Back in Nelson some hard work & lots of socialising

Had lovely week in Nelson catching up with as many people as we could in the short time and busy Christmas season. Sorry it wasn't all of you.

Sunday when we arrived, dropped the trailer at the Andrews leaving the work van at the bottom of the drive for sale (All sign writing removed) then on to mums for lunch, long enough to muck up her laptop (sorry Mum). Next was Hop Federation Riwaka with Simon, Nicki, Lily, Bump & Rowdy. Went to Stevens Bay with S&L who had a paddle out on our old sit on kayak, and then a lovely BBQ with  a very modest intake of great beer, caught up with Rowdy, who didn't have alot to say.
After breakfast we returned to Nn (177). Proceeded to sort trailer, van, property and driveway. (The van being a major for me after all these years with a Van & trailer to downsize to a trailer only!) The section was lovely thanks to Kevin & Merryl (our tenants) who are looking after things well, as is John, with spraying and weedeating. Not a lot to do thankfully.
Thank you for the meals & catch ups we had while in town, I was rung in for bowls to save the old teams sorry ass. Rod the other ring in, and I blitzed the opposition with Sue the only stalwart from the team, and set them up for next years competition, even had to wear the fairy wings and tutu's, (probably why Bruce and Peter did a no show....)
Stayed 2 night in bus in layby at 177, which was super convenient, we decamped to our friend Bobs place, he was away to Wanaka. Has the perfect flat park on the front of his house which we carefully tucked ourselves into . You didn't really need your telephone wires did you Bob?? I knotted them back together when we left.....should be ok!!!
Had lovely BBQ  with ex neighbours who bought us all up todate on the gossip of the neighbourhood, and as we didn't catch up with any of the others we will go with K's version on life :)
Sheryl managed a dentist visit in on the Friday (How is it a filling can fall out as we drove into Nelson past the Dental Surgery??) while I caught up with ex Telecom mates. Amazing how a two hour lunch can turn into 6! Joan was not happy with my turning up at the Tylers Christmas Dinner a bit late!

Only Fish Bill was able to catch!

Sheryl enjoyed catching up with her ex work mates, was surprised the companies were coping ok without her, but was pleased they at least remembered who she was.
Good catch up Ros & Warwick, thanks for the kind offer of a bed when we get to London Ros, hope it all falls into place.
Thanks Trevor for hosting catch up with Peter, we always thought it was Vicki that was the great cook.
Our last day in Nelson was lovely and relaxed, visited Mapua ( good music & company) stayed with Pippa, John & wee Bump for the night where inland Kina was picturesque with its reflections. Nice way to finish our stay back in Nelson.

Farewell Twizel - Hello Christchurch, then onto Nelson

Twizel was sad to see us go as the rain settled upon the very grateful village, for the rain that is... not us leaving!!!.
Went thru to Chch directly with a stop at Burnsco Marine to pick up a part for my bus toilet which failed after five years of heavy work loads. Luckily we were staying at the camp to be able to use the camp ablutions, but this also precluded us from tiki touriing back to Chch.
Thursday was spent rebuilding the macerator which was an unusal problem not needing the new pump which we returned to Bursco, unused of course, and was able to fix to use again. Will take the precaution of having a spare pump on board for next time and am unable to do running repairs (so speak). If  anyone out there is interested in the mechanics of a macerating toilet and the intricaies of on the hoof repairs give  me a call and I will regale you with tales of rebuilding said macerators with little more than a tooth brush(Sheryl's), duct tape, and some kiwi cunning whilst under extreme pressure from all quarters!!
Friday we had our last walk along Brighton Beach, then spent our time packing all gear into trailer, bus and van, to head north to Parnassus where there is a NZMCA camp at the old school. Met lovely couple heading to Kenaparu Sounds to manage a DOC camp, went & had drink with them in the luxury 9m Bus which was like a mansion!
Saturday was spent getting to RaiValley, rain all the way. not pleasant. Sunday over the hill to a resplendant nelson showing herself to her very best. We have had some nice weather over the last 3 months but not to equal what we have just had over Sunday Monday & Tuesday in Nelson.
Saw the kayakers on the beach as we drove in, but committents did not allow us to join in. Looked a lovely was to spend the morning.

