Autumn Colours and Waterfalls

We thought you all might be a bit tired of photos of our hunting exploits so instead we've got a few more tasteful photos.

This waterfall we encountered on one of our walks. We walked up the stream mostly, but obviously went around the waterfall. It's even slipperier than it looks, if that's possible!

Autumn has well and truly hit the Southern Lakes. The colours will develop a bit over the next few weeks (we're still 2-3 weeks off Arrowtown's Autumn Festival) but here are some photos of the first decent colour we've seen. Photos taken in Skippers Canyon, over the back of Coronet Peak.

In case you were wondering, this is in the upper reaches of the Shotover River.

The nights are definitely getting colder (to our delight) although the days are still pretty warm at the moment. We've had the first few light dustings of snow on the hills so we're counting down the few weeks until there's some more permanent white stuff around. Roll on Winter!

Trailblazing

On Thursday night I (Andrea) took part in my first ever Adventure Race. The event was the inaugural Wakatipu Trail Blazer, raising money for the Wakatipu Trails Trust http://www.wakatiputrails.co.nz/

The trails trust has been selected to receive funding as part of the national cycleway/network of trails and as such has to raise half the money required.



There was an option of either a 7.5 km adventure run or 15 km mountain bike race. The run was over very hilly terrain, and not on proper formed tracks (a farm track in most places, long tussocky grass in other places!). Definitely had to watch where you put your feet.



Anyway, I really enjoyed it and will probably sign up next year, although next year I might not chicken out and opt for the recreational option (meaning no time officially recorded). I tracked my time on my stopwatch and came in at a time of about 1 hour and 7 minutes (roughly middle of the field - about 30-40 minutes ahead of the walkers, but towards the back of the runners). Not bad considering I'd only decided to sign up on Wednesday and didn't do any proper training. Next year I'll train a bit and hope to better my result.



I even won a spot prize of a trip for two on the Earnslaw, which unfortunately expires in September and isn't valid for the Christmas period. So if you're coming to stay with us some time before September 30 and would like a trip for 2 on the Earnslaw (no food or drink included, sorry) let me know and it's yours!

Rush hour in Queenstown

There was a power cut the other morning and the local paper (Southland Times) talked about it being during "rush hour" in Queenstown. Apparently people had to wait nearly an hour for proper coffee. Terrible.

But the Southland Times was wrong, that's not rush hour. This is:

Photo taken at 8:30am last Friday.

Goats.... and snow

We left bright and early... well not really bright, and not particularly early... this morning to head into a hunting area near here. It requires us to apply for a special permit, which Greg was able to get for Friday (today) and Saturday.

Halfway to the hunting area the steady rain turned to hail, then sleet, and finally snow. Thankfully it had mostly stopped by the time we started walking. We explored a couple of valleys without seeing anything, and then climbed to a high ridge to look over into a third valley where we spotted a herd of wild goats. Unfortunately we were unable to get to them from where we were due to a 600m vertical cliff so we had to walk all the way down the valley and then back up the next one to get to them. But we did finally get to them and were able to sneak up and do a spot of pest control. Andrea took the first shot and dropped a smelly old billy without it blinking an eyelid. Greg then took over, which was just as well, because just after he'd got the second one, two others decided to charge us. Quite scary! Unfortunately for them, Greg still had 2 rounds in his magazine....

A final goat was rounded up after taking off up a nearby ridge and also neatly dispatched.

The highlight of the trip back to the car was coming across a late crop of alpine strawberries. They are tiny (the size of large peas) but have about as much flavour as a whole large one.

And of course, we have photographic proof of both the dusting of snow on the hills:

And Andrea's smelly old billy goat: