The Deep South

As a pre-christmas break we decided to join our friends Max and Fin for two days at the Catlins. It was great to get in the sea again, as we hadn't seen the ocean since our last trip to the Catlins in February. We met up with Max and Fin in Riverton where they had been staying the night before and travelled in convoy down to the Catlins. The day was very clear and we were able to see Stewart Island in the distance.

Once we arrived at the Catlins the cloud burnt off to a beautiful day. After unpacking etc and relaxing on the deck of the crib at Curio Bay (bach if you're a North Islander) we decided the sea was too inviting and headed in for a swim/surf/boogie board. The sea was a little chilly, but no worse than Lake Wakatipu, and the surf was great. Even if it did manage to dump Andrea on her head once or twice - no noticable damage (Greg says she's always been like that). After Fin and Andrea headed back to the crib, Greg and Max were joined by a pod of Hector's Dolphins (much to the girls' disappointment!) which proceeded to jump out of the water and dive under their surf boards as the boys floated behind the breakers. The girls went for another swim the following morning to try and entice the dolphins back but just missed out again.

It was great to have a relaxing break after finishing work and before heading up for the hustle and bustle at Christmas. It really gave us an opportunity to just "switch off".

More pretty lupins

I know we already posted some pretty lupins but I (Andrea) drove past this in the Cardrona Valley today and couldn't resist a photo!



Pretty much the whole Cardrona River is lined with Lupins at the moment, making the drive even prettier than normal!

One week to go!

Sorry no photos this post!

Another busy weekend just been. Saturday morning Greg and two of the guys from our street headed out at 6.30am trout fishing near Glenorchy. They towed the boat down there and then fished in front of all the major rivers - the Dart, Rees and Greenstone. They came home with 4 rainbow trout, and released a number of browns. On Saturday evening we headed out to a BBQ for some people that we met at our street party - we were only intending on staying for a short time but ended up getting home close to midnight.
On Sunday morning we again put the boat in the water, this time for wakeboarding. It was beautifully flat and we stayed out from 8.30 until 11.30 - and wondered where everyone else was! We were still the only ones out when we came back in. Then everyone came back to our place for brunch. After brunch we started preparing the lamb shanks for dinner as our friends Max and Fin, their baby Morgan and Max's parents were over for dinner. They arrived at about 5pm and a great dinner was had by all (complete with the first strawberries from Fin's garden - which were the only sweet juicy strawberries we have had in Queenstown, they were great on top of the Pav!). They headed home at about 9pm and we collapsed into a heap!

Friday is our last day of work for the year and it can't come around soon enough. On the weekend we are heading down to Riverton and Curio Bay with Max and Fin etc which will be great. You can't get much further South than Curio Bay, meaning we will go from the bottom of the South Island to almost the top of the North in a matter of days. And it also means more beach time for us, and hopefully by the time we get to Auckland we will be nicely relaxed. We haven't been to Riverton before so looking forward to that. Good surf around there apparently, and hopefully the Hector's Dolphins will be back at Curio Bay.

We'll come back late on Monday night, which gives us all day Tuesday to clean the house and put away personal papers etc in preparation for the family who are staying in our house whilst we are in Auckland. They are the extended family of one of our neighbours and have 4 children. The eldest daughter has recently suffered a concussion injury so it will be good for them to have a quiet place to get away from the younger ones. We are slightly nervous about letting our house out but we figure what's the worst that could happen..... touchwood.....

Fairy Lights!!

The street BBQ on Friday night went really well. Everyone had a good time - all the kids left at about 11pm and the last of the adults left at about 1am. A lot of nice food was consumed, with way too many left overs!

Saturday evening was Andrea's work Christmas function, which also went well and was enjoyed by all. We really enjoyed the luging up the Gondola and the food is always good. The weather was awesome with a spectacular sunset to top it all off.

This morning (Sunday) we got up bright and early and headed out trout fishing. We brought home 2 rainbow trout and released a number of brown trout and quinnat salmon. We went further than we have gone before and came across this waterfall.

