DaveO and friends visit

Last weekend we had a full house when Dave Osmond and friends (Elizabeth, Kate and Velcro) descended on us after completing the Tour of New Zealand (South Island). We had actually bumped in to them in the airport in Sydney on our way back from Canberra as they were flying over to start in Invercargill. They did very well in the race, coming 8th overall and placing very highly in another category. Poor Elizabeth had a bit of a crash on one of the final stages and had lots of scrapes and bruises and a cracked helmet to show for it.

Elizabeth and Kate had not been to New Zealand before, so it was all new and different. And luckily for them the weather was great for them all week. So they probably have the wrong impression of NZ - or at least Wellington as there was barely any wind.

Mifi the cat loved Velcro who would let her sit on his lap as he pet her for hours. Safi also like to share the couch with Kate overnight. The house feels very empty now with just Aaron and I and the cats.

Visiting friends in Canberra

We haven't been back to Canberra for a few years and we decided to go back for Easter to catch up with friends. Canberra has changed quite a bit since we left over 5 years ago. They have had lots of rain this summer, in fact lots of rain over the last few years. So the forests are finally growing back after all the fires in 2003. It was looking very lush.

There was even water in Lake George

There was also lots of new buildings and suburbs.......

Aaron did some mountain biking - riding some of the old tracks and lots and lots of new ones....

Aaron riding one of the new see-saws in the playground at Mt Stromlo

It was great to also just hang out with old friends - usually eating and drinking.

Louisa, Big Bear (Bernese mountain dog) and Little Sweep!

Macca has been building a wood fired oven in his back yard and treated us to some home made wood fired pizzas. It will be hard to go back to my home made pizzas.

Lisa making one of the many pizzas

Macca putting the pizza in the wood fired oven

Louisa is now the Ranger in charge out at Namadgi National Park. She took me out for a day in the park. We had great weather as we drove around the park checking the camp sites and the traps for feral animals. It was really great to get behind the scenes and I have new appreciation for how hard Rangers work.

Louisa with her ranger vehicle

Louisa releasing some possums trapped in a pig trap - wild pigs cause lots of damage in the park. They caught a pig in the trap the next day. Keep up the good work Louisa.

The big ugly box

We decided to go with the raised beds plan so I spent Saturday building a very large ugly box beside the garage. It is built around the pohutukawa stump and some concrete that I couldn't put in the skip last week.

A big ugly box has appeared beside the garage

Sunday, I finished the box off with some plastic to keep the chemicals used to treat the wood from leeching into anything that we grow in it. I might try to make a lid for it out of corrugated plastic like what is on the garage roof to help keep it warm inside the box.

Lined with plastic and filled with the last of the garden debris

We have a bit more work to do clearing out weeds on this terrace, then we will try and get some grass growing down here.

Getting cleared out slowly, some more work to be done

The never ending battle to keep the bank free from weeds continues. I hate bark chips, but they seem to work on the bit of garden opposite the bank. So we are probably going to get some to coat the bank and see if it helps any.

Helen weeding the bank

Aaron's last long weekend

School started this week, so this was my last Friday off. I took advantage of that and the good weather to make one last big push on getting the garden in shape before winter sets in properly. In three days I managed to fill a 4.5m3 skip with the remains of the old deck, garden debris and a bunch of stuff from the garage.

Stairs are finished, well, the tops at least. I still need to do the fronts.

The area behind the garage is now tidy.

And in front of the retaining wall...

There is still a bit of work to do beside the garage.

We have several ideas for what to do with the area next to the garage. They range from the simple - building some raised beds and trying to grow some more veggies. To the more complex - digging it out and making a carport to provide another off-street car park. To the completely crazy - extending the garage into that area and building an apartment over the top.

Summer Holiday 2012: Kaikoura

As we were as far south as we could possibly get in the Catlins we started the long drive up the east coast of the South Island stopping at a couple of places along the way. First stop the Moeraki Boulders. These are pretty amazing spherical concretions that are slowly being weathered out of the sandstone and just sitting on the beach.

Moeraki Boulders 

We spent the last couple of days of our holiday in Kaikoura, another place we have not been to before. This is where people go whale watching and swim with dolphins, but given I have seen many whales out at sea and swum with dolphins a few days earlier in Curio Bay, we just explored the town on our bikes, hung out and ate some great seafood.

More lazy fur seals

Town with the mountains in the background

A storm dumped snow on the mountains overnight

Who would have thought it was summer...... it has been a pretty pathetic one here in New Zealand. 

Summer Holiday 2012: The Catlins

The weather also turned in Queenstown and again we tried to escape it by heading as far south as we could to the Catlins. You can even see Stewart Island in the background..... So we spent a couple of days in the Catlins checking out the local wildlife and scenery. 

Waipapa Point - Stewart Island in the background.

The Locals - fur seals

The southern most point of the South Island

Yellow-eyed penguins

Petrified trees 

Curio Bay at sunset - earlier Helen had swum with the Hectors Dolphins in the bay

Cathedral Caves

Cathedral Caves from the outside

McLean Falls

Summer Holiday 2012: Queenstown

Unfortunately the weather was forecast to change in the Mt Cook region, so we headed down to Queenstown to check out some of the mountain biking. We were down there in winter last year and did some tramping, but had heard about some great biking that Aaron wanted to check out. We started out exploring the Mtn biking area at Seven Mile.

Exploring the trails at Seven Mile

The next day we rode the Moke Lake loop. It started off pretty cruisy on the gravel roads through some private land, but then we reached the Moonlight track, which was rather unrideable, overgrown with thistles, with lots and lots of cows standing in the way and cow dung to negotiate as well.  There was some good riding coming down into the Shotover. 

Moke Lake

Helen fording the ford at speed

Near the top of the Moonlight Track

Dropping down towards the Shotover River

Helen cooling off after the ride with a dip in Lake Wakatipu