie in the middle and Andrea on the right):

The view from the saddle towards Mt Aspiring National Park (Mt Aspiring is the hard to make out peak on the right of the picture):


The view from the top back towards Queenstown and The Remarkables:

There was still a little bit of snow right up the top where the sun hadn't got to it:

The 3 of us right at the summit:

And Andrea way out on the ridge:

It might be serious...

A snow addiction is virtually un-treatable. The only known relief for symptoms is to apply the child to large amounts of cold white snow and hope their energy runs out before yours does.

Symptoms of the snow addiction include:

Grinning from ear to ear:

Being happy even when it's -6 (thermometer in the background):

Instructing those around you on how to improve the snow experience (caption for this photo: "Faster, Aunty Jen!"):

We think there's a good chance that JJ is doomed to a life of snow addiction. We would like to take this opportunity to apologise to his poor parents - after all, it's not the child who suffers from snow addiction.....