Austrian Bed and Breakfast owner take time out to sniff the roses at Lake Tekapo and celebrate a 50th birthday for Mamabear

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














 

Austrian Bed and Breakfast owner take time out to sniff the roses at Lake Tekapo and celebrate a 50th birthday

We were very lucky yesterday -Had really good weather.
Decided to make the most of the sunshine and went back to the church. They would have had a sunday service from 11.30 am - but still the tourists came early for a looksee and the obligatory photos. Ended up having a friendly chat with the Lady-in-waiting who did say we should be able to see Mount Cook.  I tried some indoor pictures of the church - but is a challenging environment as it is like shooting into the light from a  dark cave with no extra lighting being available.  Anyhow - it was time to move on and we headed westwards to see Lake Ohau - never been there and we have friends who rave about the lake and it's Lodge!  Some 30km westwards later - we struck thick fog!! - and with that we lost any sight of Lake Pukaki or Mount Cook. Continued to drive towards Lake Ohau hoping it would clear - but it never did - so saw about 3 meters of the lake then the rest blended into a white something.  Sigh - it just means we have to come back another day/time.
With there nothing to see or do - we headed back into foggy Twizel - still foggy there as well - so sat in the car and had a home made sandwich along with tomatoes and Camembert and some slices of meat.  yummy
Back towards Tekapo where we knew we had sunshine (at least when we left) when we spotted a new Salmon hatchery on the side of the road - they had to move their business as the canal they were operating from needed fixing - and with no water - no salmon. Great cheap prizes and lots of fresh fish - so in a moment of weakness we bought a whole side and got it packed up for the home trip - this should (and did) make a great meal once home!!
Just before Lake Pukaki the sun got strong enough and burned off some of the fog - it cleared and we had brilliant sunshine! You even could see Mount Cook - just. Stopped in the new Info shop centre and bought a locally made ice-cream - then got the bubbly out and sat on the shore and celebrated the 50th B-day of a certain Female bear!!


Congratulations mamabear!! She did say that ever since she came with me to Pukaki she could see Mount Cook - which - you have to under stand is indeed a rare occurrence.  It is called Aorangi by the local natives and translates into "cloud-piercer", an aptly description and usually the top of the mountain is shrouded in clouds - which just means yet another weather-front is moving in from the Tasman Sea. You certainly could see the coming front rolling in over the top of the mountains - meaning it will rain soon.   Actually we were quite pleased -  There used to be a I-site at the lake shore, and it is in the middle of no-where - just a good spot to stop and admire the views - assuming you got good weather.  Then the I-site got shut down last year - citing cost's, much to the dismay of some locals who saw this as a good place to make money from tourists. In the end the Salmon hatchery just down the road opened a shop / stand where you can buy the fish and ice cream and other locally made products - along with postcards and souvenirs.   Business must have improved judging by the busloads we saw in the space of half an hour!!  Too soon we emptied our bottle of bubbly and reluctantly headed back to base at Tekapo. Back yet again to the Church were we saw the same lady-in-waiting from this morning, who was very surprised by the amount of fog we struck - but pleased for us that we could see Mount Cook after all. More inside pictures (still learning the new camera) and a stroll around the lake front to stretch the legs! Dumped the gear in the hotel room and sorted out the Wifi - had to ask the Hotel front desk to re-set their wireless modem (it had crashed)! The fish went in the tiny fridge in the room and we washed up and went out for dinner - nice! By the time we got home after a scrumptious dinner, you just about could smell the rain coming and sure enough by the time we hit the sack you could hear it hit the roof.  Have been very lucky with the weather we got so far!
Home tomorrow- back to reality :(

 

Austrian Bed and Breakfast owner take time out to sniff the roses at Lake Tekapo

Awoke to sunshine - yes - so the cold air and role-poly bed was worth it. After usual morning routine and breakfast in the room (which was a challenge in-itself with only a jug and no sink and dishes / toaster) we headed out for a days worth of exploring! First stop back to the Church of the Good Shepherd, where more pictures were taken. Trying to do something differently - and after getting advise from the local Info site - we walked on the right hand side of the lake bed - a first for us. Strolled along what eventually we learned was the site of the first homestead on the lake.  Took more pictures - Naturally.
Back to car and Mamabear drove up to the Observatory - and did not stall and also hillstarted! Way to go Mamanbear - well done!!
Lunch up at the top while admiring the scenery and views - along with more pictures to the 'Sound of Music' - well some German lingo being spoken!! Even spotted Mount Cook peeking through!
Made it back to the hotel room and while the tiered old female bear took a well earned snooze - I tried to get the local Wifi working. Took a while - but got there.
Ended up listening to the radio via live stream - but could not get the NICS tv series streaming!! Time for dinner - headed into the McKenzie Bar and Grill where a decent

meal was consumed - along with a sunset, and the obligatory healthy drink!  This red sky proved to be an omen - weather forecast was for rain the following day, and we - ah that will keep

The lake from the right side near the spot where the first homestead and original river crossing was.

