Winter in Canterbury



Mt Hutt ski field

The snow fall was slow coming and the ski fields struggled to keep snow from blowing away, however, we managed an awesome season learning at Mount Hutt. Only 50min drive to the field, most weekends were spent there. Paul learnt to snowboard and I got on some skis, which culminated in a double black diamond run on our last day of the season, on our first and only powder day. Awesome! We are both totally addicted!  I then followed it with the Peak to Pub race, which involved 2km slalom skiing in a white out, 16km mountain biking, 11km cross country run and 10m river swim! All to meet Paul and friends in the pub!!

 

View from Mt Hutt accross the Canterbury plaines

View from Mt Hutt over the Alps

Cheaky Kea enjoying lunch!

Skiing with friends at Cheeseman club field

So between skiing and calving cows at over 100 farms, the winter flew by! We took a week off in July to enjoy the ski fields in Queenstown and an awe-inspiring overnight trip on Doubtful Sound. Amazingly we were the only passengers, so with a young skipper and first mate we had quite the luxury party. We cruised into the sounds with champaign and enjoyed the mystical feel of the place as the rain clouds blew in. The crew dived for lobster for our dinner and we fished for perch in the evening. The following morning we kayaked around one arm of the sounds surrounded by high mountians, totally alone, listening to tree avalanches falling after the rain. It was a truely unique experience.

Southern albatross, the petrel infront is the size of a gull!!

Paul kayaking in Doubtful sound

Pictures can't capture the atmosphere.

Rugby World Cup fever took over in September, even not being a mad fan you couldn't escape it, and it was a really fun and social time. Sadly no matches were played at Christchurch, but we enjoyed the atmosphere at the big screens they set up in the central park, and numerous house parties. We took a trip to Duneden to see England play Georgia and were lucky enough to get ring-side seats and very close to Johnny!

A long weekend at the end of the winter was spent in Wanaka and Queenstown, enjoying some fantastic skiing and beautiful mountains.

Tosting the season with Jagermeister shots from the Ice Bar at the top of Coronet peak ski field

Views accross the lake from Queenstown

Lake Wanaka from Treblecone ski field guarded by the cheaky Kea

The drive back over to Canterbury

After waiting a month of weekends to get some settled weather in the mountains, after the ski fields closed, our landlord took us flying. The northwestily winds still kept us on our toes as the cloud rolled in over the alps and blocked the view of Mt Cook. We got to take over the controls at times and miraculously stayed in the air, flew over the foothills and Canterbury plaines for some beautiful views. It was a great end to our 8 months in Canterbury. Although I wasn't sad to finish working, I will miss this place and all the friends we have made here.

Now we are packing up ready for our next adventure, over to the west coast and up towards Nelson. We plan to spend a couple of months travelling and enjoying all our outdoor activities through the first part of the summer, then who knows?! We have extended our working holiday visas for another year, so plenty of time to enjoy ourselves!!

Views from above!

Our four seater plane

Spring is here! The not so snowy alps.

We will not have easy access to the internet for a while, however I will try not to leave my next update this long, to fill you in on the next leg of our adventures!

Living for the weekends!

We have now settled in Dunsandal, 30min south of Christchurch, for the winter. I have a mixed job in a large cattle practice where the average herd size is 1000 cows! Paul is labouring, helping with the earthquake clear up in Christchurch. Being out of the city we are feeling very few quakes, Paul is sleeping through most and our house is an old style wooden 'NZ icebox'! so it seems to cope well with the shaking, and the open fire keeps the chill of the autumn nights at bay. The pace of life is much slower here, even noticably slower than in the north island, which can be frustrating. Everyone is incredibly friendly and we have both made some good friends through work and have now joined the local climbing club as the indoor wall in the city is amazingly undamaged, so its great for dark evenings. It feels strange to be going into winter again after a brief summer, but we're really looking forward to the ski season. We are only 40 min form the ski fields so have got season passes for the weekends and have started collecting some gear! Even more stuff!!

During the week i get to drive around the Canterbury planes staring longily at the mountains on the horizon, and every weekend we are up there exploring.

View from one of my farms!

And looking back down over the plains from Mt Hutt ski field.

Lots of bouldering to do! Castle Hill in Arthurs pass.

Yes, this was our mountain bike track! Just never look down!!

View down the valley of Arthurs pass

View over Banks penninsular

Amazing sunsets over Lake Ellesmere, 5 min from our house.

Further up the coast we went whale watching in Kaikora. lucky enough to see two large male sperm whales and a huge pod of dusky dolphins, with a few albatrosses thrown in for good measure!

A wet Easter weekend on the west coast, there are supposed to be some mountains up there! We were able to see the Franz Joseph glacier and all the ice boulders flowing down the river.

Ice cave at base of glacier

 

Reflection of glacier in kettle lake, formed as glacier melted

Ice boulders the size of cars!

True steamy rainforest on the west coast.



                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Ffordland and the south

Our planned route to Ffjordland was delayed by extreme weather warnings, so we took a detour to Wanaka. Its a quiter place than Queenstown, again on a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains, so we didn't miss out on the rock climbing and mountain biking that was on offer. We also took a day tramp up in to Mount Aspiring National Park to view a glacier and more stunning waterfalls, and spent ages freezing our fingertips photographing Kea that flocked to great people at lunch time!!

Hanging waterfall under Rob Roys glacier

Cheeky Keas playing at base of Rob Roys Glacier, Wanaka

 Stunning Milford Sound! Where even large boats and waterfalls the height of Niagara falls are dwarfted!

Key Summit

Mirror lake on route to Milford

A brief trip to Ffjordland, let us enjoy a few days of stunning hikes into the mountains and a boat trip on Milford Sound. With a promise to return in the winter for a trip on Doubtful Sound.

Our road trip continued south to the bottom of New Zealand and a scenic route along the coast, round to Duneadin before returning to Christchurch for the start of work. We were spoilt with amazing wildlife that doesn't disappear into the undergrowth or sea at the slightest disturbance - such a novility!

More scenic waterfalls!

Petrified forest 160 million years old on wave cut platform

Rarest penguin in the world - Yellow eyed penguin, stranded on land while moulting

Family fun - Hooker sealions on the south coast

Nearly the bottom of the world!!

Perfect climbing location, Long Beach, Duneadin

Southern Royal albatross, Otago peninsula