A second week in Twizel & still no Salmon...

1st to the 7th December 2014
Another week has flown by here at Twizel Holiday Park. Work  was the usual 2 hours per day for me, and Bill doing a variety of maintenance jobs under Owner Peter's instructions. We have managed time for walks and cycle rides. Including heading down the wrong arm of the Ohau Canal, and I'd just like it noted this was not my error was it Bill? Twizel is a pretty town at this time of year with everything green and out in flower. Roses seem to do especially well here, the Town Square has many making it very picturesque.

The plan for the weekend was to cycle two days on the A2O (Alps to Ocean - Mt Cook to Oamaru) cycle way, except we didn't get away till mid day Saturday for two reasons - Our toilet has broken so we need to park up at a camp with a toilet as the motor has packed up in ours ( horrible - we have to share with the public!!) plus our neighbour offered  to take Bill fishing early Saturday morning so I said yes of course.
 6.00 am Bill was up making us a cuppa before headed off at 7.00 am. When they hadn't returned at ten, I asked the neighbours wife is this a good thing? She said "maybe...... but could be they hadn't caught anything and  Laurie keeps thinking just 5 more minutes!"
Sure enough 11.00 am they turned up with one small, but legal salmon that Laurie had caught and kindly gave to Bill as they had caught 30 odd over the week. So the question is - who was the jinx??
Anyway the important thing was we got a salmon, Bill got more tuition, and we were away just after mid day to Lake Ohau to cycle a part of the trail from the Ohau Canal round the bottom of the lake but unfortunately it was too windy so we found the Doc camp that wasn't on any map but had heard existed and parked up, then went for a short ride before the day was over.
Sunday was the perfect day to do the Ohau Lodge to the Historic Wool Shed section of the trail which takes you over the highest point of the trail - 900M (not as high as you Shannon) we headed off just after 9.00 am up the gradual climb to the top - took 2 hours.

Then it was a short sharp drop down the other side. It was a total of 3 hours by the time we reached the Wool Shed for lunch.
Coming back was a hard grind back up the hill and then a cruise all the way down the other side. Took a total of 7 hours. Fantastic views, the Lupins are spectacular at the moment as you can see in the photos.

I've also included a photo of where we are camped up in the Camp Ground - yes... t's true... we live in a Trailer Park (Bus Park) , but most days we have new neighbours so its not an issue. Is it?????? and its certainly a peaceful relaxed place to be staying. This has been a good start as we travel around New Zealand.
We are down to our last two days here in Twizel, Bill & I are off to catch a Salmon (hopefully). Wednesday we head back to Christchurch for a couple of days to pick up Bill's work van and sort our toilet out in the bus. Then we will be up in Nelson by the weekend.

A week in Twizel and mythical bloody salmon!

We have just finished our first week at Twizel, and it went pretty fast. I am doing 2 hours per day making beds & cleaning the cottages/cabins and units with another lady. Its surprising to see how the camp is so busy with accommodation and yet where the motorhomes park its not as hectic, except our second night when a tour party of 16 motor homes came through. But when I turn up each morning at 9.30 (I know such a rush in the mornings - Bill doesn't start till 10!) the beds are all stripped and ready for making.Where do all the people keep coming from?
Bill has been doing various maintenance jobs eg repairing a couple of ceilings where there were leaks, building a storage cupboard.  His days aren't too big, the biggest being 6.5 hours. Peter the camp owner is delighted to have a handyman to catch up with lots of little bits and pieces that is so hard to get builders / servicemen in to such small towns. So with our hours, it has left plenty of time for bike rides and walks. It is a pretty wee town, built to accommodate the workers building the hydro project, but now it is basically tourisim that keeps it thriving, Lake Ruatanawha is only up the road where they host a lot of rowing regatta's, fishing (see Bills ramblings on that below), easy access to a variety of outdoor pursuits. We've even had visitors from up north (Christchurch) drop in for lunch on their way through to Wanaka.
As we had the weekend off, we thought we would head to the canals and do some fishing: Well they said any fool would catch salmon opposite the salmon farm,(Yeah Right) $50 bucks

