New shelves by the front door

In my last woodworking class I built some shelves to go along the wall near the front door. We needed a place other than the table or counter to put things like sun glasses and keys as we came home. So I built a smaller version of the bookshelves I made last year.

The new shelves are only half as wide as the older version and have doors covering the bottom two squares. These were designed to hide my wooly boots and crocs.

Waterfalls, caves and volcanoes with Julia and Chris

Julia and Chris have recently moved to Hamilton, so now that their stuff has arrived and they are a little more settled in we took the opportunity to visit and see an area of New Zealand that we have not explored.

However it is a 7 hour drive from Wellington to Hamilton, so we went via Mt Ruapehu to do some ski touring on the way (and also on the way back as the weather wasn't too great on the way there).

Aaron testing out his skis, skins and touring boots

Unfortunately the weather wasn't too great on Mt Ruapehu, so we gave up after a couple of hours as the weather closed in. Instead we went and did a couple of low level short walks, Silica rapids and Tupapakurura Falls.

Silica rapids - the strange orange/yellow colour is due to minerals not slime!

Tupapakurua Falls

With Julia and Chris we spent a day exploring the limestone and caves in the Waitomo area, then had dinner at Raglan on the coast.

Julia caught admiring the rock - she is a closet geologist after all!

A column - joining of the stalagmite and stalagtite

There also several large waterfalls in the region, which we checked out on our road trip.

Bridal Veil falls - looks a lot like the water falls in Oregon, flowing over the columnar lava

Then we headed over to Raglan to watch the surfers and have dinner

Sunday we headed over to Pirongia Peak to climb up the volcano. The track is good at the bottom but gets more undulating and tricky towards the top. It took us 7 hours and we finished in the dark - but we got amazing views from the top across to Kawhia Harbour and across the plains to Hamilton (and possibly even Taranaki and Tongariro if you squinted).

At the lookout at the top of Pirongia - Helen, Aaron, Chris and Julia

The impressive looking dyke sticking out along the ridge we were climbing down

Finally on Monday on the way back to Wellington the weather was much better and we skinned up to the top of Mt Ruapehu so that Aaron could see the crater lake. We were still pretty tired from the day before climbing up Pirongia, so we had quite a few stops on the way back down the mountain to recover from the "thigh burn". The snow was pretty good at the top of Mt Ruapehu (although icy in patches).

Aaron with the crater lake behind

Altogether and exhausting long weekend/holiday - back to work to recover. Thanks for having us Julia and Chris - we will repay the hospitality when you come to visit windy Welington!

Wellington snow!

After a very mild winter so far, we have had a week or very cold southerlies and several periods of snow/hail right down to sea level. Most of the schools were closed at the beginning of the week and lots of people who live in the hills didn't make it to work as they were snowed in with snow up to half a metre (just over a foot). No such excuse for those of us at sea level. It did settle initially, and caused some dramas on the roads, especially the steep streets, but was usually all melted by the morning. Supposedly it is a 1 in 40 year event... Our new central heating has been working overtime and is keeping our house warm and comfortable.

There was also a large thunder storm associated with the snow - anyone ever experienced that? Seemed rather strange.

View from our house - snow covered Hawkins Hill

Ice on the balustrade

And on the front steps

And on the deck

And on the roads

Skiing and mountaineering class on Mt Ruapehu

We didn't make it up the mountains last winter as we were renovating and usually too busy doing demolition on the weekends, our ski gear was also too hard to extricate from the garage, as it was behind and under all our house stuff. After the lack of snow down in Queenstown we booked ourselves to do an intro to winter mountaineering course up at Whakapapa, Mt Ruapehu. Helen has done lots of mountaineering - but it was all over 10 years ago and she was feeling rather rusty. Aaron has not done any. So it was a good chance to learn/brush up on some of the basics.

We decided to go up on Friday and get an afternoon of skiing in before the course as the weather was looking pretty good. Fortunately it was only an afternoon of skiing as our skiing muscles are rather out of shape and we got pretty tired.

Helen with the Pinnacles in the background

Once the lifts were closed and the sun was going down we walked up to the hut that we were staying in over the weekend. Unfortunately it wasn't one of the huts that is easily accessible from the carpark and it took about 30 minutes to walk up in the snow carrying our gear. Fortunately it was a beautiful evening and a very pleasant stroll up the hill.

On the way up to the hut

The Hutt Valley tramping Club hut

Sunset from the hut balcony

And back toward Ruapehu's summit

As with most of the huts on the mountain this one was built in the 1970's and has some interesting decor - straight from the 1970's. The wall paper was "special".

Groovy wallpaper in the hut

Most of the other people on the course arrived on Friday night and had to walked up in the dark with the instructors, it would have been a little tricky to find your way in the dark. Saturday morning the weather was great and we headed out to learn how to kick steps, cut steps with the ice axes, walk with crampons and stop yourself using the ice axe (ice axe arrest) if you fell on a slope. We also practised navigating, trying to find transceivers (in case you get buried by an avalanche) and learnt a little about the snow and avalanche risk.

