Spring Snow

For friends and family not connected to Facebook, here are a couple of pictures taken on 18 September 2010 - beautiful snow flakes drifting down. The photos were taken from the upstairs bedroom window at home. It is quite common here in New Zealand to have lots of snow and very cold weather in spring, and every year the farmers lose hundreds of lambs in the cold snap. I heard this moring that the current estimate is 500,000 lambs lost in the South Island. It makes me wonder why the farmers do not provide shelter for the animals? It could be as simple as planting some hedgerows!

Looking South.

Looking West

Purakanui

Our friends Nathan and Janet rented this restored 130 yr old fisherman's cottage on the very edge of the sheltered Purakaunui inlet near Dunedin for the weekend and invited us to a late lunch this Saturday.

This amazing bach is still faithful to it's historic roots but is comfortable with a small modern kitchen and bathroom. There is electric heating but the open fire and coal range is in good working order and adds wonderful charm to the place. Even though it was an unseasonably warm day for mid-winter, the moment the sun went over the horizon we were happy for the warmth and atmosphere of the fire.

The cluster of four little buidings has been known as "As You Like It" since the 1930's and sits right on the water's edge.

You can just sit on the deck and watch the fish just a metre away, or watch the sunset over the water, dig for cockles, fish off the deck or the rocks, walk along the ocean beach or row or canoe around the inlet.

It's a great bird watchers spot and we saw shags, oystercatchers, and kingfishers while we sat chatting on the deck. We were there at low tide, but at full tide the entire bay is full of water.

Mika is visiting

Jacques, Hester and Mika paid us a visit in Dunedin over the long Queen's Birthday weekend. The weather was cold and rainy, but we had many happy hours in front of the fire.

Mika is standing

Here's another of those baby milestones - standing up against the furniture. Well now, with both parents being computer programmers, what can one expect but an intense interest in programming tomes like 'Perl' and 'C'?

And is this not just the most adorable photo of mum Hester and son Mika? I love it!

Victoria Grove

"The adjacent oak grove was planted in commemoration of the Diamond Jubilee of H.M. Queen Victoria 1897.
Thro' the coming years we trust
When we are [...] in the dust
Dunedin's children brave & strong
Will guard Victoria's Grove from wrong."

So says the inscription on this cairn at Jubilee Park in Dunedin's Green belt; sorry, I can't make out all the words. I've gone past there before on lunchtime walks, but never bothered to read the inscription, and I had to stand back to actually see the oak grove. You don't notice it when you stand under the trees!

So these oaks are now 133 years old - if my arithmetic holds up.

Oaks were a popular choice for commemorative plantings. This was possibly because of their longevity - they can live for hundreds of years in Europe. In New Zealand they grow twice as fast, and there has been debate whether they will therefore live half as long.

Fallen Soldiers

Today we climbed the 500 metres up to the Otago Peninsula Fallen Soldiers' Memorial for a grand view over the peninsula, the harbour and Dunedin City. Although it was sunny, the maximum temperature was only 15 deg C and the wind up on top of the hill was very cold and gusty. Read more about the memorial...

After the visit to the memorial we followed a different track along the ridge of the peninsula for a while and said hello to some sheep before we turned around. It was certainly good to get out in the fresh air and away from the computer for a while!

Mika is crawling

Baby-time is full of milestones - laughing, sitting, teething, crawling and so on. We are happy to see Mika doing everything a healthy young lad should as he grows. His first attempt at crawling sent him backwards, but he seems to have the forward motion sorted now.

Tunnel Beach

We've been meaning to visit Tunnel Beach for a long time and finally got there on Easter Sunday. Tunnel Beach is situated on the southern coast on the edge of Dunedin, in fact, just opposite the Green Island village, between St Clair and Blackhead.

From the car park it is a 20 minute stroll down to the beach, but coming back the climb up the hill is very steep and takes around 40 minutes. However, it was well worth the effort and we enjoyed the outing very much.

The tunnel itself is man-made, commissioned by John Cargill in the 1870s to provide access for his family to the lovely secluded beach.

As we approached the beach we found it odd to see pigeons everywhere, rather than the expected seagulls. Once we got down on the beach we could see why - the cliff face provides wonderfull sheltered pockets where the pigeons have made their nests.

The slideshow gives a taste of the spectacular wind- and sea-eroded sandstone formations.

More cute Mika

There's not really a story to this post, but it is an opportunity to show off cute grandson Mika to the rellies. He is all of 9 months old now and happily sitting up and has, I believe, one tooth! These pictures were taken on a lovely sunny afternoon in Wellington when Jacques, Hester and Mika visited Harriet and Alexis for a barbeque. For those who need to know, Harriet is Hester's sister.

Hedgehogs in the garden

I haven't been weeding the garden like I should have, so now we have a cute hedgehog pair living there. They sleep curled up and half-hidden under the foliage most of the day and at the end of the day you sometimes see them foraging on the lawn, digging up worms, insects and the like.

We can even touch them and they play possum - not moving. One did flick his quills up at me when I moved some foliage to get a better shot at him (or her) with the camera. They are sooo very cute!

Lake Pukaki

On the way home on Tuesday we followed the back roads along the canal linking Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki. With the development of the Upper Waitaki hydroelectric scheme in the 1970s, water is now fed into a 26-kilometre canal which leads to the power station on the shore of Lake Pukaki. The canal itself (with the road next to it) is built up to keep the water at the higher level of Lake Tekapo, to generate electricity as it falls into Lake Pukaki. What is interesting is that Pukaki, further inland and closer to the alps, is lower than Tekapo.

From Lake Pukaki the road followed alongside Lakes Ohau, Benmore, Aviemore and Waitaki. After a spot of lunch at Kurow we made our way home via Oamaru and highway 1. Home sweet home.