Lake Tekapo and Pukaki trip

 

 

 

 

 

Ahhhh  the next morning dawned like it finished with a clear night. On the way to breakfast we noticed that the pond area had partially frozen over,  just enough to be ice there - but not strong enough in place to carry the ducks full weight - so they half walked half swam.  A funny sight to see and provided some amusement for a while. 

Breakfast was a savoury affair - scrambled eggs / sautéed mushrooms / minted lamb sausages / crisp bacon / hash-browns / baked bean’s and and and.  Of course there was a selection of cereal and toast and spreads as well, but today (for a change) was a savoury plate for me. Who could say no to Mushrooms?
As I dug into the mushrooms I thought of a certain Brush and briefly considered snapping a image and sending via sms - but you know = posh place we *cough* do not do that sort of thing here.
The day was ours and Mamabear requested that we should go and see Mt Cook (fingers crossed) and maybe aim for a light lunch at the Mt John Observatory later.  So we  packed what we needed and headed of into the Sunshine.  Yes we saw Mt Cook and did the usual and now traditional half glass salut!! Also took some videos and more pictures (some to be posted on FB or emailed to various Austrian Connections).  From there it is just another 5 min.  drive past Twizel to the Salmon Farm and Mamabear knowing how I like to eat said fish offered to buy a half decent fillet AS LONG as it came vacuum packed.  They did and we did - yummm!!


On the return trip we saw lake Ruataniwha (hmm that's now how you spell it) and it had virtually no disruption so had nice reflections - so Mamabear just does her female speak and says -= that looks nice - = translates into "we should stop and take pictures" - so a 5 point handbrake turn later . . . . . . .


More stops on the way back past Mt Cook and Pukaki and eventually we got to the top of Mt. John. Fabulous views - not a cloud in the sky and in serious danger of getting sunburn!!  Oddly enough - there was a young girl there along with her - hmmm family - that had been with us on the same Boat cruise at the Akaroa Dolphin watching trip in late January.  I remembered her 'cause she wore a Canadian Olympic team jacket so would have been into some sort of winter sport.  The sandwich was more then a simple sandwich- it was almost a meal in itself! Turns out that we were a Kiwi minority - the lady at the till reckoned we were the first Kiwis for the day up there!!
Anyhow - by now mamabear was feeling a bit under the weather - so to speak - so we decided to head back to Tekapo and take the afternoon easy - quick stroll down to the church and a good conversation with the Lady in waiting there. She pointed out a few things and especially the way the Milky way lies over the Church and when best to take a picture and - yeah a whole lot of other stuff!!
I parked mamabear back in the Hotel and then late afternoon headed - yep yet again back to the canal - this time from the other side - as I wanted to re-shoot the same image that was so nicely hung in the reception area of the Hotel - it was a landscape canvas print - taken a late afternoon and about 3 meters long and about half meter high and was ueber-nice!! The receptionist chap kinda knew the exact location from where the image was taken so I grabbed my gear and headed of to find that spot and see if I could be just as creative.  Some patient waiting and fixing and image taking later and I had a few passable images.
Turns out - as the lady in the church was saying - from time to time people pay cash and block access to the church  - thus you do not see the tour buses / caravans parked in front of the church.   No such luck for me!! I stood there for about 2 hours and taking the various shots - so we have a semi evening mood and a post sunset mood and almost darkness mood and  - ah you get the picture but all of them having a car or caravan or bus in them!!  It was also getting fresh - almost cold and getting hungry - yeah how could you get hungry after today’s breakfast and lunch - but hungry I was - so BACK to the hotel to dump the gear and getting out to dinner - this time to the "Tim-Place" a revamped place we had been to previously.  Nice and simple and good food.  The four waitress staff were from four different nationalities - that included one Kiwi!!

So here I am more then 200 meters away from the building and if you stand just in a certain spot you can shoot through the door and see the Cross, which rests in the middle of the altar, and see it against the blue snow mountains - ASSUMING you have the patience to wait for the pesky tourists to leave a clear passage! Patience son, patience!!



