Woke up to the sound of rain on the roof! We knew it was coming! ah well - at least we did see Mount Cook yesterday and it is time to head back home and start earning more money so we can do this again in some other time - probably with Cousin Doris when she comes here!! I shall have to do my weekly penance to the weather God's before hand!!
Anyhow - we have seen and know there are some pine trees nearby that can grow pine-cones that can get as large as 25cm - huge buggers. So after we packed and left the hotel we asked the Info centre if they knew where and she sort of pointed us in the right direction. In the USA these pine trees / cones are called widow-makers and you are required to wear industrial strength hardhats when working in the woods. Imagine a 5kg pine-cone falling on your head - outch!!!
Before that we went
back to the church of the good shepherd to say good-bye and yes it was a
very very different setting - very Moody with the low rainclouds. If
it wasn’t for the big lake you could have been forgiven thinking of
being up north in Scotland in the moor's! Snapped a quick half dozen
shots then headed of in search of the mythical pine-cones!! Where is the
best place to hide a tree??? In a Forrest of course!! Did walk around
the trees - looking up - more then on the ground and hoping that the
wise female bear would still have her male at the end of this little
sojourn! Did find some large cones - but only at half or quarter of the
size of what they should be - so not sure if we did find the "TWO"
special trees in or near that particular location!!Drove off in rain - and stopped in Fairlie for Petrol = and too early for lunch and town pretty much closed up, so decided to drive an yet un-explored road for us - and spot the town of Cave. Town is about 15 houses - nothing to it - but rated a big dot on the road-map - go figure! onwards to Pleasant Point - a bit more substantial and has a history of railways. More community effort made there to get the economy going - it just suffers from being a bit of the regular beaten track!
It is also the
location - or nearby location of Richard Pearse - he who first flew a
plane heavier then air. Our American people kinda know about that and
there is a 'friendly' rivalry or 'debate' who ACTUALLY flew first -
Richard Pears or the Wright Brothers. Naturally all of New Zealand
believes it was one of our own - Richard!! The memorial to him is
literally in the middle of no-where, and in typical NZ fashion somewhat
underwhelming! 
From there we tried to find the Waihoi Cheese factory -
and even though we were on the Waihoi Rd - we missed it. Hmmmmm
Eventually got to Temuka - strolled through the town (still in rain) -
and as it was still to early for lunch we headed of to Ashburton.
Realized how close everything was in this area of town - Fairlie -
Temuka - Pleasant Point - Geraldine all about 20min drive from each
other! Drive to Ashburton on the main Highway - just
straight and well - boring! Lunch there - in the nice arcade and saw
some of the shops being fixed after they where damaged from the
earthquakes. Last time we zipped through they were still boarded up - so
good to see progress! Looked for a badge from Ashburton after lunch -
still no luck. Will have to make my own after all.Back home early for a change - boys in charge of dinner - so could relax before well - we had to face next day - at work! another short holiday over!
Looking forward to doing this with the next Austrian Visitors!!
I was hoping for one of these (cones) - as a decorative piece in front of our fire place - but alas - maybe next time
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