worth of licence and bait etc and got loads of nothing, followed by ..... yes thats right, more nothing........
Then 10 mins after my licence runs out a smart #@%&* fisherman comes along, tells me how many he's caught and how close  I was, but no cigar.....Gee Thanks.... So bought a side of salmon from the shop, literally 100 m from the fishing spot and teeming with wild salmon on the outside of the nets..I'm over this c#@%, getting a TV fitted to watch Geoff Sinclair and some real fishing.
Actually my 24 hr licence started well enough at Lake  Benmore where we spent the Friday night, at Falston Camp. The 24hr period started at 1pm and had my first fish 10mins later but alas too small.... so back it went and then nothing........more.
Some excitement was had at 7pm later that day as was casting opposite a salmon farm further up (there are two farms) and a huge 10lb ++ fish rose a metre from me.. gave me the big hairy eyeball..... and carried on up stream, bastard! But that was as close as i got to fish for the rest of the period. So very very sad.
 Falston camp is interesting. set on the side of the lake perhaps 15mins round the side 30 mins from Twizel . Its full of very flash caravans tents etc. which they buy a season licence to occupy at $460 Its all got screen cloth up to demarcate the sites ,this is all sorted out in October then the place is left deserted till Xmas with only a few staying the odd weekend in between then and Xmas.So the place had seventy odd setups and 3 other stayers with us over the weekend. Apparently over xmas it really hums!!!!!
The interesting quirk of the place is, there is a movie set consisting of a village out of the bible, that was set up to film the life and times of JC, you know the story, financed by some Japanese Christians, the money fell thru b4 filming started, & is now mothballed, but is fenced off (probably an acre),smack in the middle of the camp, and falling into disrepair with a caretaker who is slowly going stir crazy (so isolated ,been there 6 years) but had a good chat to, the company has mostly paid creditors and is hoping to get it going, so who knows???? the fake buildings are so good, google Falston movie set or Kingdom Come if you're interested.

Sunday night we are sitting on the side of Lake Ohau, 30 mins out of Twizel and just had a wee walk up a track that intersects with the A2O (Alps to Ocean) cycle way which basically goes from Mt Cook to Oamaru with the odd side trip, which we have dipped into on a couple of ocassions. Could be a good one to do at some stage. Have a look at the address, (www.alps2ocean.com),think we'll leave it till we are down again as there's probably a coupla weeks in it at a leuseriuly pace and we are due back in Nelson soon for a quick clean up b4 Xmas in Wellington. But so scenic, some of the photos on the blog last week of Mt. Cook were from the  cycleway.The more we see the more there is to see.

Lake Ohau 

Snap Inspection of culinary readiness
from Helen & Ralph

Twizel here we are

Sunday 23rd November

Twizel

Arrived here to meet our hosts Peter & Jane, at the Twizel Holiday Park, and are parked in a sunny spot amongst the campers.
Our trip here involved leaving Ealing( a NZMCA park) Saturday morning in glorious sunshine, on to the Rakaia Huts, truly a bastion of the a-typical Kiwi Batch, a stop at Geraldine for lunch and a walk round the village, a second hand shop, which always seem to engage us, in a search, for what?? we don't know........, took our attention for 30 mins, but no ureka moment. The bus and trailer are bursting as it is.
Then onto Valley Brewing which is a micro brewery doing very small production, mainly for his front door operation which is a lovely Cafe serving good food and tasting paddles. As usual the winter porter was all gone but sampled his 5 brews, only 3 on tap to fill my bottles, shame but settled on a wheat beer and a top fermented lager style beer, both pleasant enough but Hop Federation has little to fear from this neck of the woods.
We arrived at Lake Pukaki to lowering cloud. As we were only 40mins out from Twizel decided it was a good location to spend the morrow.The freedom camp was well populated with perhaps 20 vehicles by late evening. The spot sits right above the lake 200m off the highway, & with a perfect view of Mt Aoraki, weather permitting.

