Annual Westcoast Trip - pounamu carving

 Ah yes - the last few images to be shown.  All day Thursday night it felt strange - for once I did not have to go shopping for food.  This was done by two other leaders (Squeek and Mr Schick) and they did do a very good job too.  The local scout hall is usually so cold (June - winter here and no insulation) that there is no need to take stuff home for chilling or even freezing!!  So came Thursday night - I was at sixes and sevens, not sure if I was coming or going!  In any-case - this was not the only trolley as I understand it.













Back to the grind-stone.  The paper is diamond tipped - so the grinding / shaping is relatively easy!

















At this point I was  on dry sanding.  You start with a 400 grit - then 600 / 800 / 1000 and 2000 grit. One needs to be careful as the stone can get quit warm / hot even.  I must admit wet-sanding sounded much better.  It also would have helped to be less proud and taken with me my reading glasses . . . . . Hmmmmmm  now I do feel old!!













Decided to toss in the street front view of the carving place.  You can't miss it . . . .

So in between carving and working and gas-bagging - ooops story telling - and learning all matters greenstone, I found this piece. 
Some haggling resulted.  I so wanted this piece, as the grain in the Jade reminded me of the nor-west arch / cloud formation often seen in Canterbury.  After some furious haggle - a price was agreed upon and I became the proud owner of NZ Pounamu - just need to polish this up and then mount on a suitable piece of Rimu or driftwood or . . . .     (found a piece of timber on the beach the next day - yessss)   







Often you get / find some stone and you will not know what is inside, until you either polish away from the outside - or cut into it!!  This particular piece was on the shop floor and for me it  was VERY tempting to slice of a piece.  I love the moonshine effect from the grain on this!!  Alas I already spent some cash so - maybe next time - yeah - next time

 No west-coast camp is complete until you do a campfire on the beach (below the high tide mark - so the tide washes away any remnants of the fire).  The other tradition is to try and light the timber that has been laying on the beach - and is always totally  RAIN-soaked - to the point were one needs a lot of, either, magic water or a gas burner in the middle of the timber structure to be burned - before the timber properly catches fire.   Honestly next time I will bring some kiln dried timber from Christchurch  ^^

 A often missed attraction - the Glow-worm Dell.  It is no-where as great as either the one at Te Anau or Waitomo caves - but it is still pretty impressive. You need to walk in quietly and have no lights on with you (so cellphones and torches off!!)  a n d  - watch out for the Hokitika Groper :D   or at least watch out that you snuggle up to your own wife - a mistake some men have made frequently in there, then are surprised with the reaction  they get . . . . .

We stopped at two places on the way back - this is at the Viaduct where the local kea resident population has great delight in entertaining the visitors.  You do need to be careful what you leave laying round - or indeed in or on your car - as anything remotley loose is fair game for this Alpine clown!! They have a way of dismantling anything,  that has to be seen to be believed!  Indeed one unfortunate tourist once  lost his car keys  over the side of a steep cliff/hillside . . . . . .



Have fun

 

Annual Westcoast recon trip part 3

A watched kettle never boils - or in this case a soup. this was a truly community affair.  Sir G.H. kindly donated from his estate a freshly harvested / gluten free bio fresh GE free fruits of his labors from his gardens. Further he went hunting and eventually freed a bird for this meals contributions.  Myself I boiled two chicken carcasses until there was almost nuthin' left of the stock and this all contributed to a extremely flavor-some duck suey - no wait - Duck soup!! So between the tramping / fresh air and flavors added - suffice to say we polished the lot- nothing left. ^^

This friendly local decided to join us for a meal. As you can see he wasn't fussed about table manners and very happily ate from the floor.  At one stage he was even on top of my boot - checking out his wondering meal!!  In the end he didn't much around and got stuck into his meal too.





LOL this reminded us of a cemetery - here lies at rest . . . .    ok a good meal!!  Besides - they needed a good airing and what better way . . . . .








