Facebook friends???

I am now on www.facebook.com so I hope to see you there!

Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown

Abandoned cottage - Arrowtown

Arrowtown is about half an hour from Queenstown. It dates back to the 1860's when gold was discovered in the Arrow River. Along the river with tall thick forest, it is a ghostly feeling, a bit creepy. The town itself has retained most of the old cottages, and has arty shops all over.

Frost on bushes

On the way to Queenstown, we finally saw snow! not much, but enough to coat bushes and trees.

Old man on roadside in Christchurch

Lake Tekapo 'church on the lake'

Lake Tekapo is on the way to Queenstown, a picturesque 6 hour drive with mountain ranges, lots and lots of sheep, lots of country settings. We stopped at Lake Tekapo and had a look at this rather famous Church of the Good Shepherd (one of the top 10 places to get married!) with fabulous views over the turquoise glacier lake.

Okay, I really liked this alley! The colours were amazing. It was nice to wander around Christchurch - it reminded me of Vancouver (but maybe the drizzly grey weather had more to do with it than anything else....)

Christchurch, New Zealand

Arrived in Christchurch after a 3.5 hour flight from Brisbane: a 10 day ski holiday with Nat and Sarah. Christchurch was drizzly and just a few degrees above zero. I found a great alleyway which needed a photo taken.

Baxter Creek waterfall

Went for a short hike on Sunday, in the Blackall Ranges, west of the Sunshine Coast. This one was about half an hour down a steep hill with switchbacks, over a small suspension bridge, another 100m to a waterfall. If you look really carefully, you can see Shane in the picture! It was a very enjoyable walk, except the water at the bottom was very murky and brown, I certainly wouldn't recommend drinking it!

Inline skating at Lake Kawana

We just discovered that a new area on the Sunshine Coast, Lake Kawana, (it used to be swampland and now is a big lake where rowing regattas are held,) has some wonderful wide tracks along the water: perfect for inline skating. It's great to be on skates again!

Swimming pool on a beach?

Went for a run this morning at the beach, in a swimming pool. This is the new pool right on Kings Beach, it is saltwater and fantastic - the beach is in the background.

As my introduction to running 7 weeks ago resulted in agonising, long-lasting painful shin splints, I am now running in the pool. Much more gentle.

Mitchell in play mode !

Mitchell's favorite pose on the beach.... ready for anything.

Climbing Mount Beerwah

Picture a beautiful sunny day. Imagine very high humidity and around 30C+ degrees. 7 of us decided to hike up Mount Beerwah, a 556m high member of the Glass House Mountains on the Sunshine Coast. Shane and I, Lee (our personal trainer), his girlfriend Laurie, Sal (fellow bootcamp participant) and her husband Cam, and Nat (fellow bootcamp-ee and upcoming NZ ski trip buddy for me!) embarked on this very scary journey. Well, very scary for the girls, the guys enjoyed it mostly.

We began around 7am, bushwalking up a stone step track for about 700m and coming to quite a sheer rock face, which we had to climb. Nat clambered up with no problem, followed by Shane and Lee. Then, me, Laurie and Sal. It was a struggle, hanging on by my bare fingertips, cramps in my calves....couldn't come back down, had to keep perservering up. It was terrifying - I slipped - and almost knocked Laurie down. I was wearing clunky hiking boots (sneakers would have served me better) and couldn't find any toe holds or feel the rock with my toes. There was nowhere to have a break. I was stuck! Lee and Shane couldn't help, as they had no place to secure themselves and give me hand up. My adrenaline was really kicking in - and fear.

Along came a friendly stranger, Dennis, a guy in his 50's, he instilled calm and confidence in me and helped me up a bit. (he does this track 3-4 times a week). He was like a mountain goat, and he saved me! Everyone said, this was the hardest part. Guess what, it wasn't. It continued for another 200 metres. The crevices were slippery and moist from recent rain, unfortunately they were also the best places to climb up! Looking back now, I know that had I kept my momentum going, it would have been heaps easier. As it was I got about 3/4 way up and was so fatigued I had to stop there. All I could think about was, I have to come down at some point!! I found a spot of shade and jammed my feet into some rocks and just hung out there for about an hour - I sent the others on, they perservered and got to the summit.

