April
3rd April
Well Autumn is well and truly here. The leaves are turning and Christchurch is a tapestry of red, gold, purple and green. It really is a garden city. We took this photograph on Memorial Avenue heading from the airport back to the city. The colours change daily as the days get colder.
We have, for some weeks, been discussing a trip to Arrowtown, an old goldmining town south of Twizel. We were gradually working up to a long drive all the way down to Queenstown. We didn't anticipate doing that until Winter. What we didn't realise was how close Arrowtown was to Queenstown.
We headed off around 11:00am, planning to meet some friends for a cofee in Twizel and arriving in Arrowtown around 6:30pm. We packed the tent, determined to brave the cold and have another camping experience. We drove down highway 1 to the Pleasant Point turn off just north of Timaru. We turned inland and headed through Pleasant Point and Fairlie, Lake Tekapo and passed Lake Pukaki, retracing our journey of several weeks ago.
We revelled again in the beautiful scenery and we arrived in Arrowtown around 6:00pm. We found a lovely little camping ground. The attendant joked with us that the tent would keep the snow off us. As it turned out he almost wasn't joking.
We set up the tent and Marisa cooked a casserole on the camp stove. There actually was a kitchen available to use but camp food cooked just outside the tent is better somehow. The cold closed in as the sun set and each of us rugged up and ate dinner. A brilliant, almost full, moon rose over the mountains in front of us. The moon seems incredibly bright in the mountains.
After the long drive we were ready to turn in. The sleeping bags were toasty warm after sitting outside the tent and I was asleep within moments of my head hitting the pillow.
--Brook
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