 Having thought about what went wrong yesterday at night - I was determined to get another shot tonight - so walked the birthday girl home after dinner and grabbed the gear and - yes walked back to the church (hey I am working on my fitness here - it takes about 20 minutes there - and 20 back ^^ )  and urm were was I - oh yeah - so walked there and set up and made sure I had everything just so and then snapped away - first image confirmed what I thought - just needed to find urm - the church - no easy feat in total - and again I mean -  total darkness!! In-between I  (thank god for my tripod) pointed the camera straight up and released shutter for 40 seconds!! yess  Pity that the cold got into the camera and batteries later on, it had trouble with focus and then with image recording - so it was time to pack up and yup - you guessed it - walk back to the Hotel!!  One last night shot of the hotel entrance and I fell into the bed - cold and frozen - but reasonably happy that I think I had taken some nice night shots!! Below the night images - un-processed except for one! Not half bad eh??
  

When I look at Your heavens, 
the work of Your fingers, 
the moon and the stars, 
that You have established; 
what are human beings 
that You are mindful of them, 
mortals that You care for them?? 

 Psalm 8: 3-4

 

Trip to Tekapo and Mt Cook

        When you got the nose to the grindstone it is often easy to forget to lift and smell the roses.  So when Mamabear's Birthday came up and I had 3 hours of work time owing - we made a decision and (thankfully) it worked out for us all ok.
   We booked (and yes this is a treat) a Hotel room at the Peppers Hotel  (meaning we did not have to bring the usual breakfast food or extra bits and pieces we normally take with us when booking into a Motel). So came a Hot Friday - Mamabear more or less slept in for a bit while I got up and did my 'one hour' of work at work then came home early and we packed and tanked and left home just before lunch.  Driving down to Asburthon and seeing they had this nice small cosy café in the Arcade, we decided to stop there and have some light lunch there. Yumm!! We might as well start now with the 'no food preparation / cooking / dishes' weekend. From there it was via the usual route to Geraldine, (where we stretched our legs for a bit) and zipped past - or better through Fairlie!  The town has on the entrance a old red brick clay building that has 3 or four heavy tarps over the roof line - since the earthquakes - and - yup - they are still there, faded somewhat.  Wonder when they will finish the work there.   In any case we pushed on and came round the "Dog Corner" with the sign of 'historic place' (more on that later) to the usual uuuh's and ahhhh's! It is quite magic coming round that corner and seeing the flat-ish McKenzie country laid out and the snow (or glacier) topped Alps behind them AND seeing we had not a single cloud in the sky it was just a brilliant scene to behold.  Naturally the conversation returned to recent Austrian visitors and their enjoyment of the moment!! Soon enough we hit the big tourist metropolitan area of Lake Tekapo and found the Hotel and did what we had to do - check in. We did bring more then just a toothbrush!!  I most certainly brought with me my camera AND the (last time forgotten) and most important tripod. I will need that later for the night Photography.  Seeing it was still nice and sunny and warm we strolled some leisurely 15 minutes through the town and to the Church of the Good Shepherd - New Zealand’s most photographed church.  As you can see - there are now steps where there used to be just some haphazard gravel.  Naturally I took a pic. So did the bus load of Asian tourists.  Eventually got one with just Mamabear in the frame!!

Don't let the cloud fool you - by the time 6pm rolled round they had all gone. In any case - the usual caretakers / church guides had closed up shop for the day  and  all you could see is the outside.

 That did not stop me from re-shooting a earlier picture I took when the Austrians were with us  -->  recent key-hole surgery and tried to improve said photo. I knew what I had to do - get more distance from me to the door.  Dang - I left the Tri-pod at the hotel. The reason is that the cross is some 15 meters on the other side of the building and when you are so close to the door - it is either one or the other that is in focus - so 'Depth of Field' is very tricky to achieve - especially with the dark frame and bright light behind the cross.  This is a better image but still not perfect. One day I will do this right - might even try a different lens . . . . .

