Week 7 – Week ending 24 August 2008 – South Island, New ZealandAug 24, 2008
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View of Southern Alps from Fairlie
Gary on way to Roundhill with Lake Tekapo and Southern Alps in...
Gazza skiing Mt Dobson
| It is really cold this morning, but we are up early and get some washing done before we head off. We leave Christchurch just before 10am and head South to Timaru. We have a good run down (it is approximately 2 hours). We find Garys dad Russell and Lea’s house and unhook the van and leave it on the roadway. The weather has turned bad, with rain, hail and sleet. There are warnings for snow possibly down to sea level. As Timaru is on the coast it is highly unlikely. All the signs are looking like it, but later in the day the weather moves away and it is just plain cold. We need to stock up on a couple of items, so we wander around the shops and have lunch at Mays Café in the main street. What a friendly bunch of ladies, once they found out what we were doing they were in for a chat. One lady even rang her friend to see if the friend still had some ski gear that we could have bought. They didn’t. Then they told us about the Mays Pies Fan Club on Facebook. Mays pies has been around for over 100 years and one of the original family members is still involved with the running of the business. It was an old fashioned, serve yourself café. The food and pastries were delicious. We get the fire going at Russell and Lea’s place and settle in for a home cooked meal and a chat. Their house overlooks the bay and harbor area. Lea walks to work, it takes her about 25 minutes and as it is quite hilly, it is pretty good exercise. Our bed has an electric blanket on it, we both fall asleep with it on high and wake up during the night well and truly cooked. We were well done! On Tuesday we go to the Pack and Save to get a week’s worth of groceries. We hook up the van and get on the road to Fairlie. Fairlie is about 60km west of Timaru. Russell has a unit here and we are staying in the unit. We left the van parked on a block of land that Russell has. The sun is out and it is a beautiful drive. We are heading towards the snow covered Southern Alps all the way. Fairlie is the “gateway” to the Mt Cook area. It is a pretty little town with a population of about 900 people. We get ourselves settled in the unit and get to the information centre. Armed with a road map we drive towards a picnic/camping area called Pioneer Park. Everywhere you drive here is so scenic. Of course we see sheep everywhere we go. We love them, but Poppy and Logan don’t, when we slow down and wind down the window, they go nuts. We can just picture what they would do given half the chance. I wonder if they think, are they big woolly looking dogs? Cause they really want a piece of them. We stop for our lunch and head back to Fairlie via the Geraldine-Fairlie Highway. We stop at the Ski Shack in Fairlie and organize our ski hire for our time here. We are planning to ski at Roundhill tomorrow. The ski guy suggests Roundhill to ski until we are more confident. Roundhill is not far from Tekapo. So that will be a nice drive regardless. Gary’s sister Jo, her husband Aaron and Jo’s son Jack live just outside Fairlie. They have their own dairy farm, and have expanded the farm since we saw them last. Gary and Jo have caught up on the phone tonight, so we will be able to see them soon. The unit is really warm and cozy as it will get down to freezing tonight. We wake up to frost everywhere. It is very cold, we were told it got down to -6 degrees overnight. Today we are going skiing at Roundhill Ski field which is on Lake Tekapo. We get down to the Ski Shack in Fairlie to collect our hire gear and set off. The trip takes just over an hour. As usual, the scenery is spectacular. As we are driving through Burkes Pass we start to see the first lot of snow laying on the ground and sides of the road, it is pretty patchy. Once we turn off the main road onto the ski field dirt road the snow is thick on the ground. We eventually start to climb the mountain. We don’t have chains with us. All the advice is the 4WD won’t need them. Two wheel drives are required to carry them at all times and fit them when the signage indicates to do so. We only drive through about 200 metres of snow on the roadway with no dramas. This is such a pretty snowfield. We back our car up to a snow drift, we are able to ski to the car and sit on the tail gate and eat our lunch. People have brought their dogs to the field and they are sitting on the snow waiting for their owners. We only get a beginners lift pass, which is restricted to one platter lift. We spend the next three hours or so practicing. It has been twelve years since we last skied and we are surprised at how well we are going. Gary has two stacks and I only have one. We decide not to pay for a lesson. But we can hear the instructors giving others pointers, so our ears are flapping and we pick up some more tips! We had a heap of fun. We come back to the unit and collect the dogs and go to visit Jo. Jo is busy working, so we don’t stay too long. Jo invited us to watch her play in her netball grand final