Landscaping

We've been busy over the past few weeks sorting out the garden and landscaping, now that it's finally warm enough to plant things.

The vege garden is a work in progress - the bean rack will be going up this weekend along with the lettuces but the peas, spinach, spring onions and herbs are doing well and the rhubarb is growing like a weed.

We also planted two feijoa trees in the hope that some time in future we won't have to pay $30 a kilo for feijoas! We've been told that Kelvin Heights is the best place in Queenstown to grow feijoas but it's still a bit hit and miss here so fingers crossed!

In the background of this shot is another possible fruit tree that has produced a few white blossoms but we have no idea what it is or if it's actually even a fruit tree so I guess we'll just wait and see!

We also continued the pittisporum hedge around the outside of the property. Again, in 3-4 years time these should be around about the right height for complete privacy. They're fairly hardy though and we have about 30 others so we're pretty confident they will enjoy the conditions.

You might also notice the new rock borders and new paths - the paths were always sort of there but now you can see where they are, and the rock border continues the theme we started up by the road side.

Our other fruit tree is a cherry tree of some kind. Again we're not sure which variety or if it's ornamental or edible, but we'll find out in a few months! If the number of blossoms is anything to go by it should produce plenty of fruit - maybe for us and maybe just for the birds...

More of the rock borders, and some of our new tussocks. The last thing to do in here is to put down bark, which we'll do in a few weeks. The grass is also looking a lot greener than when we moved in - amazing what not driving on it, watering it and feeding it will do..... it was a complete dust bowl when we arrived.

A busy few weeks

Sorry to all that we've been a bit slack with the blogging for the past month or two.

Greg's back at work with a vengeance - extremely busy! And Andrea's been relatively busy too, with trips to Christchurch, Hamilton and Whangarei lately.

Weekends have been taken up in the last month with lots of gardening, rock collecting (for landscaping), tree planting and more! Photos to follow in the next month.

We have also been making the most of the end of the ski season and the beginning of the summer season - last weekend was Coronet Peak closing and we continued the tradition of snowboarding and wakeboarding on the same day. We've even managed to corrupt a few of the neighbours and their kids - it was great to have everyone out on the beach late into the afternoon.

This weekend we continued with more gardening and then went ice skating on Saturday afternoon with some friends. On Sunday morning we headed out to Coronet Peak where we went paragliding for the first time ever. We decided a few years ago that each year for our wedding anniversary we would try and sample one of the many activities Queenstown has to offer and this year it was paragliding. The two videos below are of each of us just after take off from Coronet Peak.

Club Field Holiday

Last weekend we took a couple of days off work and travelled up to Arthur's Pass, northwest of Christchurch to check out a few of the Canterbury club fields. These are small ski fields run by groups of like-minded people who found a good spot and decided to put in some rope tows. They vary from very basic rope tows with the notoriously difficult and well named "nutcrackers" to slightly more technologically advanced fields with t-bars. Even those with t-bars have limited grooming and therefore the snow can be a bit variable, but the atmosphere is great and queues are non-existent.

We stayed at Flock Hill Station, which is a working farm with a variety of different accommodation options including the self contained cottages we were in. Fantastic scenery and only 10 minutes drive to the bottom of the access roads for Mt Cheeseman, Craigieburn and Broken River, and just a few minutes more to Porters and Temple Basin.

On Saturday we went to the Mt Cheeseman club field. There had been some fresh snow on Thursday night/Friday morning but when we arrived on Saturday at 10am (to find a total of 20 other cars there), the soft snow had been replaced with sheet ice. So after an initial run we waited until after lunch for the sun to soften the snow. We had a few good runs in the afternoon including one into the back bowls where we found a few pockets of untouched powder. It was near vertical in places and a decent long run with only a couple of hundred metres vertical to hike back out.

On Sunday we decided to take a trip through Arthur's Pass itself to Greymouth and back again as the previous day's high temperatures had not helped the snow conditions.

Arthur's Pass is spectacular. If you haven't done it yet, put it on your list. Here's a taste of the scenery:

One of the little lakes just past Flock Hill Station:

River Delta just before the middle of Arthur's Pass:

Only slightly less impressive than the scenery - the amazing feats of engineering. This is the world-famous-in-New-Zealand Otira Viaduct:

And while we were at the Otira look out we were greeted by a very photogenic Kea. We had to chase him away from the car a few times - we're pretty sure he was eyeing up the wiper blades 8888888888888888888888888888888888885 (the last intelligent contribution courtesy of Burton walking across the keyboard - maybe he was eyeing up the kea...)

On Monday due to the snow still being spring conditions we headed across to Mt Hutt (about an hour's drive away) for some great spring riding. We had a fantastic day experiencing the luxury of groomed slopes and high speed chair lifts, and again with no queues. It was a warm sunny day - no warm jackets required! One guy was even skiing in shorts and a singlet top but we weren't quite that keen.

Let the clean up begin...

A view from our side deck of the igloo we built at the neighbour's place yesterday:

A close up of the igloo:

The wind lip of snow built up overhanging the gutter. It's nearly a foot deep, which makes you a bit careful when you step out the front door as if you slammed the front door too hard you might end up with a bucket load of snow on your head. We've cleared it off with the rake 3 or 4 times in the last couple of days but this is what has built up again since last night. The house 2 doors along has lost it's gutter - it's sagged about half a metre and he's propping it up with long bits of timber. Possibly a bit late for that!

The vege garden. Nothing planted as yet.... Thankfully some good hardy snow tussocks

The driveway this morning. It was cleared of snow yesterday, so the 10cm on it now is from overnight.

And the down side of all the snow - shovelling!

We have between 30 and 60cm of snow right around the house. Although we've been clearing paths, there will be a good day or two's shovelling to go yet clearing the drive etc. It's warmed up a bit this morning to a tropical 3 degrees which is helping to melt a bit of the snow, but as we speak another wall of black is approaching from Kingston so we don't think it's quite over yet. On the bright side, we haven't lost power or phone and still have heaps of food for us and Burton. The roads are nearly clear now (Graded to only 2-3 cm deep, but that's sheet ice so chains are necessary) - council have been doing a fantastic job. We can get out to the supermarket and the gas station... both of which are running out of supplies very quickly due to panic buying.

We're delighted to hear there has been snow in Auckland too - must be pretty exciting!

Tobogganing..... poorly

We went to Mike's place next door, because he has a nice steep hill. Last time it snowed we were sliding down it on real estate signs and were getting halfway across his lawn. So we thought we'd try it again. Here's the video Greg took of Andrea's first run down the hill....

We also made an igloo with Alex and Molly, the neighbours from over the fence - here's a video halfway through construction. Photos to follow tomorrow! Due to Greg's shoulder he was firmly on camera duty.

Polar Blast part 2

We woke up this morning to far more snow - and blizzard conditions at times. This video is taken from the master bedroom again

And one taken from the lounge. Hopefully more photos tomorrow!

Polar Blast

We're hoping it will get "worse" later but here are a few videos to keep you all going! Since we've taken this video another 5cm or so has fallen, so we'll update these later...

Taken from the end guest bedroom looking into the neighbour's back yard

Taken from the master bedroom looking out towards the empty section next door