We woke to heavy overcast skies, being in no hurry, by the time we breakfasted and had decided on a bike ride to Tekabo B power station 10 kms round the lake the cloud had cleared to reveal stunning views of NZ's tallest mountain, the best we've ever seen.
                          
We set of round the lake on the newly formed bike track A2O mountain to ocean which was a very pleasant easy ride above the shoreline enjoying the magnificent vista for that part of our ride.

No Cafe here! What the....

Tekabo B is the Tekapo lakes canal outlet into Pukaki, this seems to hold only passing interest to Sheryl, however I could park the bus there and marvell at it "ad infinitum".
This is not likely to be allowed.
 The canal hydro scheme encompassing this huge district is testomony to the grand 'Think Big" scheme that continues to be an asset to NZ.
It was 2:30 by the time we arrived back and made quick work of a quenching ale, a snack lunch ,and a lazy hour in the sun with the views unabated.
5ish saw us heading to our new work opportunity at the camp..........where we are now happily ensconced.

Twizel here we come

This morning we started thinking we should start looking for work, and after checking a few on line job sites and then the NZMCA book for vacancies, Bill suggested contacting a few camp grounds to see if anyone was requiring handyman /admin  / gardening /cleaning services. He emailed Twizel Holiday Park while I continued with my current book (Forgive Me by Lesley Pearce -really enjoyed it thank you Pippa) and within a short time we got an offer of work, so we will head down there to start Monday morning for a couple of weeks before heading back to Nelson before Christmas.

Time out in Akaroa Harbour

17th to 21st November
We finished up with our renovation just in time for our second open home on Sunday, then headed off for a late lunch by the Avon River. Shortly after we both fell asleep for a couple of hours in the sun. We were feeling a bit shattered.
This recharged us to spend a lovely evening once again with the Woodham's before we headed over to Akaroa for a weeks break.
We are parked up at a lovely little beach on the opposite side of the harbour to Akaroa called Wainui Bay. The beach looks out to opening of the harbour where each day we have watched huge cruise ships come and go. Akaroa will have 71 cruise ships come into the harbour from Oct to March, what an impact they must have on the little town! But I guess it does rely on tourism.
Had a short bike around Wainui Bay, found a tree with an amazing hut built in it and Bill found his next reno job in the local cemetery.
Today is our second blob out day, Bill had a go fishing this morning, but sadly it will have to be plan B for dinner - stir fry!

Off to get Dinner  - Yeah Right!

We will travel over to Akaroa in the morning to have lunch at Ma Maison which we are looking forward to, and will stay the night at the camp ground. Fingers crossed for sunny day.

Lunch was had and a fine day it was, (highly recommend the lunch menu), washed down with cider and wine, dang there was still change on the voucher so we walked the streets with the tourists for 3 hours... what a charming place is Akaroa, very quaint with lovely restored cottages and stunning gardens, the roses are a picture, finally returning to Ma Masion at 6ish for a well earned beer and sharing a portion of cod & chips. Unfortunately I had to part with 60 cents to settle the account then wombled back to the bus at the Top10 holiday Park where we had parked earlier. This was up some considerable number of steps but managed well all things considered, finishing the day with a hot drink as the sun went down. Its a tough job but someone has to do it. Again thank you Shannon, Rocky and Nick.

Our 30th Wedding Anniversary

Thursday 13th November
With all the events that have happened over the last 30 years - having 3 amazing children being at the top, Bill and I have made it to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary today. The traditional symbol for the 30th wedding anniversary is the pearl, and the modern symbol is the diamond - just in case anyone was wondering I haven't seen either! But we did have a lovely dinner at Salt on the Pier, here in New Brighton.



 And our wonderful children have organised a meal for us over in Akaroa at Ma Maison, which we will take up sometime next week when we head over there for a much needed weeks break. Looking forward to it.Thank you soooooo much Shannon, Rocky & Nick, love you lots.