We also saw a number of whitetail and red deer - right down by the lake having a drink, some only 20 or 30 feet from us. In all cases we weren't quick enough to get a photo before they bolted back into the scrub.

This afternoon (after a bit of a nana nap!) we decided to continue Christmas-ing our house. We got the idea on Friday night when all the kids took a special walk to go and have a look at one of the houses in the next street that is all lit up. So our first lot of fairy lights have now been installed around the verandah. We're considering leaving them up all year so we can turn them on when it snows :-)

Busy Busy Busy!

Sorry we didn't update last weekend - and sorry in advance because we probably won't get around to it this weekend either!

Last weekend we had Greg's work Christmas Function on Saturday, which involved fishing for the boys during the day (our boat and the boss's boat) including a BBQ lunch on the other side lake and then a dinner which the partners were invited to. The fishing turned into an impromptu competition between the two boats, which we are pleased to report resulted in a 7-1 hiding dealt out by the younger boys on our boat. One trout was brought home and the rest were released. The dinner was at a restaurant called Brazz on the Village Green - this was the first restaurant we went to in Queenstown (on our first night in town, a week to the day after our wedding).

The following day we had free tickets to the Cromwell Races courtesy of a client of Greg's which included free entry and then a day in their corporate tent, with food and drinks all provided. We've decided we would be better off burning the money spent on the horses in our fire place in winter - it would be a better investment. We didn't bet a lot - and got even less back. i.e. not a cent.

From the races Greg headed back to Queenstown and Andrea headed down to Dunedin for work (she was there until Tuesday night).

This coming weekend isn't looking to be a whole lot less busy. Tomorrow night (Friday) we are hosting the Larch Court Christmas Family BBQ. Current tallies are running at around 30 attendees. Everyone is bringing their own meat and drinks but we are providing the majority of the salads, desserts and nibbles. We're sure others will turn up with some food but we don't want to count on it... so..... Andrea is taking tomorrow off work (having already worked 40 hours this week) to cook and clean.

Saturday night is Andrea's work Christmas Function, which consists of an hour's unlimited luging and then dinner (buffet) and drinks up the Gondola. One of her workmates has bought another workmate a bungy jump for her birthday, which he kindly booked for the night of the Christmas Function, so that will be good for entertainment too!

Sunday we plan to collapse in a heap!

With the BBQ being Christmas themed we have put up our Christmas tree. It is rather a busy looking tree with old decorations from both sides of the family dating back years and years.

Lupins, Lupins and more Lupins...

As promised, some photos of the Lupins. They come in a very wide range of flowers and grow pretty much everywhere.

Some pink and purple lupins....


And some yellow lupins....

And lots of different coloured lupins!

These were all taken on Peninsula Road, about 3 minutes drive from home. Apparently the lupins down at the Arrow River are even prettier, but we haven't quite managed to get that far yet.

We had a very quiet weekend, didn't get up to much. After Friday night's wakeboarding we took it easy on Saturday, cutting, carrying, splitting and stacking 3 cubic metres of firewood. We are now completely finished with the firewood for winter next year. Sunday we got up early again and headed out wakeboarding with Ross and Deborah from across the road. It was the flattest we have ever seen Lake Wakatipu - awesome as it was Deborah's first time (and she got up on her 3rd attempt!). After we got home and unpacked the boat we headed back out to do some spinning (fishing from shore with little plastic lures). Supposedly we were heading out for "an hour or two". We returned home 4.5 hours later, with a rainbow trout we cooked up for dinner. It is now 7pm and we are both ready for bed! It's a hard life...

Wakeboarding!!

The last two evenings (Thursday/Friday) have been relatively calm so we headed out both nights wakeboarding after work. Greg's workmates Jim and Matt came along, as did our friend Max. Also a couple of random friends of friends - it's great to be meeting new people all the time!

A great time was had by all, especially on Thursday night when we managed to get into some flat water just before sunset. We got a few good photos, so thought we would put some up here for you.

The first photo is Greg with the sun behind him laying into a big carving turn.