 Looking down from the observatory towards the glaciers

 The famous view from the inside of the church of the good shepherd. It must be daunting preaching there . . .

The lake front along with reflections.
There are also some pine trees nearby that grow pine-cones that can be up to 20cm in length or longer even. Loved the reflections

 

Austrian Bed and Breakfast owner take time out to sniff the roses

It was one of those moments of weakness -
 one suggestion led to another and before we knew it - we 'booked' ourselves into the local Hotel at Lake Tekapo - which surprise surprise had no kitchen - BUT did have the lowest price for a room and nights accommodation - apart from the shared YHA - which we could not use anyhow as we no longer fall into
the "youth" category. Especially with Mamabear also due to celebrate her special 50th Birthday. Soooo after work we packed everything and started driving to Lake Tekapo. I was hoping to use my new Tele-lens and Camera to snap some starry night photos.  For some of the more spectacular pictures taken there check out this site here ----->
www.earthandskynz.com/

or this

www.photos/earthandsky

We had been up there at night previously last year and thoroughly enjoyed the night sights - even if it was a two jacket night - eg very very cold! the views are worth it.  Anyhow - I will have to confess - Epic fail - I clean forgot to pack the tripod - so no night shots !!  Major bummer  :( :(
I did try and use a rock and shoot - but still got camera shake - so after some frustrating 15 minutes - i gave up. Must buy a night sky postcard and "take picture" from there  - the stars are stunning  and the milkyway can be seen clear as with the Southern Cross and its pointers being smack bang in middle of the Milky way .  While TRY-ing to snap a pic we also saw the ISS zipping past - urm - overhead so to speak.  We went back to hotel and I re-read the de-structions on how to best do night pictures taking.  Hopped into bed - which was a mission in itself - the Bed was a Double size - so much smaller then what we were used to AND it was one of those where your bum sinks in the middle and the head and toes are higher up. Sigh - I miss my firm mattress!!

Scouts make a knife in Barrytown

We have a annual camp on our beautiful Westcoast and the Scouts always go for a Bush-hike and have a craft activity.  This year - yet again - it was making a knife with Steve and Robyn at Barrytown.  Below is the youth's story - as it happened.  I will add pics as I go along . . . .   - enjoy

Papabear



Day one = it rained = no it poured truckloads = CORRECTION - we nearly saw Noah with his boat of animals!!  MEANWHILE – we are packing for a hike – we must be turning into tadpoles!!

Saturday Breakfast of fine toast and cereals, need to learn how to stand toasting racks on the burners.

Hike turned out pretty wet, river rose quite a bit between leaving and returning.

The really adventurous ones took another walk to the Punakaiki blowholes, just to get another soaking.


Lunch was hot soup and lots of fruit and other goodies.  Pretty good soup!!

The tadpoles returned to base and changed = only to find them selves inside a Chinese laundry!!


Downtime – some games being played and woggles are made!!

Nicholas currently the unbeaten champion at table tennis…. Until he played Anita – he still won though!!

Nicholas the unbeaten table tennis champion thrashed Papabear 3-0 in a three match series, including an 11-0 annihilation in the second match.

Dinner smells nice!!

16-15!! Nick the undefeated champion holds off Chris in a amazing, brilliant victory.

Finally lost a set, still won 3-1 in the series.

Miniature pioneering

STILL raining

Scouts sent packing to bed and subjected to lullaby to sent them to sleep – Brush doing his best gold medal winning snoring effort!!

Old folks need to check on the liquid emptying control mechanism at night – and while walking past leaders beds – a Mexican wave of snoring follows the footsteps – to and from the boys room – weird how they can snore in such unison . .

Sunday Breakfast – toast is darkish and getting darker by the minute!!  Sadly no breakfast in bed for the minions (let alone a venturer).

Scouts looking washed up and worse for rain!

The venturer, was, for once, up before 7am.

Future group leader moaning at breakfast table . . . .

And someone’s finally turned the lights on!

Dear diary – the female FGL is consistently proofing her skill in full-fill her future potential!!