 A even rarer shot - a church with no people in it!!  Hmmm this reminds me of this joke about a Baptist minister - but - I digress.  In any case - I very patiently waited some 15 minutes before the last tourist just ducked out and away and had 20 seconds before the next person entered the view.   Whoopee   :)

While waiting - spotted this fellow.  The length we go to to take THE perfect picture.  I am not so stupid - oops keen as the water is glacier fed, and so, even with his waders on, would have been freezing cold.  Dunno what he was shooting - it is just a rock in the water.  Each to their own.   :)

Soon it was time to head back and dump the gear and get dolled up and visit the dining room.  A fantastic (no cooking for us ) meal had been had - with both of us choosing the lamb roast! Very unusual!! It is a place where you see more plate then food - but what we had was divine.  ( I should also say that I am on medical orders to loose 10 kg in next 12 months - and we had resolved that the work towards this goal will start after this weekend - thus leaving me free to enjoy whatever riches were on offer.) Having been fed and watered hmmm ok  wined   - we walked back to the room only to see the reflections = so out came the camera again and we snapped a few pic's.  From there we walked - yes walked again to the lake front and the Church to take some night time images. By this time it was pitch black dark - and yet there were at least two other photographers there as well as a normal bus-load of Asian tourists.  Nothing doing - I didn't set the gear up properly and sure ruined a few shots for the other image taker present.  Humble apologies.  The photos are to embarrassing to show here (although one has possibilities - you see the Southern Cross and the two pointers very clearly). Hmmmm maybe I can do a post shoot process??  I did shoot them in RAW mode as well as normal mode so maybe - will look at that when I get home.
Ah well - it is a learning curve, and as they say - the night is young - so we strolled back to our room and  . . .. . . .     
you have to use your imagination!!
Night!


 

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 trip - Pounamu

Every year we go with scouts to the beautiful west-coast of New Zealand and do a camp based on one particular activity.
This year we went to Hokitika and did some decent carving of the local, special and VERY precious resource called Pounamu  (also called Maori green gold - or more colloquial Greenstone/jade).

On previous camps I left on my Laptop a word file open, for everyone to be able to write in their thoughts etc during camp - on one condition - that they leave everything written and do not delete anything.  They are usually very good and leave good honest feedback.  I then go and post said word file on my blog.  Tomorrow I will flesh out the words with pictures.  For today - the Blog - as written by the youth and adults - see below.


Friday

We arrived!!!!

Camp is set up = now we need some pizza for a late snack

Loving the set up, and the warm felling that Hokitika gives.

I left my slippers at home because my mum didn’t pack them!

^ lol

Rumour has it that brush snores – yeah right “)

Can’t wait for tomorrow morning and all the people reaction to the early wake up call.

Evening slumber music loaded and ready to go to send the wee sweeties to sleep





Saturday


= yawwwwn = who set the alarm and played THAT music????

Wake up call was harsh :-{ )

Think the patrols should have been organised differently

Mhmm, smell that coal burning

^^ Na, the patrols are good.

^^Ahhh, the sweet music to my ears in the morning. – Starting to get used to it after 2 West Coast camps!!!

Nice trip to try find some greenstone it was a shame no one found any still got a lot of rocks to take home

Fantastic stone carving today, really enjoyed, looking forward to finishing it tomorrow/

Greenstone carving for Da vinci Group was fantastic

Wow, that walk, outstanding, just a nice calm beautiful walk between trees of nature.!!

Making the greenstone necklaces is
A
M
A
Z
I
N
G
!!!

The walk was great

Leaving on a walk with papabear

Been and came back then back to the beach for some sunset pics – not much sun but nice red hills behind us!!

Me bored : - [

Ahhh, have to prepare the salad now!! ^_^
Waiting is boring 
Oohhhhhhhhh  mushrooms !! yummm!!   Brush is in heaven

Shot for dinner lads
Fooooood was good

NOOOOOO!!! Where’s my balaclava gone!!!!! Who took it?

Me felt like it

Time to read

My speed at the beach       snail pace mode with some glue on it’s slime!!!!






Sunday

Yawnnn – another early morning wake-up-call – and the little man in white coats are taking me away!!!!

I hate that wake up call !!!!!!

I love the wake up call!!!!!

Hmmmmm, where are the snacks today for Michael Angelo?!!!

Shotgun!!

No baked beans  but pi can solve this     I think?????

Oohhhh, we’re about to leave for greenstone walk!!!.