The way down was MUCH easier but still quite difficult, especially near the very end, we really had a team effort to help us get down. The exposed rocks were on fire -burning hot, almost blistering my palms. It was almost 12noon. A quick visit to the pub in Beerwah for a drink (me: water, Shane: beer, Lee: soft drink - does that tell you something??) and off home to lick my wounds - cuts and scrapes on my hands, bruises and cuts on my knees and legs. At least I wasn't sunburnt - next weekend let's go somewhere a bit tamer.

And after all that, I barely took any photos....Next time.

Dubs by the Pub 2007

We spent all morning at the Ettamogah Pub, looking at Kombis and Bugs at 'Dubs by the Pub 2007', it was fantastic. Such a huge crowd despite the rainy weather, and such fabulous Kombis including our favorite, Splitties (split windows). Spoke to a re-spray guy from the Gold Coast and it looks like Daisy can go in and get sandblasted, a total re-spray with new seals, removing all the rust spots and painted a fabulous metallic bright red......it will take a month in total so we will probably wait until winter, in August maybe, when beach weather isn't so great, and put her in then........but how we will live without her even for just a month??????????

Puppies at Shelly Beach

My favorite 7-year old puppies in the whole wide world, enjoying an afternoon romp at Shelly Beach. Mitchell 'Deep Sea Diver' (can hold his breath for many minutes when concentrating on something like a big rock - too big to pick up but can be rolled underwater) and Kimberley 'Supermodel' (gazing off into the horizon), pondering life.

Kombi Dogs

Finally managed to get a photo of Kimberley in the Kombi, she hates being in there. I am going to start putting peppermint oil on her collar, this seems to help a bit. Mitchell, however, is the true 'Kombi Dog', he loves being up front with his dad, looking out the front windscreen, sometimes even resting his chin on the dashboard. We all went swimming this morning, council regulations on this beach mean that we have to keep the dogs on the lead right until we hit the water, after that, we let them off.

Daily beach run

Went out this morning for our daily drive around the beaches: Bulcock Beach, Happy Valley, Kings Beach, Shelly Beach, Moffat Beach. The ocean was churned up today, it looked a bit angry. Happy Valley is great for surfing on a calmer day. (We call it 'Nappy Valley' as the area is a popular picnic spot for families.) Daisy is fantastic, the dogs quite enjoy the fact that they can walk up to the front between the seats and be reeeeaaaaaaally close to us!

My apologies for having such crappy quality photos - it's me taking the photos now, on my Canon Ixus 400 camera. No skill, no talent, no photoshop. I may have to get Shane to do some nice ones on the beach on a good day....so stay tuned!

Outdoor area...

Our generous neighbours, Chris and Tash, did most of the work on our front yard. The dodgy concrete patchy driveway was ripped out (plenty of junk underneath: bits of wire, chunks of concrete, broken steel rods....). Railway sleeper were used to box around the poinciana trees and paths were put together. Decomposed granite was used for the driveway surface as well as the paths and outdoor area next to the house. We dug the birds nest ferns out from all over the place, and really made a showpiece, and added Liriope and Zanzibar plants to liven the area up. The big rock bowl we dug out of another part of the garden as well, Chris and Shane hoiked it all the way over, it weighed a ton! We still have work to do, put a concrete pad under the BBQ area and fill in the beds near the fence with happy trees.

Daisy comes home!

Well, today we introduced Kimberley and Mitchell to Daisy, our new Kombi. Mitchell was keen straight away, he jumped in, jumped onto the back seat and over the back into the very back and settled in. Kimberley took a bit longer to get settled, but after we took them for a spin 'round the block she was okay. She does seem to get car-sick, so we'll have to be careful. For future reference, Michell has the blue collar, Kimberley has the red collar, and Shane is wearing a T-shirt.

Our new Kombi: 'Daisy'

We have just bought a 1971 low-light, bay window Volkswagen Kombi. Her name is Daisy. The reasons for buying her are many: we need a car to put the surfboards in. We need a car to take Kimberley and Mitchell to the beach. We want to go camping again - and this time, take the dogs. We want to go away occasionally overnight or all weekend. Plus, we have fond memories of our last Kombi, Daffodil, who burned down on that fateful Easter Monday in Darwin so many years ago.....apart from that, Daffodil was a great vehicle, took us around Australia in great Kombi style.

Scott, a friend of my Lee's (my personal trainer) was selling his, he brought it up to the Coast so we could look her over, and we thought she was great! The price was right, so away we go. She arrives tomorrow! I will post some pics then.