^Motion seconded by venturer chairperson!!

Esteemed Assistant Zone Scout Leader showing off his miniature pioneering to scouts.

The youth worked hard in the mines and extracted steel and made a fire and eventually ended up with some hot steel and a cool handle and what universally is described as a knife

A KNIFE!!!!! I CAN STAB PEOPLE!!!!!! NOOOOOOO!!! YESSSSSSSSS!!!!







We have a Italian chef – who is famous for his traditional Italian food making skills – tonight’s menu – Spag – Bog along with a self saucing Chocolate Pudding!!

Anita having to kneel on a chair to get high enough to stir the mince.

Scouts planning and cleaning skills suspect, almost makes mine look…hmm..good?!

The ITALIAN Chef not getting much cooking done as he keeps holding on to his knife dreaming away of fancy feasts and other such dreams! – he eventually was happy as there was a hint of a promise of some fresh crushed Italian grapes . . . . ^^

The food for tonight can’t be as good as last nights dinner! (sweet and sour chicken on rice with vege’s)

Will create miniature mining well for my oil production facility and GET RICH!!! $$$$$$

The food is finally ready for Sunday dinner, whilst Sean looks over my shoulder I can dream the burning senses of the ITALIAN CHEF!!!! But I bet it wont be as good as the sweet sour pork’. KNIFE!!!! YAY I CAN STAB MY EVIL NEMISIS IN THE CHEST!!!WEEEEE! SPLATTER!!!

“HMMMM!! I see three pots of food on the serving table can it be delicious or can it be a disaster!!! lets find out after the break!!!”

Chocolate self saucing pudding looking good in oven!!! Nice work Anita! – hmm…second thought not enough exclamation points.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! – that’s better.

“And we are back, downtime-not enough seconds from the second nights dinner and too much time between courses. So far I rate the front of house 4/10 and the back off house 5/10. I was astounded by the taste much better than I thought but needed MUCH BETTER presentation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, I rate the main course 7/10.
Lets find out the results for the dessert, right after the brake, DO NOT go anywhere!!!!!!”

HELP!!! I’m getting murdered by a mad-man with a homemade knife NOOOOOO!!!!!!
(Splattering sounds of the homemade knife getting stabbed into me)

Only 5/45 minutes until we get to eat dessert… - OI!

…YAY its ready!!!

I like dessert!!!!!

The venturer is content.

“On air in, 3… 2… 1”
“And we are back again, we’ve just got the results in for the dessert and it looks as if they haven’t been doing that well. There was an astounding 45 minute wait from after dinner to the serving of the dessert, I personally would not be too pleased with this service in a restaurant. And now lets check out the results for dessert, OK. For the back of house we have…  5/10 that sounds ok, there’s been some improvement from the main course, and for the front of house we have.. 6/10 alright for the taste of the chocolate pudding we have… 7/10, one of the customers say that “didn’t look very appetizing and was ok at first but wasn’t as nice near the end. And for the presentation we have… 4/10, as one of the customers say “looked ok but didn’t look very appetizing.” And the final score for all of tonight’s food is…. 55/70, best one we have had so far from the GORDON SCOUT TROOP, we will see u next time on MASTERCHEF SCOUT EDITION!!!!    GOOD NIGHT EVERY BODY SEE YOU ALL NEXT WEEK!!!!!


I like dessert!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday -- The morning after – we are rudely awoken after a sleep-in with the usual Revile and other assorted musical tracks.

An appropriate song would have been – "Its raining again" by Gloria Gaynor!!

Abba SOS is played – Phil and Sam are happy.

I like breakfast!!!  (especially with custard)

Breakfast was an all you can eat buffet today! (including ICE-CREAM!!!)

Esteemed Zone Scout leader is happy – he had his mushrooms sautéed in grape-juice and made an omelette – all served nicely on a bit of a crust – or was that a old crumpet – the bread that is (not Roger)

Last night it rained a bit – then it rained some more and just when you thought it can’t get nay worse – the rain shifted into 2nd gear, then third and fourth to end up in full monsoon down-pour gear.  It was so loud it even drowned out -- wait for it -- Roger’s snoring and that’s saying something!!

It was a teeny-weeny bit wet driving home and the waterfalls near Arthurs Pass were – stunning. Got soaked just walking 50 meters from car to Info center – met another scout leader there!! Then further on home – a rock-fall just as we drove past and then the nicest thing happened – it stopped raining – and – yusssss --           it snowed on Porters Pass!!!!

post script - these are the raw Materials  and a finished product - image used from a previous knife trip!! 