The next photo is Andrea, not carving quite as much.... she does also jump a little but the "air" is so short lived that it's almost impossible to get a photo of :-)
Greg in Mid airAnd the last photo is Greg's workmate (and our friend) Matt - just had to include this photo! He's about a metre in the air, in the middle of a 180.

Always the spaniards...

A bit of background to this post.... on the alpine slopes around here there are two main types of vegetation. The most common is the tussock plant. These grow like weeds and also form a large part of most people's gardens (because you don't have to feed or water them and they look great). The other plant is called a spaniard. Tussocks are soft, like tall grass, but with stronger blades. They are ideal for support when clambering around on the slopes. Spaniards are hard and spiky and hurt lots if you happen to grab onto one.

I (Andrea) had a site visit up at Treble Cone Ski Field on Monday. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, and the purpose of my visit was a good walk around on some of the lower slopes, taking GPS readings. I can now state with no doubt what-so-ever that EVERY time you lose your balance, you can be assured of landing on or in a spaniard. Or accidentally grabbing one to stop you falling.

The views, however, were spectacular. This first photo is looking out directly from the ski field over Lake Wanaka.

The second photo is of the Matukituki Valley. Rachael and Dave might recognise this as we drove up the valley to the start of the walk we did in February up to Rob Roy Glacier.

In other news, things have been really hectic. We have been out most nights collecting firewood for next winter (most of the firewood easily available is still pretty green - i.e. has just been chopped down - so we need to let it dry before we can burn it). Last night we headed out wakeboarding with 2 of Greg's workmates and an Intern currently working with Andrea. Was lots of fun, but the muscles are complaining a little today.

The weather continues to be schizophrenic. Today we got to 32 degrees. We are sleeping with windows open at night - compared to last week when we had 3 days of snow to lake level, with early morning frosts and VERY cold overnight temperatures. Last week Greg was suffering from wind burn and this week we have both gotten sunburnt - we just can't win.

Work for both of us is entering the silly season and we will be putting in long hours in the lead up to Christmas - so these updates may not be as frequent, but we will try our hardest!

A bit of a change

A bit of a change from yesterday! Photos taken from the same spot - although fine, it was a chilly minus 3.

Last gasp of winter.... take 3

We somehow keep getting it wrong when we think Winter is done with us. Today we have had steady snow all day, and still snowing as we write (10pm). Not a lot had settled on the ground at lake level in town, but out where Greg is working at Jacks Point it's another story altogether. This all settled in about 20 minutes before they decided to call it a snow day and head home.

This second photo shows the 'view' out towards the lake.... when it clears up in a couple of days Greg will take some more photos to show what you'd normally see!

A slight breeze

We started off this morning with the usual weekend drudgery... food shopping followed by some gardening. We had "purchased" a new toy... I mean tool... through Fly buys, being a hedge trimmer. Greg wasted no time in going out to massacre... I mean tidy up... the garden. Andrea tidied up the trimmings. Burton helped:

Speaking of Burton, he is the happy recipient of a new bed. This serves the dual purpose of keeping said cat happy, whilst also protecting the couch from the bucket loads of fur he currently seems to be shedding:

After we had finished with the gardening, we decided to head across the road to take some photos from our "beach". The wind today is forecast to gust to 110 km/hr - hence the gardening rather than wakeboarding or fishing. The lake below is indeed the same piece of lake pictured in the earlier post as flat as glass. We're REALLY glad we aren't out in it! If it wasn't so cold (the lake is full of snow melt) we would have taken the boogie boards out!

Ahhhhhhh pretty...

Taken from upstairs (guest room) on Monday night. We thought it was pretty enough to include - you'll soon be as bored of sunset photos as you were of snow photos :-)

Those with keen eyes can also possibly spot the Earnslaw at the bottom right returning from the dinner cruise over at Walter Peak Station on the other side of the lake.

We were wrong...

So, about Jen's last weekend being "the last gasp of winter"....?? It turns out we were wrong. Greg says "There's a first time for everything".