Learning to play with ice axe and crampons

Some guys had built a snow cave just by the hut, so we crawled inside and checked it out.

Escaping from a snow cave

Unfortunately by mid afternoon on Saturday the weather had come in and we had to find our way back to the hut in a white out. The weather only worsened overnight and we awoke to rain/snow and strong winds. So after some more talks about the theory of weather forecasting/conditions, avalanche risk and shelters, we headed back down to the car park mid morning on Sunday and drove very cautiously down the hill and back to Wellington.

Despite the shortened course, I think we got what we needed out of the course. Aaron now knows how to walk in his crampons and is ready to climb a big snowy mountain - if the conditions are good and it isn't too hard!

Rakiura Great Walk - Stewart Island

After the conference a few of us took the opportunity to explore Stewart Island a little more. We had hoped to fly over to the west coast, which is well known for having lots of kiwis, but the weather was too foul to fly.

The team - Alan, Shane, Kareen, Helen and Dave

So instead we took a water taxi, north along the more sheltered east coast and then walked the Rakiura Great Walk.

Pushing the water taxi off Bungaree Beach

Bungaree Hut, right on the beach

Walking along the beach to the track

The weather was pretty interesting.... lots of little hail storms passing through, followed by sunny spells. At least the hail mostly just bounces off and you don't get soaking wet. However it does eventually melt - so the track was pretty wet and muddy in places. Stewart Island is well known for mud, so some of us just embraced it - while others tried to avoid it by climbing around the track!

Hail collected in the centre of the ferns

Wet and muddy track

We walked from Bungaree Hut to Port William. We got to the hut mid afternoon and spend the rest of the day reading books in front of the fire in the hut, trying to fish of the pier and drinking lots of tea.

Shane and Kareen trying to fish off the landing dock - thankfully we brought plenty of food and didn't have to rely on them catching anything!

Sitting in the hut drinking tea and playing cards, billies heading up on the fire for the next round of tea!

The next day we walked to North Arm hut. The route took us through areas of forest that had been logged for the large Rimu and other trees. There were lots of evidence of the historical logging - the old rail way tracks, the log haulers, areas of forest with very few large trees and lots of new growth.

Log haulers left behind in the forest

North Arm of Patterson Inlet - the view from the hut

After 3 nights in huts we walked back to civilisation, well showers and the pub in Oban. The lovely lady who looked after the bach we were staying at in Oban had put on the fire for us....

We had a great time in Stewart Island. It is a beautiful place and a great escape from everyday stresses.

Rainbow over Halfmoon Bay with Oban in the background

Stewart Island

After Queenstown Aaron dropped me off in Bluff to catch the ferry over to Stewart Island for the NZ Marine Sciences conference. Aaron then headed home.

Bluff... the end of the South Island of New Zealand

Stewart Island is just off the south island of New Zealand and despite having been past it several times on the ship it was my first visit to the island. Fortunately the ferry trip across Foveaux Strait was very calm.

A calm Foveaux Strait with Stewart Island in the distance

The conference was in Oban, the very small township on Stewart Island. As it is mid-winter there were very few tourists around and only the pub and small shop were open. The conference was in the community centre with the local Lion's club doing all the catering and looking after us. Quite a few of the community members even came to several of the talks about the local marine history and the tagging and tracking of Great White Sharks around Stewart Island - many of the sharks are named after the locals who had helped with the work and they came to see where their shark had gone on its winter holidays! Usually somewhere tropical like Fiji, Tonga, Great Barrier Reef.

Oban the little township on Stewart Island

There were several field trips out to some of the reserves. I went out to Ulva Island - a local bird and marine reserve. The water was very, very clear... lots of the marine biologists went diving and snorkelling as the visibility was so good - after hearing about the Great White Sharks I wasn't so brave.

Clear waters of Patterson Inlet

There were lots of birds on Ulva island - I saw my first Saddleback

Saddleback

An inquisitive robin

It was a very good, social conference in a beautiful location with friendly, interested locals.

Queenstown Holiday - Part 3

After a couple of days on the Routeburn track we had a day off checking out the famous bungy jump from the old bridge over the Kawrau River, and wine and food tasting. This coincided with the only foggy day of the week. The next day the weather cleared again and we headed up the cable car up Ben Lomond that overlooks Queenstown.

View from the top of the cable car of Queenstown, Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkables in the background

From the top of the cable we started walking up Ben Lomond. However after a late start in the morning we were running out of time and Aaron desperately wanted to go on the luges - to relive his last visit to Queenstown with Dave Osmond.

Ben Lomond

Aaron on his luge about to race Helen down the track.... he won - but then gravity was on his side!

Riding the alpine slides

Our final day we headed up the otherside of the valley, towards Coronet Peak Ski fields and also where there are quite a few mountain bike tracks that Aaron wanted to check out for when he goes back in summer with his bike!

Coronet Peak ski fields - a few pathetic patches of man made snow in a sea of brown hills!

Skippers Canyon and the Alps

The Shotover River where lots of the jet boats go up and down the canyon.

So lots of walking, but also lots of relaxing - it was a great week away.