 

Austrian Bed and Breakfast in Kiwiland - missed opportunity

When I heard the soon to be trans-morphing meremaid was planning to come down under - I charged her with two things before she was due to leave the nest of Austria.

• One - to take a Video of the water going down the plughole  (and take note in which direction it spirals) and 

• Two - to have a good look at the full moon and take note of the "Sandman"

We then were supposed to compare with down under and if we had (which we did not because we were FAR to busy enjoying ourselves with other urm liquid matters!)  We would have noted that

• One - the water here does really spiral the other way down the plug-hole!!

• Two - that the poor Sandman is on a permanent headstand!!

I have included a pic I snapped 2 days back and hopefully you can see the acrobatic hand stand worthy of Olympic status!! And no - I did not auto-rotate the image :D  would I do a thing like that??

Anyhow - Cousin Doris / Wilfried - the same challenge applies to you before you leave Austria . . . . . .


We did also look at the stars and compared notes with the northern Hemisphere
(no dipper down under) but we have the Southern Cross - which is such a dominant feature in the night sky it features on at least two national flags down under!

These two images will illustrate perfectly well how we find due south. Unlike the big dipper which is pretty much  mostly in the same space in the sky,  the Southern Cross does move around and in particular the axis moves around - it really is like a kite in the day flying up and down and across.

However you can see more here down-under then up north of the Orion belt!!  :)

See if you can spot the cross and work out due south :)

Have fun

Austrian Bed and Breakfast in Kiwiland - all empty

Well - all good things come to an end. The mermaid saw the wisdom of escaping the warm late Autumn sun and is heading back to good old - urm = well home, where - so I am told - is some good old warm - urm sun.  :)
Meanwhile we did post a little something for the two intrepid travelers and yes - it won the race.
The clue to its inards are as follows:

"It is in TWO parts - one for you and one for the princess - and although each part is rock  hard  each part comes in many separate pieces . . . .  "

In fact I am amazed it made it half way across the world and not spill its beans - urm - so to speak.

Anyhow - I do hope the two travelers can relate to the internals!!

My last job - speaking to some local albatross guides - and make sure that they can help navigate the big bird back to Europe via a safe overland travel passage.  The local volunteer (he was semi-appropriately named i-map) tuned his internal radar and went for it.  This of course is assuming he can find Australia and Sydney in the first place!!  Some people do confuse Australia as being our 'Western Island'

Meanwhile - Mamabear and myself are contemplating a 'empty nest'. Both Boys are more or less totally independent and with them working we see them very little.
So the question is - what is a childless couple alone at home to do . . . . . .     *grins* - wait - ohhh yeahhhhh    :D  

Anyhow - Martina and Ileana - safe travels back home and yes - one day we will see each other again. 

Have Fun



 

A stroll in the Gardens - minus a Austrian Meremaid

A wee while ago we took a certain meremaid for a stroll through our Botanical Gardens.  The colours were supposed to be autumnal - but they were urm lacking in color back then.  Still it was a lovely sunny day and we enjoyed ourselves.
Meremaid exploring the Gardens
 
So after a very energetic mornings activity (and surprising semi sunny weather) I grabbed my gear and drove back into town.  There obviously were better colors!! 

Still - even now the Maple leave section of the Garden proved yet again to be a disappointment!

There are some good yellows at the moment and when the sun is just so and the angle is just so . . . .

I had this under-exposed by two degrees - it gave a richer darker color!! Oddly enough - the other person snapping away was gun - oops camera shy and did not want to share - urm secrets!

The Bonus came further along when I spotted a wedding party - urm - minus the lucky Hubby!!  Then there where about 15-20 cameras - with various bodies behind them! Turned out to be a class from the local CPIT (some educational facility) taking a course in Photography!!  I very cheekily tagged along and managed to get 5 or so shots.
However - I was more or less a spare wheel and not meant to be there -so felt that I could not 'manipulate' the bride into a more urm appealing pose.  I did however manage to get the point across to the budding pic-snappers - that they needed to engage with her more - as she did not look happy most of the time.  One cracking joke later we had smiles all round and THAT did change the images taken considerably! :D 
Now - it has been suggested a new career path - that of Wedding photographer! Hmm - one of my cousins is a Ceremonial bless-them-guy and I do know that the mermaid is looking for a mere-bloke/guy - so I could cut my teeth so to speak on them practicing the art . . . .

Anywhoooo =  back to the grind stone and reality