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!