4WD trips

When our friends Juliana and Warwick (from Ashburton) offered us to join them on a couple of 4WD trips over Labour Weekend we decided it was an opportunity not to turn down.
Saturday was to be into Macetown and Sunday the Nevis Valley.

The Macetown trip was off before we even got started as heavy rain in the days before had the river in flood, and since there are numerous river crossings it was a no go. Macetown is an old gold mining town and the only access these days is either by 4WD, bike or shanks pony!! Stephen and I have both done this trip before so we weren't upset.

So instead we did a trip into Skippers. It would have to be over 30 years since we have been in here and the road is just as narrow as ever.  The road is listed as one of the most dangerous in the world and it is easy to see why.  It starts off the Coronet Peak road and winds 22km  above the Shotover River into what was the settlement of Skippers, yet another gold mining town.  It is hard to imagine how difficult it must have been to have lived in such a remote place over a hundred years ago. The old school has been restored since I last visited and there are lots of photos and information about the history of the area.  The day was rather damp but that added to the atmosphere and also meant that the Bridal Veil waterfall was at its very best.

Link to Dangerous Roads
Information about the Skippers history

Bridal Veil waterfall.

The old Skippers bridge.

The restored school where we sheltered for lunch.

Across the valley from the road. We watched a spectacular rockfall
which shows just how unstable the area can be.

 Link to further information: Nevis Valley 4WD Trip

Sunday was a much bigger day as we had to drive to Garston to get on to the Nevis Road. The day was surprisingly sunny, considering how much rain there had been over night. Once on the Nevis Road the climb is quite steep and it wasn't long till we were nearly on top. Here we found an historic ski hut and this made the perfect spot for morning tea. The views from up on here were fantastic.

The next stage was what the 4WD enthusiasts were waiting for. There were numerous river crossings and the road hadn't fared very well over the winter. It was very rough in places to say the least. We were travelling in three vehicles: a well equipped Landrover,  a Nissan Safari and our wee Daihatsu Terrios. I was somewhat anxious to say the least as we made the first of at least 30 crossings!!! But the Daihatsu took it all in its stride, much to Warwick and Frank's dismay. They would have loved to get out their winches, ropes and shovels to dig or tow us out. 

We followed the road through the valley and into the Nevis Gorge, before travelling out to Nevis and back down to Bannockburn. We had hoped to take the Carricktown road down to Bannockburn but by this stage it was snowing so hard it was making navigation difficult.  We finished off the day with a late lunch at the Kitchen Cafe in Bannockburn.

View from the top looking towards Southland.

A welcome cuppa in the historic ski hut.

    

Frank's Landrover

negotiating 

a stream

crossing.

An historic gold mining site.

The Gorge where we think a hydro power station is planned!! 

Snowing as we head down to Bannockburn.

All in all a great two trips and we are pleased to have been invited along.

Celebrating

During the last ten days we have been working on the bus, mostly with painting and decorating the bedroom where Fraser had built us some wardrobes and cupboards.  So it was out with the paint brushes and the wallpapering kit after clearing out the bed, carpets and curtains. It wasn't an easy job as there were so many nooks and crannies to get into. We can doubly appreciate how much work Fraser put in to getting it looking so good.



We are very pleased with the finished product. Dressing the room was the final action and with the new duvet, carpets back and the curtains cleaned and rehung it is looking great.  I also spent a couple of days in the rest of the bus cleaning all the surfaces and the kitchen cupboards so it has had a good spring clean all round. In the meantime Stephen has done some rewiring, re-plumbing, and tidied up the outside. Even the wheel hubs have had a paint up and it makes such a difference.

So to celebrate Stephen decided to take me out for tea. No - not to a restaurant!!! In the bus where I had to cook it. Actually we had a very nice evening, parked up overlooking the dam. The thyme is in full flower and I just love the scent especially when you walk on it. The evening was calm and Stephen even managed an hour of fishing. No fish this time but he says they were biting.

Note the thyme in full flower.

The next event on the Central Otago calendar is the Thyme Festival which we are looking forward to.

Life in Clyde

It is hard to believe we have been back here in Clyde for 6 weeks, excluding a couple of trips to Invercargill and one to Christchurch for a wedding.

What might we be doing with our time here?? Well there seems to be plenty to keep us busy. We have never spent this length of time here so it has been good to be able to get onto those jobs we have always wanted to get down.  Like painting out the garage, completing the walk in wardrobe, setting up some raised gardens, and developing the outdoor living area.  Stephen is working on a pizza oven and is using the local schist rock as a feature.

