Snow again!

We woke up to a very light dusting of snow on the back lawn and gale force winds. Then the winds started to ease and the snow started to build up. And build up. And build up. So much so that we were able to do this:

That's Andrea sliding down our driveway on a real estate sign (Thanks Michelle!).

And this one is Greg skiing down the driveway! Much earlier in the day, before the second lot of snow.

It's still snowing so hopefully we'll be able to post some photos tomorrow...

Powder Day

This morning we got up bright and early after deciding last night that we were going to take a bit of a walk with our snowboards and avalanche kit (which includes a backpack that carries our snowboard, transceiver, shovel, probe and first aid kit). The avalanche danger had dropped and the forecast was for the freezing level to rise, which meant that for the low altitude snow, it was now or never. We voted now.

We parked one car at the bottom of the run and used a second car to drive us as far up towards the top as we could get. During summer there is a 4WD track right to the top of the hill we were climbing but after this much snow it's not accessible so we had to walk the last couple of hours.

It was definitely worth it. The run was a total of 700 vertical metres (about 4 times the height of One Tree Hill above sea level). It took us about 15-20 minutes to get down - with a few stops for photos etc... and to jump fences!

Our flatmate Mark took this video - it's a little jumpy at times as he was trying to snowboard and video at the same time (not overly successful!). The first person you see is Greg, the smaller person down the hill further is Andrea.

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: