Sunday morning was most lazy, spent in snowball fights, and a short walk to a waterfall. DOC said the path was closed, but we knew better! Definitely worth hopping that barrier.
Spent a few hours messing around with google maps for snowpool. Really pretty happy with the result. It’s amazing what you can do easily these days.
Thanks to all those who have been posting pictures to picaweek Remember anyone is welcome to post.. picaweek/picaweek is the login at blogger.com
Graham and Myra are back in ChCh after spending a few days in Wellington. They have decided to give ChCh a try – so they’re busy looking for flats. Really looking forward to spending some time with them! It only took me 4 hours to clean the flat after getting rid of all their boxes ;)
Up to Arthurs Pass on Friday evening. Dave came over and picked Sylvia and I up and off we went. Neil & Mark – two tramping club friends were having a joint birthday celebration and had hired out a school hostel(ish) for the weekend. It took a little finding but we did make it in time to have a few celebratory drinks!
The next morning Dave and another guy Mike (whom I had not met before) headed off to carve some freshish tracks at Cragieburn Ski field. Another chill pass field in the area. There has been fresh snow here in the last week, and it was the first day it opened – so it was kinda crowded.
As the snow hadn’t really been skied on there were pockets where you were simply buried in drifts. Well, I was anyway. So I spent a large amount of time trying to swim out of 2′ of snow. Still, good times. It was great hanging out with Dave for the day. He *says* he was happy to take it easy and have a chilled out day… but I have my doubts ;)
Here are a couple of videos – one of me snowboarding (as badly as ever) and the other of Dave skiing..
I was pretty happy with my performance though – by the end of the day I was kinda linking turns (ish) on a blue slope.. i.e. pointing downhill and making turns. Oh yes, with a little tuition from Graham I’ll be on my way to 1080’s!
That evening the rest of the posse arrived to celebrate the birthday boys. Everyone brought a plate – and it was a big pot-luck dinner. There was far too much food. Great.
Then some odd games involving trying to pick matchboxes up off the floor, and traversing round a table. Mark(25?) on the left, Neil(26?) on the right.
I tried, managed to pick up the box ok, but couldn’t quite make it back up onto the chair (ok, in other words I failed ;)
On Wednesday Glynn & Jayne very very kindly drove me out to Weka Pass (an hours drive from ChCh) to collect my car.. and to see if the AA could fix it (Jayne being a member). When we arrived we saw this:
I did kinda 1/2 expect it.. but at the same time.. had hoped that NZ would once again surprise me!. Still, if it had been Ireland it would have been torched probably!! hehe. The really irritating thing is that these were obviously virgins when it came to car thieving. They smashed open the ignition system (when a gentle touch would have done it) to try to hot wire the engine.
I don’t suppose the thought that there was probably a good reason why the car had been left at the side of the road entered their vacuous minds. I mean fair enough trying to nick the car, but at least do it properly. A decent thief could have opened the door without smashing the window, and attempted a hot wire without requiring a new ignition. I dunno, thieves these days, just not what they used to be.
So.. we towed the car to Amberly (AA would no longer help as it was now a damaged car). Towing a car is totally scary. Really. Just in case anyone has to do it.. drive slowly, and understand that your brakes will be far more inefficient than usual. Still, I’m getting a quote for the work required to put it all back together again… Mightn’t be too bad really.
Lesson learned: $65 for a years AA roadside assistance would be $65 well spent.
So off for a fun, short, easy tramp to Lake Daniels… followed by a lazy in maruia hot springs. Good times. There were some oldies in the hut – Ian, Bruce and Bill. Ian was an excellent chef! cooked scones ‘n everything.
And taught us how to play Euka – a younger brother of 500, and a distant not so smart cousin of bridge! (I need to find a foursome ;)
On the way back to ChCh the sky was blue, the birds were singing, the motor was purring silently. And then stopped. Oh yes, I knew something was up when pressing the accelerator produced no increase in forward momentum.
It was time to pull over. Oh, and curse, did some of that too. AA Roadside assistance put me on hold for 3 mins (while my battery and credit diminished rapidly) and then wouldn’t let me sign up on the spot. Damn them to hell! Hehe. So, tried to hitch – with remarkable success (this is NZ after all). A nice man came and checked out the car for us. We tried to jump it but no joy. The battery is fine, but it’s just not causing a spark.. no idea why. It might be a quick fix though. Fingers crossed.
So then it was back to hitching again. Got a lift with a nice 70+ year old to Amberly, and then picked up by an English snowboarder (Dave) who dropped us all the way back home. Most kind.
Yeah, so that was really kind of him. Amazing though, didn’t have to wait more than 10 mins for a ride… love this place!
And then! Joy of Joys Graham and Myra arrived… really great to have them in the country. They are off to check out Wellington as a place to live.. It’s a cool city, but it’ll never match ChCh for the outdoors.
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