Yesterday made 2 greenstone carvings because was quick and was tiny bit small my first one

My dolphin is awesome    and for my girlfriend

Looking forward to finishing my carving

Noooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!! Not the walk

I know =(

Honestly I told the leaders to do an alarm but not like that though

Great walk.  Did the hike in 90 min exactly. Suck on that Michelangelo

Great walk can’t wait until tonight we are going to see glow-worms

You are slow people Michelangelo YAWN!!!!! Put a sock in it and suck a lemon when you read this (laugh)

This is Scouts, not the army…

This is a blog not a thing to tell people what to do!

We made lunch for you like a professional

Somewhat missing the knife part of the wake up call but then again this isn’t Knife camp

Looking for pounamu was fun

Carving pounamu was fun too!!!!!

Completed the carving, was fantastic!!! 

The museum’s radios are awesome!!!

I know my fav were the knitting , BBQ and the pavlova

My favourite is the “splitting the atoms radio and the bush radio”, what’s your favourite?

Ahhh, the sweet sensation of carving a Toki!!! Ahhh.

Sup guys I cool.

Got one cool looking pendant!!

No one has complained about the Venturers taste in music – I am surprised!!!!

For tomorrow – I don’t like Mondays? Seems fitting, is the last day of camp after all…..and the last day of the weekend…

Mmmmm, my apple tastes delicious!!!!!! Ps. Learn ur gramma (3 lines above ^^^).

Finally made the CRUMBLE of apple crumble after 1-2 hours

Got to love muse :D but the music has been awesome in general

Wha’? did I hear my name being called?!!

Who took my balaclava?

Feeling amazing after having a swim and a shower!!! Ahhhh.  0_0

Funny how scouts can handle only ONE instruction at a time!!!

Fooooooooooooood

I hate doing duty patrol because I have to do everything and I’m hungry!!!!!! 

I think my group is la-a-a-azy

Dinner was go-o-o-od I hope dessert is better

Dessert was delicious mmm- mmm

Good meal, great company.

Going to see glow-worms now hurray I’ve never seen one before so its going to be a cool experience

If only luca was here, he would eat one.

Decided to not go to the glow worms, seen them loads before and will do again.

Just came back from glow-worms they were stunning and looked like stars that are bright

Glow worms cool would like to see again

First time ever seen glow worms su-u-u-u per AWESOME






Monday

Breakfast and clean up and we are on the road again – home here we come.

Richard Hammond is driving a very old slow car!!!
Fantastic clouds on the way – Greymouth barber.

Jon-e wanting to play with the big toys.



The End

 

Annual westcoast trip - rock hunting

           Every year for the past nine years - I have taken a  group of scouts across our Alps to the Westcoast.  We bunk down in a hall and do various activities that include a day hike.  The four main activites (which get rotated from year to year) include such things as knife making / Pounamu carving / Coal scuplting and digging for gold.

        This year - we went back to Hokitika, the jade capital for New Zealand.  We left Friday around 5 pm and drove in near darkness across the main alpine divide (Arthurs Pass) - I say near darkness - because we had brilliant blue sky during the day and at night we had star-lit roads. In fact - we usually stop at Arthurs pass and the night sky was just stunning - the milky way was - just milky!!  So wish I had taken my tripod.  Alas I was already carrying enough electronic gear.  Pretty soon it will out weigh the regular camping gear!! Anyhow - we arrived late and had fun getting the oven going for a late night pizza snack - seems a mouse ate through cables and shorted that out!!
Scouts brought the gear in and then it was time to set up the sleeping arrangements - Army style.  I started the row - then there was Brush followed by Squeek then Mr Schick and then - - hmmm never mind.

The  sleeping arrangements.  In the middle the tables to sit and eat and play and . . . ..  
 The hall now has two heat-pumps so it was quite warm - luxurious even!!  Only thing that was missing was a shower!!


 



This scout was ready for bed!  Guess he did look a bit less happy when woken up again at 6am with the, by now traditional, wakeup call / music, starting with a bugle call played from the PC!!
yess some traditions are worth keeping!!

There are cameras everywhere!! No escaping big brother!! I did notice however the "looking over glasses look"
when taking pictures - something I am starting to do myself!  Something about older age etc.    sighs

Next day - one patrol was of for a hike in the bush and did an outdoor cooking of soup and stuff while the other patrol was taken upriver by Dan ( a local Maori elder) and looked for green-stone - while the fabled Rodin patrol was able to select their design and start the carving of green-stone!  Picking and choosing can take longer then you would think!!  There are plenty of templates and design options and inevitable everyone makes and adjusts their own choice / design as they go along!!