We are on the Market!

Thursday 13th November
We are out there on the market:
3 weeks of marketing ending in a Deadline Sale Wednesday 3rd December.

Waiau River Rafting

Weekend 7th, 8th & 9th November
We left Christchurch with friend Don in his vehicle, Friday afternoon and headed in behind Hanmer to Maling Pass where we met up with 20 other Nelson Canoe members and 4 Guides to camp the night on the riverbank of the Waiau river. Experienced the heaviest frost we have had for sometime that our sleeping bags weren't rated at! Our green tent was white in the morning.
Over the next two days 7 kayaks, 3 rafts and a gear raft journeyed down the Waiau river through some amazing gorges and open valleys. Huge country. I was out of my comfort zone a  few times but the yells of delight from Don & Bill & others on my raft, they obviously thoroughly enjoyed it.
It was a nice change to renovating, so we returned recharged as we headed into out last week - open home this Thursday.

Guy Fawkes on the Pier

Wednesday 5th November
After a day of showers and very low temperatures, the sky cleared, a lovely full moon came out along with most of the families of Christchurch, to watch the Fireworks that were let off on the Pier. We just walked down to the end of our street and stood on the sand dunes looking down on lots of families letting off their fireworks before the big event. It was a great atmosphere.

Nine Weeks on

Tuesday 4^th November

The guys returned to finish off the spouting & guttering yesterday and today. They took two days last week to get all the facia trim up. With our attached neighbour agreeing to get hers replaced at the same time, it has made such a difference – must have added on thousands – hope so as it cost a few thousand!

We also finished off the landscaping today – and moved the clothesline. Hope its new location works as well, cos it certainly worked well out the front but was right in ones face. Out the back should be much better, closer to the laundry. Bill replaced the broken and slumped pavers (had to take some sand off the beach, but should be ok as we are close enough that we are really just an extension of the beach J well that would be my legal argument. It’s great now with jobs coming to completion.

We have had amazing weather, strong hot winds over the weekend and early this week, then hot and cold today, and now temperature has dropped, it is raining, which is great as the lawn was dying, but gone cold. I have jersey, sleeveless vest & jeans on. And this is inside the house!

Monday 3^rd November

Bill’s first day of paid work - headed into town at 8.00 am to do a job for Cooper Webley (Nelson) – the job didn’t run quite to plan – there were issues trying to get the reception bench into the building on the second floor! He will have to return later in the week. Bought lovely sticky buns for lunch – yummy (thanks Noel for the lunch allowance J)

After finally finishing The Luminaries (which I really enjoyed but the ending – SPOILER ALERT - didn’t finish with who did the two murders??? I’ll have to get you to explain to me Shannon) I then got on with water blasting the paths and house. It’s quite satisfying seeing all the moss / greenery wash off. Looks so much lighter, certainly fresher.

Had another meeting with the more expensive agent that we have decided to go with ( obviously the better salesman to get Bill & I to spend more) – hopefully the house will be marketed from next week. A three week campaign for a Deadline Sale – which will take us to early December. Fingers crossed xxxx.

Saturday & Sunday 1^st & 2^nd November 

Kitchen is coming along with the units all in place
– Bill has put on all the skirting’s which finished the units off beautifully, while I went & got trailer load of stones & bark to finish off landscaping. Thank god I didn’t have to do any reversing! Just need clothesline moved now. Also finished off painting the garage walls– roof filled and primed ready for painting too now.

Wayne & Kate were in Christchurch for the weekend – sightseeing in the day & enjoying local beer & wine with us at nights here in our little abode. Thanks Helen for airbed – worked well.

Wednesday 28^th  & Thursday 29^th

Had two land agents come through to discuss marketing our place, they were miles apart in their fees, so will see their proposals and then make that decision. Makes it feel real now that all the work is coming to an end.

Laundry is now all finished with the installation of tall sliding doors, that shut the laundry completely off. It looks fabulous, just like an entrance hall now.