Temperature-wise, we got to a high of about 7 degrees yesterday (Sat) with sleet, snow and rain all falling at times throughout the day - tending more towards snow as the day progressed. After dinner we had nothing better to do so we took a drive up to The Remarkables to play in the snow. Yes, it is as cold as it looks in these photos - the wind was howling (about 150 km/hr - definitely would have been "on hold" if the mountain was still open) and VERY cold.

This morning (Sunday) dawned bright and clear so we decided to put the boat in the water and head out for a trout fish. Had some luck, with about 6 brown trout. One was an absolute monster - about 8 lb we'd guess, and landed on 6 lb line. A definite achievement for Greg! We unfortunately didn't get a photo as it took a while to get the hook out and we wanted to release it. The lake was like glass and we managed to get the photos below - made even better by the dusting of fresh snow overnight. Did we mention we love Queenstown??

The 10 best things about Queenstown

So I thought I would put together a quick list of the best things about living in Queenstown that you wouldn't know about unless you actually live here.

I'm not talking about things like the snow or the lake or the hunting and fishing - everyone knows about that stuff!

So, in no particular order:

- The grass doesn't grow over winter. Not even a little bit. Between late April and Late September we (by which I mean Greg) didn't have to mow the lawns once.

- In the summer, if you hang your washing on the line after work, it's dry before you go to bed. The combination of long, dry, hot days, and the breeze coming in off the lake in the evening mean it dries really quickly

- No Ants. I have not seen a single ant inside since we moved to Queenstown!

- Locals' Days and locals' discounts. The best one by far is the Shotover Jet Locals' Day where for $15 a head you can experience what tourists pay $109 a head for. All the money raised goes to a local charity - last year it was Diabetes Wakatipu and this year it is Plunket.

- We don't have to flush out the boat motor after we've been out. Unless it is really dirty we don't have to clean it either. Boating no longer means an extra 1-2 hours of cleaning after we get back home. Yay for fresh water!

- Work opportunities are great. An article in the local paper the other day highlighted that there is currently zero unemployment in Queenstown. Not a single person in Queenstown is currently on the unemployment benefit. Also, with the impression everyone has of Queenstown (i.e. expensive and transient) there are great opportunities if you are willing to show long term commitment.

- Crime isn't high. Half the time we don't lock our cars or even our house. We haven't set the house alarm since December last year. As a result, you also see kids playing in the street and riding their bikes unaccompanied by adults. It's great to live in a community where kids can still be kids.

- We will NEVER run out of good places to eat out. There are so many restaurants and cafes in town it's not funny, and many of them serve fantastic food.

- The Remarkables Sweet shop has the best fudge any of us have ever tasted. Creamy, rich, yummy...

- The weather is great. We actually get all 4 seasons - Autumn colours with leaves that actually crunch when you walk on them, Winters with actual snow, Spring with lots of rain and new growth, and hot dry summers with long warm evenings.

Briefly...

It has now officially been a year since we arrived in Queenstown - 20th October 2007 was the day we arrived, and at about the time I am writing this (3pm). It's strange, it both doesn't feel like we have been here long enough for it to be a year, but on the other hand, it almost feels like we've been here for longer. A milestone none-the-less!
Our other milestone in the past 7 days of course was our first wedding anniversary last Monday (the 13th). We went out for a great meal at the Botswana Butchery and thoroughly enjoyed it. Greg had the Alaskan King Crab Claws as an entree (these are what are caught on the Discovery Channel Show "World's Deadliest Catch") and the Marlborough Sea Run Salmon as a main, I had breads as an entree and the Cardrona Merino Lamb as a main. Then we finished with Creme Brulee (Greg) and Chocolate Mousse (Andrea). Yum yum!!

Jen's last day

Jen left Queenstown on Saturday the 18th of October (yesterday) and since she had been slack while she was here and hadn't actually visited Wanaka yet, we thought a road trip was in order. We left home at about 8am and headed up and over the Crown Range towards the Cardrona Valley and Wanaka. To our delight, winter was having it's last gasp and it was snowing at the top of the Crown Range. A compulsory snowball fight followed! Did we mention that Greg ALWAYS wins snowball fights?

We then had a cooked breakfast in Wanaka and continued on through and visited Lake Hawea and then the top of Lake Wanaka.