The beginnings of the outdoor fire/pizza oven and BBQ.

Alexandra Blossom Festival (end of September)
This is an event we haven't attended for many years so we made the effort to go into Alex to watch the parade and then attend "Saturday in the Park." The float parade is synonymous with the festival. In years gone by the floats were grander and more numerous, though this year lots of organisations had put in a big effort to make their's the best. Each float also hosts one of the hopeful festival princesses and the public get to vote for their favourite.  The floats are punctuated with pipe bands,  entertainers and even a brass band on bikes!  "Saturday in the Park" consisted of lots of stalls selling all manner of things, food stalls, side shows, rides for the children, wood chopping demonstrations, pipe band competitions and a stage with a variety of bands and musicians for entertainment. So something for everyone and there were certainly lots of people making the most of the day.

The winning float.

Saturday is the biggest day of the festival but there are also other events organised. The musical theatre company produce their annual production at this time and Buddy Holly was certainly a treat and one that we were pleased to have attended. The garden tour was another event I also took the opportunity to attend. Ten local gardens were open to visit and it is always nice to be able to view what other people are doing with their space.

One of my favourites. The views across the garden to the river were amazing.

Blossom festival website with further information and more photos.


The spring weather has been great and already we have had to hunt out the shorts and t-shirts on several afternoons. Many a lunch has been eaten outdoors and we can see that we are going to enjoy living and spending time in this climate.  We are looking forward to the garden flourishing and hopefully some fruit on our trees (and hopefully there won't be too many frosts!)

Clyde, Central Otago

It is hard to believe that we have been back here for just on a week already. We drove back from Geraldine last Monday afternoon, after getting haircuts, (which are the shortest I think we have ever had. Just as well it grows quickly!)
Our little 'flat' was just as we left it back in June, except some of the fruit trees were in blossom which certainly helps to give that feeling of spring. It didn't take us long to settle in, and we have spent much of the week having a big 'spring clean'. It is such a good feeling to know that the place is both organised and cleaned. There is still a way to go, but we are getting there.

Each day we have tried to get out and go for a walk around the streets in Clyde.
Clyde is an historic gold mining town in Central Otago that dates back to the 1860s.  The main street still features many of the original buildings, and these are labeled to indicate their use.  At this time of the year the gardens are at their best with all the blossom trees in flower, making it a treat for our walk.




Up until the 1970s Clyde was a sleepy wee town, tucked against the banks of the Clutha River but during the 1980s  Clyde became the site of NZ's largest hydro electric power station, with a dam that flooded  all of the orchards along the Cromwell Gorge, as well as parts of the Cromwell township and created Lake Dunstan.  The dam provides a large recreational park for the area, and attracts thousands of visitors every year. And of course the power station provides enough electricity to supply both Dunedin an Christchurch for a year.

       Clyde Dam information

The population of Clyde has mushroomed and hundreds of new houses have been built, many as holiday homes.  For such a small town it still sports a number of cafes and restaurants, a boutique picture theatre as well as being the starting point for the Central Otago Rail Trail. The once famous 'Olivers' restaurant and accommodation are being restored.

                     

We are already feeling like we belong (we joined the library today) and know that we are going to enjoy the next few months as we make Clyde our base.

Click here for further information about Clyde

Back to Collect the Bus

 After nearly nine weeks across the ditch, it was time to return to Fraser’s farm in Mid Canterbury and collect the bus. We had left it with Fraser as he was going to build some much needed joinery for the bedroom. Stephen is good on construction work but not so good with the more fiddly and detailed work. Fraser has developed a real interest in this type of work and the beautiful pieces of furniture we have all been given over the years is testament to this.

Before we left in June, we helped strip all the temporary shelving out, as well as the mattress (working in this confined space would be easier without it). What we found when we returned was just fantastic. We now have proper cupboards and everything is so well finished. All it now needs is some colour, as Fraser has left us to decide on that. The photos don't do it justice. He has spent a lot of time with extra detail like the hidden shelf in the space where the air conditioning unit was, and the two extra little cupboards in another space we hadn't thought about. We would like to say a big thank you to you Fraser.

The following photos show the progression of the bedroom over the years:

The interior in its original state.

The bed with the beginnings of the temporary shelving.

The bedroom as it has been for the last three or so years.