Using a dremel drill with diamonds to carve and reduce and shape and hollow and . . . .   hey was that my thumb that just got a tickle up - urm - not this time!!

Until you end up with a simple teardrop or fishhook or Koru or . . . . . .
This particular teardrop turned out to be a teeny wee bit larger then anticipated - but is its weight worth in gold!!  The actual jade is/was sourced from near Jackson Bay / Haast region!! It has the classic moonshine effect!!  Now just need to polish it off then get a rope attached . . . . . .  then wear it for a while . . . . .

When it was time to get home and have lunch and thus leave the workshop empty, so that the other patrol could do their carving,  we found some wet shoes sitting outside in the sun drying off.  Seems the 'look in the river for NZ jade' activity  does mean you get your feet wet - not to mention your socks and trousers!!

Vinnie enjoying a bit of a break.  He lately always comes with us to the coast trips.  Brodie on the other hand is a teeny wee bit jealous as he has stayed at home for a number of years now  - and this has NUTHING to do with the fact that Brodie has always been camping when it rained!!
Suffice to say - this year, we had sunshine all the way - yet again!!  Vinnie certainly living up to his reputation!! 

At the end of the second day - every bit of carved pounamu was hung up.  There were some very creative designs!!
In case you are wondering - the papers' have the names of the owners written on,  as we seem to have forgetful youth amongst us  . . . .

A close up - but it was not great as the light was - well not great and so forth

I ended up using a camp-light and maneuvered that round while getting real close and NOT used the flash to take pics of each and every carved piece.  There are to many to show here so there is just a cross sample here.
The colors of the stones vary - they are not the usual green at all - some of them can look milky and semi white while there are others that have very deep dark lines.  
Some have specks and others - have not!!  As said before - my own personal preference are the stones that come from near Haast - there is something about that - but I digress

Here you can see a more intricate piece (belonging to Brush).  We did go back there the next day to finish this - so he has spent about 8 or 9 hours on this particular carving.  The extra time was  needed due to the complexity of the design (and cutting and polishing the wee holes curves etc)

We opened up the laptop and left a word file open for anyone to write what they felt about camp / food / things etc.  A full transcript can be found here --->
annual-westcoast-trip-blog-by-youth
they got right into this!!
Well done everybody!!

On Sunday night we invited Steve and his wife along with Dan and Frazer to a meal.  This was a semi formal thing with speeches and so here they are being greeted.

The reply

ahhhhh - yes eventually we got to feeding the troops - chilly con-carne!!

There was even time to hang five and play the guitar - although judging by the expression of this scout - he was waiting for his dinner - or was that dessert???

Eventually we got round to doing what we had promised - part payment - was the price of a scarf - well I guess Dan is now a member of Gordon Scouts.  Turns out that he was a former Cup at Papanui - so not to far away from our own group!!

Then came what everyone had waited for - the formal presentation of the individual pounamu!!   I was tasked with taking a picture of everyone - and got that with the exception of one youth - just as the camera decided to have a wee hissy-fit!!  bummer

A personal moment for one of our youth!  There were some lovely touches and speeches and far to many photos to show here - or all of them!!

The next morning  - time to pack and come back home.
This rates as - hmmmm     "I was sure I packed my teddy in here"   - then again - am I still wearing it??  Nah - Chef - whatever it was (sanity) you where looking for - it was not in here . . . . . . . .

Ready to pack the van and almost time to come home

Just have to do a final clean up.  We always endeavor to leave the place in better shape then we found it in (that scouting ethos coming into play here) so we wash and mop and clean and - yeah!!
The trip home was again in sunshine along with some stunning fog-driven valley's and mountain ranges!
I gladly came home - there is nothing like your own bed to look forward to! :)  Another successful annual west-coast trip completed and some very happy campers delivered safe and sound back to their caregivers.  Well done to Chris who organized everything!!


(There are a whole lot more pictures here and of course on other peoples cameras and cellphones etc - hmmm wonder how we gonna chatch up with all of them)

Next year - Coal in and around Denniston for Gordon Scouts!!