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. 

Italian Film Festival

Tuesday 28^th October -Italian movies:

 We kept up the annual tradition of seeing at least one movie in The Italian Film Festival (The Unlikely Prince) at the Hollywood Cinema in Sumner - I managed to ring in 5 others to see the film, everyone was ecstatic– Not! (Pippa can relate to this, can’t you?) Trevor & Vicki were delighted they had arrived back in Christchurch from Wanaka just in time! We started the night with lovely pizzas at “On the Rocks”  before heading over the road to the theater, and I would like it noted that I did hear everyone laugh at some point of the evening, didn't they Helen?