Then we completed the Central Otago geography lesson by finishing the trip going through Cromwell and the Kawarau Gorge. Jen learnt lots on the way about stuff she should have already known about. (For example: Are you sure they would be red grape vines? The grapes look green.... No Jen, those are the leaves.....)

We're glad Jen had fun here though, and although we're pleased to have the house back to normal, Burton is still looking for Jen as we speak.

Don't worry though Jen, it will all still be here next year when you come for a holiday.

Closing weekend - born to ride!

Well, it was the last weekend of the ski season here in Queenstown and we decided we would make the most of it. On Saturday morning the skies were a little grey and the winds were fairly gusty so we waited until the afternoon and headed up to battle with the afternoon slush. The snow was very slow, but still fun to play in. I was on my snowboard and Greg was on his skis. I definitely had more fun than Greg - wet heavy snow isn't much fun on skis apparently!


(Photo of Greg on his Skis on Sunday morning)

We headed up again bright and early on Sunday morning for the last day of the season. The snow conditions couldn't have been more different from the day before - the temperatures had dropped overnight and the slush had frozen into sheet ice. Fun stuff!! Greg and Max (a friend) were both on skis and had far more fun than I had on a board, but still had fun (ice is VERY fast!). We headed down the mountain at about 12.30pm, dropped Max home and then headed home to put the boat in the water! The lake was relatively flat, but a little bumpy as far as other boat wash was concerned. Max and Fin (his wife) and Morgan (their 3 1/2 month old son) met us on the beach and the three of us had a wakeboard. Hopefully we will get Fin wakeboarding by the end of the summer too! All said and done, a great weekend. Born to Ride indeed! Paying the price this morning though - the first wakeboarding trip of the season always reminds me of the muscles I don't use snowboarding. My legs are relatively fine but my shoulders and arms are complaining a bit. Still, gotta be good for us!

Two extremes

Well, we sucessfully went out wakeboarding last night and had a load of fun. I didn't end up getting into the water as we were running out of daylight and the coastguard was watching us. Rusty and Sarah (Jen's liftie friends) hadn't wakeboarded before but we got them both up and wakeboarding. Always really rewarding!

This photo is of Jen, and you can see how little snow is left on the Remarkables in the background. Definitely the end of the season!

Sarah and Rusty on the biscuits. That is Rusty in mid-air!

Anyway, we woke up this morning and looked outside and it was snowing!! Big fat flakes, at home in Kelvin Heights. Met Service had previously said "snow above 1100m" so not a whole lot of warning. Burton was less than impressed and was sulking on the couch when I left home. If he had been upstairs I would have considered leaving the heater on, but there's no way I am going to light the fire for the cat when we're not home. It had turned to sleet by the time I left for work and is now normal old rain but still snowing up the mountain so hopefully closing weekend will be a lot of fun.

Seemed to be the right thing to do at the time

Well, everyone else is doing it so I thought we should start up a blog too. It's nearly the end of the ski season, with only one week remaining. The forecast for most of the week isn't what you'd call fantastic, but with any luck the freezing level will drop and we'll get some fresh snow for the weekend.

This is what the Remarkables looks like today - blue skies but not a whole lot of snow left.

We didn't end up going skiing or snowboarding on the weekend as the weather wasn't flash on Saturday and then on Sunday we needed to do really exciting stuff like mow the lawns (it hasn't been good lawnmowing weather for the past 4 weekends, other than when we have been out and about) and tidy the house. It's not all that great when the highlight of your weekend was shifting the couches to vacuum under them, but it happens....

It is fine and sunny today, with a light frost this morning. A pretty typical spring day in Queenstown. Hopefully it won't get too windy this afternoon as we are intending on taking Jen and two of her liftie friends out wakeboarding. It's going to be cold, no doubt about it, but it always is in the water (the lake is about 400m deep, so the temperature tends to not change a lot). I only have two wet suits and they will be used by Jen and her friend Sarah so I likely won't be wakeboarding tonight. Oh well, I will take the time to take some photos of the others and brush up on my boat driving skills!