The new joinery. 

Wardrobes and extra storage.

Farewell To Australia

Last week was a busy one, with the last of our planned activities in Canberra.
We visited a boutique brewery and enjoyed a couple of their beers with our lunch. On Thursday morning I had the privilege of visiting Helen's classroom. She teaches in a Montessori School so it was a very interesting experience. There are many aspects of the school and their philosophies that are very close to my own. I intend to do some more reading about it. A link to the Canberra school can be found here Canberra Montessori School

That afternoon Rob took us out to visit some of their friends - Neil and Debbie. Interestingly, they had both taught in Invercargill at Tweedsmuir Intermediate schools back in the early 80s, and Debbie had actually gone to school there about the time Stephen was there too. Another 'small world' moment.
They live on a 40acre bush block about 40minutes out of Canberra, in a house they literally built themselves. That included making all 1000 mud bricks.

Our final evening was spent revisiting the Vietnamese restaurant My's. We had a meal there and met Neil and Debbie, when we first arrived in Canberra back at the end of June so it was a fitting end to a wonderful trip.

We would like to say a very big thank you to all the new friends we met and a special BIG thank you to Rob and Helen. You all made us so very welcome.

An enjoyable outside lunch in Canberra.

The National Arboretum and The National Botanic Gardens

arboretum

— noun, plural ar·bo·re·tums, ar·bo·re·ta [ahr-buh-ree-tuh]

A plot of land on which many different trees or shrubs are grown for study or display.

Not having done Latin at school I wasn't absolutely sure of the definition of arboretum but the dictionary entry, (above) states exactly what the National Arboretum is: a collection of trees of trees for display and study. On Tuesday we visited this new national treasure. An arboretum was in the very original plans for Canberra when it was first drawn up but it never eventuated. The fires in 2001 destroyed the pine forest that was on the original area that earmarked for this project so in 2002 a committee was set up and plans were developed. What we saw is a very new arboretum that is all planted but it is very much in its infancy. There are a hundred forests and trees from all around the world. There are many of each species so that a feeling of being in a forest of each species should be able to be achieved. Some plantings are also on both sides of the roads or the trails. (There are both walking and biking trails as well as a road that links around the entire grounds. The information centre or Village Centre as it is known, opened earlier in the year and it contains a wealth of information, as well as volunteer guides. Included at the Village Centre are also two displays - one is the Discovery Garden that you can learn about waterwise gardens using Australian plants, and the other is The National Bonsai Collection. Large scale artwork is also an integral part of the whole site and it is great to see it included.

View from Dairy Hill looking across to the CBD of Canberra.

Another view from Dairy Hill. This time looking across the Village Centre to the Himalayan Cedars.

One piece of large scale art work.

There are two areas that are somewhat established - the Himalayan Cedars and the Cork Oaks. These tree were planted at one end of what was to become the arboretum back in the 1920s. The cork oaks were discovered to be financially viable and have a harvesting programme in place. To walk through 'this forest' makes you feel you could be easily in the Mediterranean. The Himalayan Cedars were also planted at this time and although half of these trees feel victim to the bush fire. More have been planted and those that remain are certainly doing well.

Cork Oak forest - note where the bark has been harvested.

The Himalayan Cedars.

Fire remains a constant for those responsible for the management of this resource and every endeavour has been taken to reduce the risk. This includes water storage with pumps and hose connections everywhere, tracks, legume plantings under the trees and varying the groupings of trees with shorter growing ones next to the higher growing ones.

In years to come this will be a magnificent place to visit and we feel lucky to have been able to visit it in its infancy. This link will take you to the website where lists of all the trees are available, as well as visitor information. http://www.nationalarboretum.act.gov.au/

 

Next stop was the National Botanic Gardens. These gardens contain only Australian plants which was very interesting for us to see. I think it was good we went at the end of our holiday as having spent a lot of time out in the bush we were ready to identify many of the plants we had seen. To start with many of them all look the same and it isn't until you get you 'eye' tuned in that the diversity can be appreciated. These gardens are well laid out and all the plants are labeled. Once again there is a very good information centre, where both guided and self guided tours can be taken. Special trails are set up at different times including the 'plants in flower now' trail.

We arrived in time to have some lunch before setting off on our walk. If you are ever in Canberra this is also a very good place to visit and this link will give you further information. http://www.anbg.gov.au/gardens/

 

 

In the rain forest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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