At the end of the tramp we bought some pizza and took back to camp base and then enjoyed a lovely meal complete with a drink.
I wonder if I should copy and paste some of the emails insetting up the shared enjoyment ? ?   MAYBE not (what happens at camp stays at camp - right ^^ ) however suffice to say that a sassy sprightly Italian lass joined a Kiwi rough and ready DIY guy for company! Something along those lines.  It was nice to relax afterwards - even though we all rushed to our cellphones and rung back Christchurch - who we found out had another aftershock - a decent 5.3 mag that rattled the city, cutting out water and power in parts of the city.  Word today is that only a handful of buildings suffered additional damage and one place had to be torn down in a hurry as it was leaning out over the street.









Yess   :)   go on camp and you never know who you meet.  Seems these two got very friendly.  Vinnie being the navigator had a grand view!!  Does that make them officially a pair ? ? ?   Who knows - but they keep meeting in the most unlikely places . . . .   Wonder if I need to have a serious father to son conversation with him!?!?!?!







Daybreak on Sunday - and yes typical westcoast scenery - moody and heavy with moisture hanging around everywhere.  It is a misnomer - we should rename our West-coast to WET-coast!! It rained all the way back home!!






On the return trip we stopped at Arthur's Pass (in the aptly named avalanche shelter) for lunch - which originally was s'posed to be a light sandwich with healthy fillings - like Salmon and Salads complete with Camembert cheese - this changed to Fruitcake only (the one we forget to flambeed and eat last night) only to lay out a meal fit for a starving army. We more or less ate all the left overs in a hand to mouth action - no ceremony here - also no dishes!! Except for the coffee / tea or milo drinks.

Now that we have this trip behind us we just need to sort out our accommodation on the Coast and get transport sorted.  Sadly the City council 10 seater minivans / buses will not be available to get the kids across - so need to be creative in this department.






Oh and one funny thing happened - we split up - Sir G.H. and myself continued on the track, while Stitch and Brush returned to the original entry point - mainly for them to go back check us out with DOC and for us to suss out the rest of the track conditions (which where marginally worse from  here on in). Anyway short story cut  long - at the end point we came across this wedding party who went on location location location for some outdoor pictures.  So imagine the scene - them in their finest livery - all dressed up - best man and flower girls present and a couple of page boys and us rough and smelly tumble characters emerging from the bush and behind them- complete with staves and well - ^^  you know !!  Before the groom realized what was happening, we said - in a loud as poss voice - " We are the local bushman and have a prior right to the Bride - so  have come to kidnapp the lass and take her back to our Liar in the bush"  The Bride was a bit of a goer and said "whohoooooo", hubby well he didn't look to happy about this!!  I am sure  he thought this was somewhere between a joke or a serious matter.  Anyhow we gave her one of our staves and said this is a man beater - or a-round-to-it!!  Funny thing - we ended up in a couple of wedding photos! ^^  A memorable day all round I am sure

more pre-stavely camp antics

The founding members (Broom, brush, spoon, spade and li'l ol smilie [who sadly remains in the tower of ol' blighty]) of the . . . . . . . Club have agreed to invest certain new folks into the club -here is the scout - oops club promise being made:
On my honour and under severe torture I (mr schick and g.h.) shall reveal nothing to my inquisitors (even under threat of being force fed sugar lollies) and hereby join blah blah blah . . . . . . .

We now have evidence that these two have joined in the very secret hush hush ranks of the secret ........ Club and are on probation till Staveley camp where they have to prove their deviousness by creating - urm - mayhem - urm - distractions - urm - cough - FUN for other leaders. The wearing of Tutu's is a pre-requisite and they have been already kitted out!!!! Of course Mr Schick's stunning smile and G.H.'s wicked sense of humor will come in handy when it comes to doing , , , , , , !!! (I could tell you - but then would have to silence you - permanatly.


The rope bridge - and despite the best efforts of youth and leaders - this little mermaid managed to stay up and only "voluntarily fell in" when she had enough of being bothered by the kids. She was also the only smart one to change into togs b4 the event. Go that mermaid!!