tonight so we walk over and watch her team win. Apparently us and the dogs are the talk of the town. It is such a small place and I guess new faces stand out. Jo was telling us everybody wanted to know “who we belonged to”. I am a bit sore this morning from the skiing. Today we decide to go for a hike, we set off on foot, but quickly realize that don’t know where we are going. So we turn back and get the car. The walk is one that we can drive so we do that instead. We have a bit of a rest before going over to Jo’s again. We arrive at lunch time and end up staying most of the afternoon with her. She takes us on a tour of the dairy. Jo and her husband Aaron have expanded and built their own dairy. They have done a great job of it. The “girls” are calving now, so babies are everywhere. Most don’t stay…..we don’t want to know too much about that. We get to meet the pets, the dogs, cats and the pig…Squiggy the Piggy. His mum ate all his brothers and sisters, so Jo got to save him just in time. Jack (Jo’s son, our nephew) arrives home from school, he is 13 now and all grown up. He wants to see our van, so we take him for a drive, he is pretty impressed with it and the 4WD. He has booked in a Play Station date with Gary on the weekend. TV here isn’t what it is in Australia, so we have found the BP Service Station rents out DVDs, we settle in for an early night. The weather is warm tonight. The unit has underfloor heating which makes a difference. The weather is windy this morning and the forecast is for rain later this afternoon. We checked the ski fields out on the websites, but they are all closed due to the high winds. We decide on the spur of the moment to take the Opihi River walk. This river snakes past the town, the sign saying the walk is approximately 30-40 minutes. We head off in full sunshine and keep walking and walking, it seems to be taking much longer than we thought. We turned around to see the weather has turned foul and is coming in behind us very quickly. Finally we walk onto a roadway and realize town is a little further back than what we thought. We start out on the dirt road, then it starts to rain and blow a gale, I can even feel tiny pieces of hail on my lips. The dogs and us are getting saturated and it is freezing. We can see a shed and make a beeline for that, with the wind blowing so hard, we didn’t hear a 4WD pull up behind us. The lady asked were we going to Fairlie and would we like a lift. So, we broke all the rules about getting into cars with strangers and accepted her offer. Thank god, we were saturated and cold. Back at the unit, we set about getting warm again. We can only imagine what the talk around town will be about “those Aussies with the two white dogs”. Due to the weather, we decide to have a lazy afternoon. Russell arrives late in the afternoon and we head out to the pub for a meal. Lea joins us later than night. Saturday is a beautiful day with full sun, so after a lazy morning we head up to Mt Dobson Ski Field to spend the afternoon skiing. The drive up the mountain is terrifying. The mountain peaks at almost 7,000 feet and we are driving right up to the summit. The road is just wide enough for two cars, but on my side, you can clearly see all the way to the bottom. I am scared shitless. Gary keeps his eyes on the road and I keep look out for oncoming cars. The locals don’t seem fazed, they fly up behind us, so we pull over and let them go. All advice is we don’t need chains, and don’t have any, so when we start driving through snow and ice I am even more concerned. Gary said the car was handling it well. We are both relieved to finally get to the snow field. It is worth the drive just for the view. Being a Saturday and cheaper rates after 12.30pm the field is busy. We are going for glory today and taking on the big stuff. Boy, do we have a fun afternoon with plenty of stacks and even more laughs. I was avoiding a post (yes a post on a ski field) and trying not to shoot over the edge to god knows where and lost it, Gary saw me skiing kind of sitting down, then skiing backwards, then falling heavily onto my head. He caught up to me and thought he would see me knocked out. But I am made of tougher stuff, by the end of the day, I was getting a bit frustrated. These were steep mountains, not exactly what we should have been on, but we did it. We skied down to the car absolutely shattered. Now we have the decent down the mountain to look forward to. For me, it was actually better going down it than up it. The locals have told us this is the most snow they have had on the mountains in about seven years. We return out skis and poles and decide to have a break for a few days. The weather is turning bad. We have another meal at the pub with Russell and Lea and a fairly early night. We sleep the sleep of the dead. We were knackered. The weather has turned bad, it is cold and wet. We spend the afternoon and Jo’s place. Gary and Jack have a go on the Playstation, where Jack well and truly kicks Gary’s backside. We settle in to watch a DVD. Julie and I manage to use the Webcam and have a chat, but he connection is pretty slow this end. |
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