April
9th April
Well, it finally happened. Winter deferred to my impatience and arrived early. Since Tuesday the alps, visible from the bottom of my street, have been covered in snow!
I have been pestering Marisa all week so that we could go and check it out. Today she finally relented. The weather was fine, there was no wind. We filled the thermos flasks with hot soup and coffee and headed west. We were planning to go to Craigieburn where we figured a short walk would take us up to the snow line. As it turned out there was no walking necessary. As we drove through Springfield there was snow all along the edges of the road and the foothills were well covered.
A few kilometres out of Springfield as we climbed up into the hills we found cars parked along the side of the road and the locals were out building snowmen and throwing snowballs. We pulled over and joined in. The snow was fresh and powdery and the three of us spent some time pelting each other with snowballs. We all got covered but with the lack of wind and autumn sunshine it wasn't really cold at all.
After we had exhausted ourselves we climbed back in the car to continue on to Craigieburn and lunch.
Marisa stepped out of the car to take this photo showing the snow covered paddocks in the distance. There is a larger version of this photo that you can see by clicking on this one. In fact a number of these photos have enlargements if you click.
When we pulled into Craigieburn, where we had camped back in January, there was about 15cm of snow on the ground and the beech trees were flocked with large clumps of snow. We wandered around our previous tent site. The normally quiet beech forest was full of the sound of clumps of snow falling from trees in the warm sunshine.
Marisa poured us all a hot beef minestrone followed by a distinctly beef flavoured coffee in the same cups afterwards. Nonetheless it all tasted delicious. We decided we would continue to Arthur's Pass and Otira Gorge and see what it looked like through there.
On the way to Arthur's Pass is a little historical coach stop called Greyney's Flat. We often stop here for a coffee. This time we stopped to take a photo and have another play in the snow. Gabriel and I exchanged another dozen volleys of snowball fire before we continued on into Arthur's Pass.
Arthur's Pass had plenty of snow but suprisingly there was very little in Otira Gorge. After getting petrol we headed back east and stopped by a lake to have one more play in the snow and another coffee.
Gabriel and I made a snow man. It was our first ever so it could probably do with some work but we were pretty proud of ourselves. We had another snowball fight but this time we were in the shade of a mountain and it was decidedly cooler.
We had our coffee and Marisa took a photo or two of our work of art. Actually, just down the road from here, two kids had built an incredible snow fort. We'll have to try this another time.
We were starting to get quite cold and climbed into the car for the journey home.
I suppose Marisa is happy that she doesn't have to put up with my endless wondering when it would snow. She certainly seemed to have fun today.
Anyone who can remember the "Young Ones" singing "Livin' Doll" with Cliff Richard will know what I mean when I say "Fies my Soul". Finally getting to play in the snow "fies my soul".
--Brook
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